AAO research
EB-1A awards — AAO decision JAN292021_08B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: The AAO Appeal dismissed The award finding was withdrawn; only the Director’s leading/critical-role finding remained, leaving the threshold unmet.
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: Printed decision identifies a Form I-140 EB-1A extraordinary-ability proceeding.. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | JAN292021_08B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | January 29, 2021 |
Classification / field stated in source | AAO Form I-140 EB-1A extraordinary-ability decision; procedural posture noted below. |
Procedural posture | Appeal from Nebraska Service Center denial; appeal dismissed. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed |
Final-merits status | AAO expressly found the initial threshold failed and did not conduct formal final merits; aggregate observations followed. |
What the AAO decision addressed
The award finding was withdrawn; only the Director’s leading/critical-role finding remained, leaving the threshold unmet.
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 | Not coded — source PDF |
Published material about the person | Not considered — p. 2 |
Judging the work of others | Not coded — source PDF |
Original contributions of major significance | Not coded — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | Not considered — p. 2 |
Artistic display or showcases | |
Leading or critical role | |
High salary or remuneration | |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not coded — source PDF |
Source-cited findings recorded in review
claim: The Director found awards and leading/critical role met; AAO withdrew the award finding, leaving only the role criterion established.; pages: 2; 3; 4; 5; 6
claim: The “Iron” design award lacked independent evidence of national/international recognition; the claimed app display was promotional and did not publicly credit the petitioner; salary comparisons used graphic-designer wages rather than comparable UX/UI duties.; pages: 3; 4; 5; 6
claim: AAO found fewer than three criteria and dismissed; it did not conduct formal final merits, while making an aggregate observation.; 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
Published material about the person research
Scholarly authorship research
Artistic display or showcases research
Leading or critical role research
High salary or remuneration research
Performance sector research
Threshold research
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