AAO research
EB-1A three-criterion threshold — AAO decision NOV072019_03B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: AAO decision NOV072019_03B2203: Appeal dismissed. AAO accepted judging and scholarly authorship but rejected original contributions of major significance. Grant funding, citations, press releases, and expert letters showed promise and some attention but not realized broad impact. Fewer than three criteria; no separate final-merits determination. (pp. 2–8).
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_EB1A_source_reviewed. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | NOV072019_03B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | November 7, 2019 |
Classification / field stated in source | Cancer research; researcher in cancer genetics/drug resistance and postdoctoral research. |
Procedural posture | Appeal of Nebraska Service Center I-140 denial; published as Matter of N-K-S-, nonprecedent AAO decision. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed. |
Final-merits status | Not reached as a separate final-merits stage because only two criteria were met; AAO provided an adverse aggregate assessment. (p. 8) |
What the AAO decision addressed
AAO accepted judging and scholarly authorship but rejected original contributions of major significance. Grant funding, citations, press releases, and expert letters showed promise and some attention but not realized broad impact. Fewer than three criteria; no separate final-merits determination. (pp. 2–8)
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 | met — source PDF |
Original contributions of major significance | Not met — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | met — source PDF |
Artistic display or showcases | Not coded — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | Not coded — source PDF |
High salary or remuneration | Not coded — source PDF |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not coded — source PDF |
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: High-value explainer on research-impact evidence: distinguish grant competitiveness and citation counts from implementation, contextualize citations by the correct research field, and separate institutional press releases from independent media coverage.
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.
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