The Petitioner sought to continue working as a financial analyst, aiming to enhance the stability, efficiency, and technological integration of the financial sector through advanced financial analysis and AI-powered predictive analytics.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“the Petitioner does not explain how the services he provides to his current employer or customers would result in broader implications to his field”

“the record does not show that the Petitioner's proposed endeavor stands to sufficiently extend beyond his current employer or customers to impact his field more broadly at a level commensurate with national importance”

“merely working in an important field or profession is insufficient to establish the national importance of the proposed endeavor”

“the Petitioner does not offer evidence sufficient to explain or otherwise demonstrate the proposed endeavor's importance to U.S. competitiveness and national security in a manner that may reflect its national importance”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

• degree · credited
• resume experience · discounted

  “Generalized conclusory statements that do not identify a specific impact in the field have little probative value.”

  AAO decision text
• other · discounted

  “our unpublished decision bears limited instructive or persuasive value for the issues in the Petitioner's benefit request”

  AAO decision text

Where this case turned

• Economic claims unsupported · p1 — job/revenue projections with no corroborating basis
• Employer-specific benefit · p1 — "work furthers my company's product" — value accrues to one firm
• 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

Notable

Petitioner submitted an unpublished AAO decision involving a cancer-therapeutics researcher as persuasive authority; AAO rejected it as non-precedential under 8 C.F.R. 103.3(c) and as insufficiently analogous since the Petitioner was a financial analyst, not a researcher, despite both being in STEM fields. AAO also noted the Petitioner's appeal brief offered only general disagreement with SCOPS without identifying specific errors, though AAO nonetheless reviewed the full record.

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
• Flores v. Garland
• Matter of L-A-C-

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