AAO research

AAO EB-1A decision NOV232016_01B2203: Awards

EB-1A awards — AAO decision NOV232016_01B2203: Appeal dismissed; petition denied (physical p. 7). Review source status, procedural posture and the…

Decision summary: AAO decision NOV232016_01B2203: Appeal dismissed; petition denied (physical p. 7). Director found published material and high salary; AAO retained published material, withdrew high-salary finding, found original contributions met, but found awards, membership and leading/critical role not met. Thus three criteria were not established; AAO also reviewed the aggregate and found acclaim insufficient (pp. 2–7).

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	NOV232016_01B2203
Decision date as printed	November 23, 2016
Classification / field stated in source	EB-1A extraordinary-ability appeal; president/shareholder of Venezuelan manufacturing company, engineering-management field; Matter of S-D-L-A-.
Procedural posture	Appeal of Texas Service Center denial; AAO de novo review finds fewer than three criteria and dismisses.
Operative disposition	Appeal dismissed; petition denied (physical p. 7).
Final-merits status	No formal separate final-merits step because fewer than three criteria were established; AAO nevertheless reviewed the aggregate and found sustained acclaim/top-of-field not established (pp. 6–7).

What the AAO decision addressed

Director found published material and high salary; AAO retained published material, withdrew high-salary finding, found original contributions met, but found awards, membership and leading/critical role not met. Thus three criteria were not established; AAO also reviewed the aggregate and found acclaim insufficient (pp. 2–7).

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 Magazine selection/award was not shown to be nationally or internationally recognized for excellence (p. 3). — source PDF
Membership	not met Association did not require outstanding achievements judged by recognized national/international experts (pp. 3–4). — source PDF
Published material about the person	met Article about petitioner and his company-related work appeared in a publication shown to be professional (p. 4). — source PDF
Judging the work of others	Not coded — source PDF
Original contributions of major significance	met AAO found involvement in development of anti-smuggling legislation to be an original contribution of major significance in the field (p. 4). — source PDF
Scholarly authorship	Not coded — source PDF
Artistic display or showcases	Not coded — source PDF
Leading or critical role	not met University role was not shown critical; company-association presidency did not establish distinguished reputation of organization (p. 5). — source PDF
High salary or remuneration	not met Director finding withdrawn: compared engineering-manager salary with civil engineers although petitioner worked as a company president; not shown high relative to comparable executives (pp. 5–6). — source PDF
Commercial success in the performing arts	Not coded — source PDF

Source-cited findings recorded in review

Citations refer to physical PDF pages. All pages were visually inspected in source order.

How this record may be used in research

Comparison scope: Potentially notable narrow case on officer correction of a salary comparison and a contribution finding involving anti-smuggling legislation; publish only with careful explanation that its contribution finding is case-specific. Potential individual case page, with criterion correction history clearly presented.

Editorial use note: Potential individual case page, with criterion correction history clearly presented.

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
Original contributions of major significance research
Leading or critical role research
High salary or remuneration research
Entrepreneurship sector research
Computing sector research

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

Primary source

Official USCIS AAO decision PDF for NOV232016_01B2203