AAO research
EB-1A leading or critical role — AAO decision MAR012006_07B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: AAO decision MAR012006_07B2203: Appeal dismissed. Scholarship/student competition, memberships, publication/contribution, role and other claimed criteria were not enough. Letters from affiliated researchers did not establish field-wide acclaim; petitioner was still a law student at filing and claimed multiple categories within one petition. (pp. 2–9).
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: in_scope_EB1A_source_reviewed. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | MAR012006_07B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | March 1, 2006 |
Classification / field stated in source | Molecular biology/cancer research and patent law; PhD-trained researcher and law student at filing |
Procedural posture | Appeal of Vermont Service Center denial; dismissed. Decision addresses a single EB-1A petition and rejects adding a separate NIW adjudication to it. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed. |
Final-merits status | No separate modern final-merits step after threshold failure; overall acclaim conclusion adverse. (pp. 8–9) |
What the AAO decision addressed
Scholarship/student competition, memberships, publication/contribution, role and other claimed criteria were not enough. Letters from affiliated researchers did not establish field-wide acclaim; petitioner was still a law student at filing and claimed multiple categories within one petition. (pp. 2–9)
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 — source PDF |
Membership | Not met — source PDF |
Published material about the person | Not coded — source PDF |
Judging the work of others | Not coded — source PDF |
Original contributions of major significance | Not met — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | met — source PDF |
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-cited findings recorded in review
(pp. 3–5)
(p. 5)
(pp. 6–7)
(pp. 7–8)
(p. 8)
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: Useful procedural and research comparator for one-petition/one-classification boundaries, student awards and fellowships, and letters from prior supervisors. Individual page; explain NIW could not be bundled into the same EB-1A adjudication.
Editorial use note: Individual page; explain NIW could not be bundled into the same EB-1A adjudication.
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
Leading or critical role research
Medicine sector research
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