The Petitioner, an attorney, proposed to start her own law firm providing immigration paralegal services, legal advisory services, and court representation to a broad range of business clients.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“the alleged shortage of occupations or occupational skills does not render the proposed endeavor nationally important under the Dhanasar framework”

“the record does not contain supporting evidence corroborating the projected employment and financial figures indicated in the Petitioner's business plan”

“the record does not demonstrate how the Petitioner's endeavor will extend sufficiently beyond impacting her own clients to advance or have broader implications in her field”

“the relevant query is not the importance of the industry or profession the individual will work, but on the specific endeavor the petitioner proposes to undertake”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• business plan · discounted

  “the record does not contain supporting evidence corroborating the projected employment and financial figures”

  AAO decision text
• other · discounted

  “the alleged shortage of occupations or occupational skills does not render the proposed endeavor nationally important”

  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
• 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
• Occupational shortage argument rejected · p1 — argues a labor shortage — the labor-certification question, not Dhanasar

Notable

Petitioner argued the shortage of legal professionals and entrepreneurial nature of her endeavor established national importance; AAO expressly rejected reliance on occupational shortage, noting DOL's labor certification process addresses such shortages, and emphasized the query is the specific endeavor, not the industry's importance.

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-

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