AAO research

AAO EB-1A decision NOV172023_02B2203: Awards

AAO EB-1A decision NOV172023_02B2203: Awards

EB-1A awards — AAO decision NOV172023_02B2203: Appeal dismissed (physical p. 6). Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.

Decision summary: AAO decision NOV172023_02B2203: Appeal dismissed (physical p. 6). AAO found no third criterion. The director’s two findings (leading/critical role and high salary) remained; the appeal focused on original contributions, which failed because product/design work and articles did not establish distinct field-wide influence. Final-merits step reserved/not reached (pp. 2–6).

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

NOV172023_02B2203

Decision date as printed

November 17, 2023

Classification / field stated in source

EB-1A appeal; cybersecurity interaction designer.

Procedural posture

Appeal of Nebraska Service Center denial; director accepted leading/critical role and high salary, rejected five others; AAO rejected claimed original contributions and dismissed.

Operative disposition

Appeal dismissed (physical p. 6).

Final-merits status

Not reached as a separate Kazarian step because only two criteria were established; AAO reviewed the record in the aggregate and found acclaim/top-of-field not shown (p. 5).

What the AAO decision addressed

AAO found no third criterion. The director’s two findings (leading/critical role and high salary) remained; the appeal focused on original contributions, which failed because product/design work and articles did not establish distinct field-wide influence. Final-merits step reserved/not reached (pp. 2–6).

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
Director found no qualifying awards (p. 2). — source PDF

Membership

not met
Director found no qualifying membership (p. 2). — source PDF

Published material about the person

Not coded — source PDF

Judging the work of others

not met
Director found no qualifying judging evidence (p. 2). — source PDF

Original contributions of major significance

not met
Work on dashboards/UI and product features was not shown to affect cybersecurity/interactions design at a level of major significance; employer articles and colleague letters lacked sufficient corroboration (pp. 2–5). — source PDF

Scholarly authorship

Not met — source PDF

Artistic display or showcases

Not coded — source PDF

Leading or critical role

met
Director acknowledged this criterion; AAO’s appeal analysis did not disturb it (p. 2). — source PDF

High salary or remuneration

met
Director acknowledged this criterion; AAO’s appeal analysis did not disturb it (p. 2). — source PDF

Commercial success in the performing arts

Not coded — source PDF

Source-cited findings recorded in review

  • Citations refer to physical PDF page numbers. Every page was visually inspected in source order.

How this record may be used in research

Comparison scope: Useful case on product-design contributions: implementing employer product features and press/blog mentions do not alone establish field-wide major significance. Potential individual case page with threshold findings separated from original-contributions analysis.

Editorial use note: Potential individual case page with threshold findings separated from original-contributions analysis.

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

  • Judging the work of others research

  • Original contributions of major significance research

  • Leading or critical role research

  • High salary or remuneration research

  • Computing sector research

  • Performance sector research

  • Threshold research

  • Major Significance research

Browse the AAO decision index · Read EB-1A evidence guides · Review source and correction methodology.

Primary source

Official USCIS AAO decision PDF for NOV172023_02B2203