The Petitioner, a financial manager, initially proposed continuing to work as a financial manager for U.S. companies expanding to Latin America, then revised the endeavor in response to an RFE to founding a financial consulting firm in Florida serving small, medium, and minority-owned businesses and attracting foreign direct investment.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“The record does not adequately reflect by a preponderance of the evidence with material, relevant, or probative evidence how the Petitioner's accounting services... would reduce failure rates for individual small, medium sized, and minority owned businesses”

“these aspirations did not demonstrate the national importance of the endeavor because they, whether realized or not, would not extend beyond the endeavor itself to have an impact on a level of national importance”

“the record does not contain evidence establishing by a preponderance of the evidence that any foreign direct investment procured as a result of their proposed endeavor would create jobs on a magnitude which elevated their endeavor to a level of national importance”

“It is unclear in the record how "exports" and the export industry meshed with the proposed services the Petitioner endeavored to provide”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• business plan · discounted

  “these aspirations did not demonstrate the national importance of the endeavor because they, whether realized or not, would not extend beyond the endeavor itself”

  AAO decision text
• resume experience · discounted

  “we have concerns about the reliability of the experience evidence and if it described bona fide work experience of a progressive nature”

  AAO decision text
• recommendation letter · ignored
• degree · discounted

  “the Petitioner had not earned the single-source equivalent of a U.S. master's degree because their equivalency was determined after the combination of their education with their work experience”

  AAO decision text
• other · discounted

  “the record does not identify the magnitude of foreign direct investment in the United States in total or the amount of foreign direct investment attracted by the Petitioner's proposed services in comparison”

  AAO decision text

Where this case turned

• Economic claims unsupported · p1 — job/revenue projections with no corroborating basis
• Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region
• Occupational shortage argument rejected · p1 — argues a labor shortage — the labor-certification question, not Dhanasar

Notable

AAO discusses a materially revised endeavor submitted in RFE response (from job-search to entrepreneurial firm), applying Matter of Izummi/Katigbak concerns about material changes but ultimately allowing analysis since the endeavor's 'character and nature' was retained. AAO also flags inconsistent work-experience evidence (conflicting job titles) undermining threshold EB-2 eligibility but reserves the issue rather than deciding it, since the NIW prong 1 failure was dispositive.

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. 103.3
• Matter of Ho
• Matter of Izummi
• Matter of Katigbak
• Matter of L-A-C-
• Matter of Y-B-
• Poursina v. USCIS

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• The Petitioner proposed to start a project management consultancy in the United States that would help small and mid-siz
• The Petitioner proposed to establish a legal consultancy in the United States focused on alternative dispute resolution