AAO research
EB-1A judging the work of others — AAO decision JAN312013_01B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: AAO decision JAN312013_01B2203: Appeal dismissed. AAO concluded fewer than three initial criteria were established, withdrew the director’s findings on scholarly authorship and leading/critical role, and also conducted final-merits review because that was the director’s denial basis. (pp. 7–11).
Source limitation: The review record contains a source hold or limitation. Read the limitation below before relying on any case detail; unresolved facts are not treated as findings.
Scope classification from review: in_scope_EB1A_source_reviewed. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | JAN312013_01B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | January 31, 2013 |
Classification / field stated in source | EB-1A appeal involving a musician/composer and cellist. (pp. 2–3) |
Procedural posture | AAO reviewed a denial whose stated basis was final merits; appeal dismissed. (pp. 2, 10–11) |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed. |
Final-merits status | Reached: AAO conducted final-merits review and found the aggregate evidence did not establish acclaim/top-of-field standing. (pp. 10–11) |
What the AAO decision addressed
AAO concluded fewer than three initial criteria were established, withdrew the director’s findings on scholarly authorship and leading/critical role, and also conducted final-merits review because that was the director’s denial basis. (pp. 7–11)
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 coded — source PDF |
Membership | Not coded — source PDF |
Published material about the person | Abandoned or waived — source PDF |
Judging the work of others | met |
Original contributions of major significance | Not met — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | not met |
Artistic display or showcases | not considered |
Leading or critical role | not met |
High salary or remuneration | Not coded — source PDF |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not coded — source PDF |
Source holds and limits
Identity redacted. Keep the source’s explicit final-merits review distinct from cases dismissed at the threshold.
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: If cleared after editorial review, prepare a decision-specific source-linked summary with exact procedural posture, criterion states, dated page citations, redaction preservation, and non-precedent notice where applicable. Narrow musician comparison on the plurality requirement for scholarly articles, scope of music contributions, and separate final-merits analysis; historic and nonprecedential.
Page-level source trail
Use the official PDF and the cited physical page numbers to check each statement.
Open the official USCIS decision PDF. Page-specific citations were not available in the normalized row.
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
Judging the work of others research
Scholarly authorship research
Artistic display or showcases research
Leading or critical role research
Performance sector research
Final Merits research
Browse the AAO decision index · Read EB-1A evidence guides · Review source and correction methodology.