AAO research
EB-1A awards — AAO decision NOV142019_02B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: The AAO Appeal dismissed The petitioner established the awards criterion for athlete awards only; he did not establish an award or three criteria in the claimed coaching field, and final merits was not reached.
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 EB-1A classification.. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | NOV142019_02B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | November 14, 2019 |
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 de novo review; appeal dismissed. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed |
Final-merits status | The AAO expressly states it need not provide a final-merits determination because the initial evidence threshold was not met. |
What the AAO decision addressed
The petitioner established the awards criterion for athlete awards only; he did not establish an award or three criteria in the claimed coaching field, and final merits was not reached.
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 | met — p. 3 |
Membership | |
Published material about the person | |
Judging the work of others | Not met — p. 6 |
Original contributions of major significance | |
Scholarly authorship | Not considered — source PDF |
Artistic display or showcases | waived — p. 8 |
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 described as an athlete and coach in wrestling/martial arts and sought to continue work in the United States; the record included national competition and coaching claims.; pages: 1; 2; 3
claim: The AAO found qualifying national-competition awards as an athlete but held athlete awards did not establish awards in the distinct coaching field; a “Best Coach” nomination lacked proof of award/recognition.; pages: 3; 4
claim: Membership in a sports federation/team lacked evidence of restrictive outstanding-achievement requirements; published-material evidence was not shown to be major media or qualifying sport-related coverage.; pages: 4; 5; 6
claim: The petitioner did not establish judging, original contributions of major significance, or a leading/critical role for a distinguished organization; the role letters were similarly worded and did not identify a qualifying role/reputation.; pages: 6; 7; 8; 9
claim: The AAO found fewer than three criteria/no one-time achievement and expressly said a final-merits determination was unnecessary; appeal dismissed.; pages: 9
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
Athletics sector research
Performance sector research
Final Merits research
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