AAO research
EB-1A judging the work of others — AAO decision JUL232021_01B2203: The AAO dismissed the appeal and did not approve the petition. (final page; see posture…
Decision summary: AAO decision JUL232021_01B2203: The AAO dismissed the appeal and did not approve the petition. (final page; see posture and outcome citations). The petitioner met at least three initial criteria, including judging and scholarly authorship recognized by the Director and original contributions found by AAO, but did not establish sustained acclaim or top-of-field standing. (pp. 2-4, 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 | JUL232021_01B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | July 23, 2021 |
Classification / field stated in source | Nonprecedent EB-1A sciences petition by a molecular virology researcher. (pp. 1-2) |
Procedural posture | Appeal of a service-center denial; AAO dismissed after finding the initial threshold met but final merits insufficient. (pp. 1-2, 11) |
Operative disposition | The AAO dismissed the appeal and did not approve the petition. (final page; see posture and outcome citations) |
Final-merits status | Reached and not met; initial category threshold was satisfied, but totality did not establish sustained acclaim/top-of-field standing. (pp. 4-11) |
What the AAO decision addressed
The petitioner met at least three initial criteria, including judging and scholarly authorship recognized by the Director and original contributions found by AAO, but did not establish sustained acclaim or top-of-field standing. (pp. 2-4, 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 | Not coded — source PDF |
Judging the work of others | met |
Original contributions of major significance | met — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | met |
Artistic display or showcases | Not coded — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | Not coded — source PDF |
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. Nonprecedent decision; do not imply all three criterion findings create a general rule or an approval presumption.
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: Strong candidate for an educational comparison page that cleanly separates criterion counting from final-merits analysis and cites the exact decision pages.
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
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Final Merits research
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