AAO research

AAO EB-1A decision APR302026_02B2203

To satisfy the leading or critical role criterion, you must provide concrete evidence of the petitioner’s organizational hierarchy and a direct causal link between your contributions and the company’s results; vague or missing nexus will cause the AAO to withdraw earlier favorable findings. Specific

Decision Snapshot

Field Value --- --- Decision ID APR302026_02B2203 Decision date not stated in the extraction Outcome dismissed Field or occupation Not stated in the extracted decision plan. Final merits discussed Yes

Criteria Discussed

  • high_salary

  • leading_critical_role

  • original_contributions

  • scholarly_articles

Criteria Accepted

Not stated in the extracted decision plan.

Criteria Rejected

  • high_salary

  • leading_critical_role

  • original_contributions

  • scholarly_articles

Core Lesson

To satisfy the leading or critical role criterion, you must provide concrete evidence of the petitioner’s organizational hierarchy and a direct causal link between your contributions and the company’s results; vague or missing nexus will cause the AAO to withdraw earlier favorable findings.

Evidence Issue

  • Specific documentation linking the beneficiary’s work to measurable outcomes for the petitioner.

  • Clear description of the petitioner’s organizational structure and the beneficiary’s position within it.

  • Evidence that the beneficiary’s salary was substantially higher than that of others in the same field.

  • Sufficient proof of original contributions and scholarly articles as required by the criteria.

How This Connects

This decision is part of Extraordinary's AAO EB-1A corpus. It is exposed as a structured decision card so readers, search engines, and AI search systems can connect the decision to broader EB-1A evidence patterns.

Source Note

Non-precedent AAO decisions are used as evidence examples. They are not binding authority and do not predict any individual case.