AAO research

AAO EB-1A decision NOV302020_06B2203: Judging the work of others

AAO EB-1A decision NOV302020_06B2203: Judging the work of others

EB-1A judging the work of others — AAO decision NOV302020_06B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.

Decision summary: AAO decision NOV302020_06B2203: Appeal dismissed. The source contains a material internal contradiction: p. 3 says the petitioner did not establish a third criterion and p. 7 says she “has established” major-significance contributions, while the conclusion says the initial threshold was not met. Contribution state is held as unclear pending legal/manual reconciliation. (pp. 3, 7, 10).

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

NOV302020_06B2203

Decision date as printed

November 30, 2020

Classification / field stated in source

Non-precedent EB-1A appeal by a cardiovascular researcher/medical doctor working in pulmonary hypertension, cardiovascular science, and mechanical circulatory-assist devices. (pp. 1–2)

Procedural posture

AAO dismissed the appeal. It states the Director found two criteria—judging and scholarly authorship—met; AAO agreed, but found the three-criterion threshold unmet. (pp. 2–3)

Operative disposition

Appeal dismissed.

Final-merits status

No final-merits determination because the decision states the initial three-criterion threshold was not met. (pp. 2–3, 10); substantive outcome is held due to the contribution finding contradiction.

What the AAO decision addressed

The source contains a material internal contradiction: p. 3 says the petitioner did not establish a third criterion and p. 7 says she “has established” major-significance contributions, while the conclusion says the initial threshold was not met. Contribution state is held as unclear pending legal/manual reconciliation. (pp. 3, 7, 10)

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
AAO agreed with the Director that peer review of manuscripts for professional publications and conferences satisfied this criterion. (p. 2) — source PDF

Original contributions of major significance

Unclear; reserved — source PDF

Scholarly authorship

met
AAO agreed with the Director that the petitioner authored scholarly articles in professional journals including Hypertension, Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and Journal of Cardiology. (p. 2) — source PDF

Artistic display or showcases

Not coded — source PDF

Leading or critical role

not met
The decision begins assessing research/academic roles and the visible analysis states submitted evidence did not establish the significance of the petitioner’s roles; source summary confirms the criterion was one of the two disputed claims. (pp. 7–9) — source PDF

High salary or remuneration

Not coded — source PDF

Commercial success in the performing arts

Not coded — source PDF

Source holds and limits

HOLD entire substantive summary: p. 3 says no third criterion; p. 7 expressly says contributions were established; p. 10 repeats insufficient initial criteria. Check whether source itself has a drafting error or missing page context before publication. Adverse, non-precedent.

How this record may be used in research

Comparison scope: If cleared for publication, create a decision-specific, page-cited summary that states the field and procedural posture, distinguishes criteria met/not met/not reached, links the USCIS source PDF, preserves redactions, and clearly labels the decision non-precedent. Potential comparison: Potential comparison for biomedical researchers on judging/authorship versus major-significance proof, but only after resolving the internal criterion contradiction; not safe for aggregation while held.

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

  • Judging the work of others research

  • Scholarly authorship research

  • Leading or critical role research

  • Medicine sector research

  • Threshold research

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

Primary source

Official USCIS AAO decision PDF for NOV302020_06B2203