AAO research
EB-1A awards — AAO decision JUL072009_01B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: AAO decision JUL072009_01B2203: Appeal dismissed. AAO agreed the petitioner did not establish a major internationally recognized award or three criteria, and found no sustained acclaim or evidence of continued work. (pp. 3–12).
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 | JUL072009_01B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | July 7, 2009 |
Classification / field stated in source | EB-1A petition in athletics; petitioner claimed ability as an athlete, trainer, and coach in kickboxing/Muay Thai and related combat sports. (pp. 1–3) |
Procedural posture | Appeal dismissed. (pp. 1–2, 12) |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed. |
Final-merits status | The decision evaluates the record overall and finds it did not demonstrate acclaim/top-of-field standing; it also finds no clear evidence of continued work in the United States. (pp. 10–12) |
What the AAO decision addressed
AAO agreed the petitioner did not establish a major internationally recognized award or three criteria, and found no sustained acclaim or evidence of continued work. (pp. 3–12)
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 |
Membership | not met |
Published material about the person | Not met — source PDF |
Judging the work of others | not met |
Original contributions of major significance | Not met — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | not met |
Artistic display or showcases | Not coded — source PDF |
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
No identity/completeness hold.
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: If editorially cleared, create a source-linked summary that identifies posture and disposition, separates threshold-stage criteria from any aggregate/final-merits reasoning, and includes page-specific PDF citations. Narrow comparison for combat-sport awards, team membership, coaching, and judging evidence; historic, fact-bound decision.
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
Awards research
Membership research
Judging the work of others research
Scholarly authorship research
Leading or critical role research
Athletics sector research
Threshold research
Browse the AAO decision index · Read EB-1A evidence guides · Review source and correction methodology.