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, a psychological science researcher and assistant/visiting professor, proposed to continue research on reading/language processing and virtual reality applications for training and testing, aiming to strengthen findings on cross-language reading comprehension and advance cost-effective virtual reality-based learning tools.
Field: psychological science · Read the decision (uscis.gov)
Prong 1 — national importanceestablished
“As the Petitioner has demonstrated both the substantial merit and national importance of his proposed research, he has established that he meets the first prong of the Dhanasar framework.”
AAO decision text
Prong 2 — well positionedestablished
“His experience and expertise as a psychological science researcher, published articles, citation evidence, record of success contributing to various research projects, and progress in his field position him well to advance his proposed endeavor.”
AAO decision text
Prong 3 — balance of factorsestablished
“we conclude that he offers contributions of such value that, on balance, they would benefit the United States even assuming that other qualified U.S. workers are available.”
AAO decision text
How the evidence was treated
- recommendation letter · credited
- citations publications · credited
- degree · credited
- resume experience · credited
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Notable
AAO expressly credits the STEM Ph.D. strong-positive-factor policy guidance under prong 2 and 3, and finds all three prongs met leading to a sustained appeal despite redacted/OCR-garbled field descriptors throughout the text.
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.
- Poursina v. USCIS
- USCIS Policy Manual F.5(D)(2)
What this case teaches
Analyst reading of the decision text.
Petitioner supplemented record on appeal with national-scale evidence (reading disorder statistics, national security ties) linking his specific research to broad U.S. interests, satisfying all three prongs.
Supplement letters with concrete national-scale data (statistics, security relevance) tying the specific research to broad societal impact, not just field expertise.
moderate
field_advancement · national_security · economic_growth_generic
mixed
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