AAO research
EB-1A awards — AAO decision MAR032006_02B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: The AAO Appeal dismissed Only leading/critical role was minimally met for successful bands. Personal receipt of recording certifications, major-media aboutness, high salary relative to national peers, and personal commercial success were not established.
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: Verified source is an AAO EB-1A extraordinary-ability proceeding.. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | MAR032006_02B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | March 3, 2006 |
Classification / field stated in source | EB-1A extraordinary-ability petition appeal |
Procedural posture | Legacy EB-1A appeal dismissed; one criterion met; AAO made an aggregate acclaim/top-of-field assessment, without a separate modern final-merits stage. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed |
Final-merits status | Legacy decision; AAO made an aggregate sustained-acclaim / top-of-field assessment, not a separate modern final-merits stage. |
What the AAO decision addressed
Only leading/critical role was minimally met for successful bands. Personal receipt of recording certifications, major-media aboutness, high salary relative to national peers, and personal commercial success were not established.
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 met — p. 4 |
Judging the work of others | Not coded — source PDF |
Original contributions of major significance | Not coded — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | Not coded — source PDF |
Artistic display or showcases | Not coded — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | met — p. 5 |
High salary or remuneration | |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not met — p. 6 |
Source-cited findings recorded in review
claim: Petition classified the beneficiary as a management executive in the music industry.; pages: 2; 3
claim: Platinum record plaques were not established as personal awards; platinum certifications showed sales rather than an award for excellence.; pages: 3; 4
claim: Submitted articles were about musical artists, not the beneficiary, and major-media status was not shown.; pages: 4
claim: AAO found a critical role for bands Sleeper and DJ Rap, but not for management companies; criterion minimally met.; pages: 5
claim: The claimed $115,000–$117,000 compensation was unsupported / not high compared with national 90th-percentile wage data; record sales of artists did not establish the manager’s personal commercial success.; pages: 5; 6
claim: AAO found no sustained acclaim or top-of-field management-executive standing and dismissed the appeal.; 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
Leading or critical role research
High salary or remuneration research
Commercial success in the performing arts research
Entrepreneurship sector research
Performance sector research
Threshold research
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