AAO research
EB-1A awards — AAO decision FEB262021_07B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: AAO decision FEB262021_07B2203: Appeal dismissed. The beneficiary did not meet awards, membership, judging, or high salary. The Director’s leading/critical-role finding remained; the asserted original-contributions issue was reserved because the threshold failed. AAO also gave aggregate no-acclaim observations.
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: Verified source is an AAO EB-1A extraordinary-ability proceeding.. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | FEB262021_07B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | February 26, 2021 |
Classification / field stated in source | EB-1A extraordinary-ability petition appeal |
Procedural posture | EB-1A appeal dismissed after fewer than three initial criteria; the Director had found leading/critical role and high salary, but AAO withdrew the salary finding; it reserved original contributions and did not conduct formal final merits. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed |
Final-merits status | The AAO expressly stated that the initial three-criterion requirement was unmet and a formal Kazarian final-merits determination was unnecessary; aggregate observations are not a formal final-merits ruling. |
What the AAO decision addressed
The beneficiary did not meet awards, membership, judging, or high salary. The Director’s leading/critical-role finding remained; the asserted original-contributions issue was reserved because the threshold failed. AAO also gave aggregate no-acclaim observations.
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 | |
Membership | |
Published material about the person | Not coded — source PDF |
Judging the work of others | |
Original contributions of major significance | |
Scholarly authorship | Not coded — source PDF |
Artistic display or showcases | Not coded — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | met — p. 2 |
High salary or remuneration | |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not coded — source PDF |
Source-cited findings recorded in review
claim: The petitioner sought EB-1A classification for a biopharmaceutical manufacturer’s Senior SAP Planning Specialist; the Director had found only leading/critical role and high salary.; pages: 1; 2
claim: The claimed ASRTU / Transport Minister fuel-efficiency awards were not shown to have been received by the beneficiary; a separate company certificate did not establish field-wide recognition.; pages: 2; 3
claim: ASME membership required professional experience but not outstanding achievement judged by recognized experts.; pages: 3; 4
claim: A participation certificate for an SAP forum and implementation work did not establish actual judging of others’ work.; pages: 4; 5
claim: The 2017 W-2 concerned a previous job and was compared to mismatched installation/repair worker wage data, not senior SAP specialists; high salary was not established.; pages: 5; 6
claim: The AAO reserved original contributions after finding fewer than three criteria and described aggregate evidence as not showing required acclaim.; pages: 6; 7
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: Eligible for individual case discussion
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
Membership research
Judging the work of others research
Original contributions of major significance research
Leading or critical role research
High salary or remuneration research
Entrepreneurship sector research
Threshold research
Final Merits research
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