NIW Bearings
dismissedMAY102023_01B52032023-05-10 · appeal · Texas Service Center

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 initially proposed to support the financial and accounting operations of her employer, then revised her endeavor to operating her own catering and event planning company, and on appeal further recharacterized it as a financial and investment consulting and advisory company.

Field: business analysis / financial and accounting consulting / catering and event planning · Read the decision (uscis.gov)

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“The record contains inconsistent regarding what the proposed endeavor would entail.”
“presents a new set of facts that cannot establish eligibility”
“the business plans the Petitioner references on appeal do not establish that the proposed endeavor has "national or even global implications within a particular field”
“the record does not reconcile how the Petitioner will employ 98 or even 17 workers at her private residence”
“The record does not contain-nor does the Petitioner identify on appeal-any particular industry report or article that identifies the Petitioner and her proposed endeavor”
“the proposed endeavor appears to benefit the Petitioner, her company, and its clients”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

  • business plan · discounted
    “cast doubt on the veracity of the business plans specifically, and generally on the information in the record”
    AAO decision text
  • resume experience · discounted
    “it is immaterial to the first Dhanasar prong”
    AAO decision text
  • recommendation letter · discounted
    “The record does not reconcile why the Petitioner's catering and event planning endeavor ... would involve providing financial consulting services to businesses”
    AAO decision text
  • other · discounted
    “The record does not contain-nor does the Petitioner identify on appeal-any particular industry report or article”
    AAO decision text

Where this case turned

  • Business plan speculative · p1 — projections without a documented basis or steps
  • Economic claims unsupported · p1 — job/revenue projections with no corroborating basis
  • Endeavor too vague · p1 — described as a job role, not a defined undertaking
  • Field importance conflated with endeavor · p1 — argues the field matters, not the specific endeavor
  • Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region
1,358coded decisions carry the failure named in this record. A placement shows where your profile sits among them, not what it predicts.See where your profile sits — 90 seconds →

Notable

AAO relied heavily on credibility/inconsistency doctrine (Matter of Ho) regarding conflicting employment history and shifting business plans (employee counts, wages, company description) to undermine the endeavor's plausibility, and rejected the Petitioner's appellate recharacterization of her company as a 'financial and investment consulting and advisory company' as an impermissible new set of material facts under Matter of Katigbak/Izummi.

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. 103.2(b)(1)
  • 8 C.F.R. 103.3
  • Matter of Ho
  • Matter of Izummi
  • Matter of Katigbak
  • Matter of L-A-C-

What this case teaches

Analyst reading of the decision text.

Decisive factor

Pervasive unresolved inconsistencies across business plans, employment history, and endeavor description undermined credibility and failed to show national-scale impact under prong 1.

Transferable lesson

Maintain a single, consistent, well-substantiated description of the endeavor and business plan from filing through appeal; unreconciled inconsistencies will doom prong-1 national importance.

Endeavor framing

vague

National-importance theory

economic_job_creation · economic_growth_generic · geographic_or_shortage_area

Evidence targeting

person_focused

Cases in adjacent profiles

← Back to the case explorer