Panels judge the endeavor, not the field.

The most-repeated error in the denial record is arguing that the field matters, not the specific endeavor.

In the denial record

Field importance conflated with the endeavor appears in 71.3% of decisions carrying a Prong-1 code. The AAO’s own sentence — “the relevant question is not the importance of the industry or profession” — appears in 547 decisions.

coded appeal decisions · S48 (n=2,900) · S49

In the sustained decisions

Field advancement is the credited theory in 92% of sustained appeals — argued as “my work advances the field, here is field-wide adoption,” never “the field matters.”

sustained decisions (n=89) · S81

Published approvals

393 of 479 advance field advancement (82%); 201 public health; 139 critical technology; 13 argue generic economic growth (3%).

of a 479-approval stratified sample of law-firm published approvals

Advertised approvals a firm chose to publish — a story is counted where it advances an argument, not where it proved decisive — and never merged with the appeal record.

Work on this with your AI

Copy this prompt, paste it to your AI assistant, and add your draft where marked.

I am preparing an EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition and want you to review a draft against a finding from the public record of NIW decisions.

THE FINDING: Panels judge the endeavor, not the field. The most-repeated error in the denial record is arguing that the field matters, not the specific endeavor.

YOUR TASK: Identify every place where I argue the importance of my FIELD or industry rather than my specific endeavor. For each, propose a rewrite that argues my own work and its adoption instead.

RULES: Work only from what I paste — do not invent facts about me. Do not predict outcomes or estimate chances. Point to specific sentences and propose concrete rewrites.

--- MY DRAFT ---
[Paste your draft here]

The prompt asks your AI to review your own draft against this finding — it never predicts an outcome.

Sources & references

Case setThe coded decisions carrying the field-conflation code — open in Case Search →

Primary docThe AAO’s stock sentence ("the relevant question is not the importance of the industry or profession") — appears in 547 decisions (S49)

Insight vaultInsight vault: Framing the endeavor

Each record describes itself; sustained decisions are the wins inside the appeal record, not a separate population. No figure predicts an individual outcome.

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