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, holding a foreign medical degree, proposed to establish a consultancy business in the United States offering training and advisory services to improve occupational health and safety compliance.
Field: occupational health and safety · Read the decision (uscis.gov)
EB-2 threshold — addressed
Petitioner's Dominican Republic doctor of medicine degree was found equivalent to a U.S. first professional degree, satisfying the advanced degree professional requirement.
Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive
“While the articles and reports here help demonstrate the importance of worker safety in general, they do not demonstrate that the Petitioner's proposed endeavor . . . has national importance.”
“We agree with the Director that in determining national importance, the relevant question is not the importance of the industry or profession in which the individual will work”
“the record did not establish that the benefits would reach beyond the company to benefit the economy or the broader field.”
AAO decision text
How the evidence was treated
- business plan · discounted
“did not demonstrate that the endeavor stands to have substantial positive economic effects”
AAO decision text - media · discounted
“relate in general to occupational health and safety and other related topics”
AAO decision text - other · discounted
“relate to the issue of worker health and safety overall, and therefore do not establish the endeavor's 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
Notable
AAO distinguished Petitioner's media/articles evidence from that credited in Matter of Dhanasar itself, emphasizing that Dhanasar's articles were tied to the petitioner's specific research endeavor while here the articles addressed the field/industry generally.
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
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