The Petitioner, a lawyer, sought to create and operate a consulting company (formed with his father) to help U.S. companies invest and expand into Uzbekistan and Central Asia, and to bring Central Asian investors to the United States.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“the Petitioner must demonstrate the national importance of his specific, proposed endeavor of creating and operating a consulting company rather than the importance of investments, developments, relationships, and trade agreements”

“the letters contain vague, general assertions without showing how owning and operating stand to sufficiently extend beyond the company's prospective clients”

“did not indicate, as well as explain, how many jobs the Petitioner's endeavor would create or the level of revenue the company would generate”

“the Petitioner did not show his proposed endeavor has significant potential to employ U.S. workers or otherwise offers substantial positive economic effects for our nation”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• recommendation letter · discounted

  “the letters contain vague, general assertions without showing how owning and operating [the company] stand to sufficiently extend beyond the company's prospective clients”

  AAO decision text
• other · discounted

  “Although the evidence establishes the substantial merit of his proposed endeavor, the Petitioner did not show its national importance”

  AAO decision text

Where this case turned

• 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
• Letters conclusory · p1 — letters praise skills in general terms without tracing specific impact

Notable

AAO explicitly declined to remand for a threshold EB-2 classification determination since the NIW prong 1 failure alone was dispositive; decision stresses that documentary evidence about the general importance of Uzbekistan/Central Asia trade relations is distinct from the importance of the specific consulting endeavor itself.

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 L-A-C-
• Poursina v. USCIS

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