The Petitioner, a sustainability specialist and construction engineer with 22 years of experience, proposed to operate a consulting business integrating occupational safety, sustainability, and management practices for the construction industry, including advisory services to companies.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“these were left largely unexplained leaving their potential prospective national impact on safety and efficiency in the construction industry questionable”

“it is not evident how the company's economic activity would have a significant impact on job creation and empower small businesses”

“Benefits to a specific company alone, even a company with a national footprint, are not sufficiently relevant to the question of whether a person's endeavor has national importance”

“it is not sufficiently clear how her largely unexplained consulting services would have a national level impact on these massive labor shortages”

“the relevant question is not the importance of the field, industry, or profession in which a petitioner may work”

“The material discrepancies in the focus of the Petitioner's proposed endeavor leaves uncertainty as to her actual intentions in the United States”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• business plan · discounted

  “The Petitioner did not submit sufficiently specific and targeted business plans to demonstrate broad-based national level impact.”

  AAO decision text
• resume experience · discounted

  “while a Petitioner's background may be helpful in describing the nature of their field and prior work, it is not sufficient to establish the national importance”

  AAO decision text
• citations publications · ignored

  “there is no evidence to support that the Petitioner had a history of published work in scholarly circles related to claimed innovation”

  AAO decision text
• other · discounted

  “A mere potential contribution to various matters of national-level interest does not establish that a proposed endeavor is of 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
• Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region
• Material change of endeavor · p1 — the endeavor described on appeal is not the one filed
• Occupational shortage argument rejected · p1 — argues a labor shortage — the labor-certification question, not Dhanasar

Notable

The AAO emphasized that the Petitioner appeared to materially shift the focus of her proposed endeavor between filing and RFE response—from environmental sustainability/scholarly dissemination to a pure consulting business—invoking Matter of Izummi's bar on material changes to conform a petition to USCIS requirements. The decision also cites a footnote referencing Flores v. Garland on the discretionary nature of NIW grants, an unusual addition for a non-precedent decision.

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
• 8 C.F.R. 103.5
• 8 C.F.R. 204.5(k)(2)
• Flores v. Garland
• Matter of Ho
• Matter of Izummi
• USCIS Policy Manual F.5(D)(2)

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