AAO research
EB-1A awards — AAO decision MAY282009_03B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: AAO decision MAY282009_03B2203: Appeal dismissed. AAO found the evidence did not establish three criteria or sustained acclaim/top-of-field standing. (pp. 3–11).
Source limitation: The review record contains a source hold or limitation. Read the limitation below before relying on any case detail; unresolved facts are not treated as findings.
Scope classification from review: in_scope_EB1A_source_reviewed. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | MAY282009_03B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | May 28, 2009 |
Classification / field stated in source | Television director and producer, including children’s/educational programming and “edu-tainment.” |
Procedural posture | Appeal of Nebraska Service Center denial; petitioner relied on film/television work, prizes, media, contributions, display, role, and other evidence. (pp. 2–3) |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed. |
Final-merits status | No formal Kazarian final-merits determination; AAO’s conclusion after criterion review found measurable success but insufficient evidence of sustained acclaim or standing significantly above others in the field. (p. 11) |
What the AAO decision addressed
Appeal dismissed. AAO found the evidence did not establish three criteria or sustained acclaim/top-of-field standing. (pp. 3–11)
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 |
Membership | Not coded — source PDF |
Published material about the person | Not met — source PDF |
Judging the work of others | not met |
Original contributions of major significance | Not met — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | Not coded — 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 holds and limits
Do not state that the source found no success: it expressly says the petitioner achieved a measurable level of success, while finding that insufficient for EB-1A. (p. 11); Individual non-precedent adjudication; avoid generalizing to all film producers. (p. 1)
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: Potential case note on attribution in collaborative film/television work: evidence of a successful production does not itself establish the petitioner’s individual role or major contribution.
Page-level source trail
Use the official PDF and the cited physical page numbers to check each statement.
Open the official USCIS decision PDF. Page-specific citations were not available in the normalized row.
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
Judging the work of others research
Leading or critical role research
Performance sector research
Teaching sector research
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