AAO research

AAO EB-1A decision MAY202011_02B2203: Awards

AAO EB-1A decision MAY202011_02B2203: Awards

EB-1A awards — AAO decision MAY202011_02B2203: Appeal sustained; petition approved. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.

Decision summary: The AAO Appeal sustained; petition approved The AAO found qualifying original contributions, scholarly authorship, and a critical role; the final-merits review found the record established sustained acclaim and top-of-field standing.

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: Source is an AAO Form I-140 EB-1A extraordinary-ability decision and the reviewed appeal concerns the claimed classification.. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.

Decision snapshot

Decision ID

MAY202011_02B2203

Decision date as printed

May 20, 2011

Classification / field stated in source

Form I-140 EB-1A extraordinary-ability petition under INA §203(b)(1)(A).

Procedural posture

Appeal of Texas Service Center denial; AAO review; appeal sustained and petition approved.

Operative disposition

Appeal sustained; petition approved

Final-merits status

The AAO conducted final-merits review and found the petitioner established sustained acclaim and top-of-field standing, including evidence of citation growth and database use outside the petitioner’s immediate collaborators.

What the AAO decision addressed

The AAO found qualifying original contributions, scholarly authorship, and a critical role; the final-merits review found the record established sustained acclaim and top-of-field standing.

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 — p. 5

Membership

Not met — p. 5

Published material about the person

Not met — p. 5

Judging the work of others

Not met — p. 5, p. 6

Original contributions of major significance

met — p. 6, p. 7, p. 8, p. 9

Scholarly authorship

met — p. 9

Artistic display or showcases

Not met — p. 6

Leading or critical role

met — p. 9

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 sought classification as a researcher in molecular genetics; the record concerned work on WFS1 and a database cataloging genetic variants.; pages: 2; 6; 7; 8

  • claim: The AAO rejected the awards, membership, published-material, judging, and display claims; the database-editor role did not establish judging of other researchers.; pages: 5; 6

  • claim: The AAO found original contributions of major significance based on research and a useful database with corroborating expert evidence; it also found scholarly authorship and a critical role for an institution with distinguished reputation.; pages: 6; 7; 8; 9

  • claim: The AAO found the totality, including citation growth and outside clinical use of the database, established sustained acclaim and top-of-field standing; the appeal was sustained and petition approved.; pages: 9; 10

How this record may be used in research

Comparison scope: Eligible with caveats

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

  • Medicine sector research

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Primary source

Official USCIS AAO decision PDF for MAY202011_02B2203