NIW Bearings
dismissedNOV202023_04B52032023-11-20 · appeal · Nebraska Service Center

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 sought to operate her own marketing agency providing tailored digital and traditional marketing services to small- and medium-sized U.S. businesses.

Field: marketing consulting · Read the decision (uscis.gov)

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“The Petitioner did not provide further details on the type of companies that she intended to work with, nor did she specify a geographic location in which she would work.”
“the plan does not provide sufficient detail of the basis for these projections, or adequately explain how these sales and staffing targets will be realized”
“the relevant question is not the importance of the industry or profession in which the individual will work; instead, we focus on the specific endeavor”
“these articles do not address specific evidence of benefits and advances her proposed endeavor will make in the marketing field”
“We find that these letters are insufficient in describing the Petitioner's specific future endeavor and its broad impact on the marketing industry”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

  • business plan · discounted
    “the plan does not provide sufficient detail of the basis for these projections, or adequately explain how these sales and staffing targets will be realized”
    AAO decision text
  • recommendation letter · discounted
    “these letters are insufficient in describing the Petitioner's specific future endeavor and its broad impact on the marketing industry”
    AAO decision text
  • other · discounted
    “these articles do not address specific evidence of benefits and advances her proposed endeavor will make in the marketing field”
    AAO decision text
  • other · discounted
    “Where an opinion is not in accord with other information or is in any way questionable, we may discount or give less weight to that evaluation”
    AAO decision text
  • other · discounted
    “the job offers do not show that working as a marketing specialist for any of these companies would reach the level of 'substantial positive economic effects'”
    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
  • 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
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Notable

AAO agreed the endeavor had substantial merit but found no national importance, and expressly reserved judgment on both the second/third Dhanasar prongs and the underlying EB-2 (advanced degree/exceptional ability) eligibility question since the first-prong failure was dispositive.

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

What this case teaches

Analyst reading of the decision text.

Decisive factor

Petitioner failed to show her specific endeavor (marketing consulting/agency) would have impact beyond her own clients at a level rising to national importance, relying instead on generic industry and entrepreneurship data.

Transferable lesson

Substantiate business/endeavor projections with credible methodology and tie expert/industry evidence directly to the specific proposed endeavor's national-scale impact, not general field importance.

Endeavor framing

vague

National-importance theory

economic_job_creation · economic_growth_generic · field_advancement

Evidence targeting

person_focused

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