AAO EB-1A decision Aug152012_02B2203: culinary / restaurant management and failure to meet the three-criterion threshold

Decision Snapshot

Field Value --- --- Decision ID Aug152012_02B2203 Decision date 2012-08-15 Outcome dismissed Field or occupation culinary / restaurant management Final merits discussed No / not stated

Criteria Discussed

• awards

• high_salary

• judging

• leading_critical_role

• original_contributions

• published_material

Criteria Accepted

Not stated in the extracted decision plan.

Criteria Rejected

• awards

• high_salary

• judging

• leading_critical_role

• original_contributions

• published_material

Core Lesson

For EB-1A petitions, awards must be personally received, media coverage must focus on you, and leadership evidence must span multiple organizations; otherwise the AAO will reject those criteria.

Evidence Issue

• Direct, personal awards presented to the beneficiary; group or restaurant awards are insufficient

• Published material that is primarily about the beneficiary with national/international distribution

• Evidence that the beneficiary held a leading or critical role in more than one organization

• Concrete documentation of a single high salary that meets the regulatory threshold

• Proof of participation in multiple judging panels as required by the “judging” criterion

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.