AAO research
EB-1A awards — AAO decision MAR062008_02B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: The AAO Appeal dismissed The AAO rejected the claimed awards, membership, published-material and leading/critical-role criteria and found no adequate comparable evidence. The decision concludes the petitioner did not show sustained acclaim/top-of-field distinction; no separate modern final-merits stage.
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: The source decision identifies an EB-1A Form I-140 petition under INA §203(b)(1)(A).. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | MAR062008_02B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | 2008-03-06 (printed cover day partly obscured; assignment ID agrees) |
Classification / field stated in source | EB-1A extraordinary ability under INA §203(b)(1)(A) |
Procedural posture | AAO appeal of denial of EB-1A petition; appeal dismissed. Petitioner was a collegiate tennis player who had not turned professional. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed |
Final-merits status | The decision rejects the criterion-stage evidence and concludes the petitioner did not establish sustained acclaim; it predates a distinct formal Kazarian final-merits determination. |
What the AAO decision addressed
The AAO rejected the claimed awards, membership, published-material and leading/critical-role criteria and found no adequate comparable evidence. The decision concludes the petitioner did not show sustained acclaim/top-of-field distinction; no separate modern final-merits stage.
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 | |
Published material about the person | |
Judging the work of others | Not considered — source PDF |
Original contributions of major significance | Not considered — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | Not considered — source PDF |
Artistic display or showcases | Not considered — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | |
High salary or remuneration | Not considered — source PDF |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not considered — source PDF |
Source-cited findings recorded in review
claim: The petitioner was a collegiate tennis player who had not yet turned professional; the AAO addressed an appeal of denial.; pages: 1; 2; 3
claim: College-level honors and player-of-the-week selections were not shown to be nationally/internationally recognized awards for excellence in the field.; pages: 4; 5
claim: NCAA/ITA membership and earlier Davis Cup selection did not establish qualifying association membership based on outstanding achievements proximate to filing.; pages: 5; 6
claim: Media items from college, regional and sports websites did not establish qualifying major-media published material about the petitioner.; pages: 6; 7
claim: The record did not show the petitioner performed in a leading or critical role for a distinguished organization; subjective letters were not comparable evidence to the objective criteria.; pages: 7; 8
claim: The AAO found no sustained acclaim/top-of-field eligibility and dismissed the appeal.; pages: 8; 9
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
Membership research
Published material about the person research
Judging the work of others research
Original contributions of major significance research
Scholarly authorship research
Artistic display or showcases research
Leading or critical role research
High salary or remuneration research
Commercial success in the performing arts research
Athletics sector research
Final Merits research
Remand research
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