AAO research

AAO EB-1A decision AUG182017_01B2203: Awards

AAO EB-1A decision AUG182017_01B2203: Awards

EB-1A awards — AAO decision AUG182017_01B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.

Decision summary: AAO decision AUG182017_01B2203: Appeal dismissed. The record lacked an award; articles concerned the immersion program rather than petitioner; classroom teaching was not artistic display; claimed contributions lacked evidence of field-level impact; leadership evidence did not establish a distinguished organization; salary lacked comparative evidence. The required initial criteria threshold was not met, and AAO also found aggregate evidence insufficient.

Source reviewed: This page summarizes the specific AAO source and posture recorded in the completed source-review tracker. It does not turn a nonprecedent decision into a general rule.

Scope classification from review: In scope; verified in source review. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.

Decision snapshot

Decision ID

AUG182017_01B2203

Decision date as printed

August 18, 2017

Classification / field stated in source

EB-1A extraordinary ability; field claimed: Spanish-language specialist / teacher.

Procedural posture

Appeal from Texas Service Center denial.

Operative disposition

Appeal dismissed.

Final-merits status

"not met"

What the AAO decision addressed

The record lacked an award; articles concerned the immersion program rather than petitioner; classroom teaching was not artistic display; claimed contributions lacked evidence of field-level impact; leadership evidence did not establish a distinguished organization; salary lacked comparative evidence. The required initial criteria threshold was not met, and AAO also found aggregate evidence insufficient.

Criterion-by-criterion status in this source

These labels reproduce the source-review record. “Not considered,” “not reached,” and “not coded” do not mean the criterion failed. A Director finding recited as background is not an AAO holding unless the decision says so.

Criterion

Source-review status

Awards

not met
No qualifying prizes or awards were documented (p. 2). — source PDF

Membership

Not coded — source PDF

Published material about the person

not met
Articles were about the Spanish immersion program/school rather than petitioner; one was undated and one from an unidentified site (p. 3). — source PDF

Judging the work of others

Not coded — source PDF

Original contributions of major significance

not met
Expansion of a state-funded program did not establish major significance in the field (p. 3). — source PDF

Scholarly authorship

Not coded — source PDF

Artistic display or showcases

Not coded — source PDF

Leading or critical role

not met
Employment letters did not establish role impact or organization distinguished reputation (p. 4). — source PDF

High salary or remuneration

not met
No comparison showed petitioner’s compensation was high relative to others in field (p. 5). — source PDF

Commercial success in the performing arts

Not coded — source PDF

Source-cited findings recorded in review

  • pp. 1–5; analysis pp. 2–5; order p. 5.

How this record may be used in research

Comparison scope: Negative education/language-services comparator for separating ordinary teaching from artistic display and distinguishing program expansion/employer praise from field-level impact. eligible_for_editorial_review_with_citations

Editorial use note: eligible_for_editorial_review_with_citations

Page-level source trail

Use the official PDF and the cited physical page numbers to check each statement.

How to use this record

This is a historical, nonprecedent AAO decision about its own administrative record. It is not a prediction, success rate, or current filing instruction. Compare the issue and procedural stage before drawing an analogy. The current framework is in the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 6, Part F, Chapter 2.

Related corpus research

  • Full-corpus research index

  • Awards research

  • Published material about the person research

  • Original contributions of major significance research

  • Leading or critical role research

  • High salary or remuneration research

  • Teaching sector research

  • Threshold research

Browse the AAO decision index · Read EB-1A evidence guides · Review source and correction methodology.

Primary source

Official USCIS AAO decision PDF for AUG182017_01B2203