AAO research
EB-1A scholarly authorship — AAO decision MAY102024_02B2203: Director’s decision withdrawn; remanded for a new decision and final-merits determination.…
Decision summary: The AAO director’s decision withdrawn; Remanded for a new decision and final-merits determination. AAO found the petitioner established the high-salary criterion using payroll and O*NET comparisons for the relevant metropolitan area; the Director applied the wrong comparison group. Together with authorship and critical-role criteria previously found met, the initial three-criterion threshold is satisfied. Original contributions was not reached; AAO Remanded for final merits.
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; verified in source review. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | MAY102024_02B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | May 10, 2024 |
Classification / field stated in source | EB-1A extraordinary ability; field: data center/network engineering in the pharmaceutical industry. |
Procedural posture | Appeal from Texas Service Center denial; Director accepted two criteria and denied without final merits. AAO reviewed the Director’s evidentiary and final-merits decision de novo. |
Operative disposition | Director’s decision withdrawn; Remanded for a new decision and final-merits determination. |
Final-merits status | "not reached by AAO; remand directs first-instance final merits after threshold is met." |
What the AAO decision addressed
AAO found the petitioner established the high-salary criterion using payroll and O*NET comparisons for the relevant metropolitan area; the Director applied the wrong comparison group. Together with authorship and critical-role criteria previously found met, the initial three-criterion threshold is satisfied. Original contributions was not reached; AAO Remanded for final merits.
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 | Not coded — source PDF |
Original contributions of major significance | not reached |
Scholarly authorship | met |
Artistic display or showcases | Not coded — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | met |
High salary or remuneration | met |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not coded — source PDF |
Source-cited findings recorded in review
pp. 1–5; existing criteria and posture p. 2, wage analysis pp. 3–4, remand order p. 5.
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: Strong comparator for assessing high salary with geographically and occupationally relevant government wage data, and for separating initial criteria from final merits; decision remands, so do not label approved. eligible_for_editorial_review_with_citations
Editorial use note: eligible_for_editorial_review_with_citations
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
Original contributions of major significance research
Scholarly authorship research
Leading or critical role research
High salary or remuneration research
Computing sector research
Medicine sector research
Threshold research
Final Merits research
Remand research
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