This is an AAO appeal decision — a case denied once and appealed. It shows how the framework is applied; it is not the filing population.
The Petitioner, a micropigmentation professional, sought EB-2 classification as an individual of exceptional ability with a national interest waiver of the job offer requirement so she could continue her practice in the United States.
Field: micropigmentation (cosmetic tattooing) · Read the decision (uscis.gov)
EB-2 threshold — not met
Petitioner needed to satisfy at least three of the six exceptional-ability regulatory criteria but was found to meet only one (licensure); the claimed academic-record and professional-membership criteria were rejected, so the threshold classification was not established and the NIW prongs were never reached.
How the evidence was treated
- degree · discounted
“the Petitioner did not establish how the presented certificates...represent 'official academic record[s]'”
AAO decision text - certification membership · discounted
“at the time she filed her petition in July 2019, her membership had been expired for approximately six months”
AAO decision text - certification membership · ignored
“we will not consider this claim and document in our adjudication of this appeal”
AAO decision text
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Notable
This is a threshold-classification denial, not a substantive NIW-prong decision: because the Petitioner failed to satisfy three of the six exceptional-ability regulatory criteria (only licensure was met), the AAO expressly declined to reach the Dhanasar national-interest-waiver analysis, reserving all three prongs. The decision also applies Matter of Soriano to refuse consideration of a second membership card first submitted on appeal, since the Petitioner had been on notice of the evidentiary deficiency and given a chance to cure it via NOID.
Authorities this decision leans on
From the doctrinal survivor set — 187 authority tests across 47 distinct authorities cleared the differential-lift gates. Only those appear here.
- 8 C.F.R. 204.5(k)(2)
- 8 C.F.R. 204.5(k)(3)(ii)
- Matter of L-A-C-
Cases in adjacent profiles
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- The Beneficiary, sponsored by a private airline, sought EB-2 classification as an individual of exceptional ability in a
- The petitioner sought an EB-2 national interest waiver as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree; the sp