NIW Bearings
dismissedOCT142022_01B52032022-10-14 · appeal · Texas 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, a police sheriff, proposed to continue a police career or, alternatively, establish a private company in Texas providing corporate intelligence and private security services, including anti-money laundering, fraud investigation, and school shooting-prevention programs.

Field: police work / private security and corporate intelligence consulting · Read the decision (uscis.gov)

EB-2 threshold — not met

AAO withdrew the Director's favorable finding, concluding neither police sheriff nor security consultant qualifies as a profession under 101(a)(32) or requires a baccalaureate degree for entry.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“she has not offered sufficient information and evidence to demonstrate that the prospective impact of her endeavor rises to the level of national importance”
“the record does not show that the Petitioner's undertaking stands to sufficiently extend beyond her proposed company and its future clientele”
“The Petitioner, however, has not established that her proposed endeavor stands to impact or significantly reduce the claimed national shortage”
“shortages of qualified workers are directly addressed by the U.S. Department of Labor through the labor certification process”
“she did not adequately explain how these sales forecasts were calculated”
“she has not offered sufficient evidence that the area where her company will operate is economically depressed”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

  • business plan · discounted
    “she did not elaborate on these projections or provide evidence supporting the need for these additional employees”
    AAO decision text
  • recommendation letter · discounted
  • other · discounted
    “shortages of qualified workers are directly addressed by the U.S. Department of Labor through the labor certification process”
    AAO decision text
  • degree · discounted
    “the Petitioner has not shown that a United States baccalaureate degree or its foreign equivalent is the minimum requirement for entry”
    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
  • 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
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Notable

AAO withdrew the Director's favorable threshold finding sua sponte (that the Petitioner qualified as an advanced degree professional), finding police sheriff/security consultant did not meet the professions definition, then also dismissed on Dhanasar prong 1 as an independent alternate basis, expressly declining to reach prongs 2 and 3.

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. 204.5(k)(2)
  • INA 203(b)(2)
  • INA 291
  • Poursina v. USCIS

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