AAO research
EB-1A membership — AAO decision OCT012024_02B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: The AAO Appeal dismissed The petitioner’s record did not meet the claimed criteria: former swim-team membership was not shown to be qualifying association membership in the coaching field; competitive-swimming press did not concern coaching and lacked audience evidence; no major contributions, qualifying role, salary comparison, or performing-arts commercial success was demonstrated. Threshold failed.
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: The source is an AAO EB-1A appeal/remand decision with case-specific procedural and evidentiary analysis.. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | OCT012024_02B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | October 1, 2024 |
Classification / field stated in source | EB-1A extraordinary-ability petition appeal |
Procedural posture | EB-1A appeal; dismissed after fewer than three criteria; formal final merits not reached, with aggregate observations. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed |
Final-merits status | The initial threshold failed; AAO expressly reserved formal final merits, although it made aggregate observations that acclaim/top-of-field status was not shown. |
What the AAO decision addressed
The petitioner’s record did not meet the claimed criteria: former swim-team membership was not shown to be qualifying association membership in the coaching field; competitive-swimming press did not concern coaching and lacked audience evidence; no major contributions, qualifying role, salary comparison, or performing-arts commercial success was demonstrated. Threshold failed.
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 met — p. 3 |
Published material about the person | Not met — p. 3 |
Judging the work of others | Not coded — source PDF |
Original contributions of major significance | |
Scholarly authorship | Not coded — source PDF |
Artistic display or showcases | Not coded — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | Not met — p. 4 |
High salary or remuneration | |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not met — p. 5 |
Source-cited findings recorded in review
claim: The Form I-140 identified occupation “Aquatic Coach - Instructor” and proposed job title “Head Coach - Instructor.”; pages: 2
claim: The petitioner invoked membership, published material, original contributions, leading/critical role, high salary, and commercial success in the performing arts; AAO found none established.; pages: 2; 3; 4; 5
claim: Former swim-team membership lacked evidence of outstanding-achievement admission by recognized experts and was not shown to be a coaching association.; pages: 3
claim: Articles concerned the petitioner’s competitive-swimming achievements, not coaching/instruction; publication readership/circulation was not provided.; pages: 3
claim: The petitioner did not identify specific original contributions or evidence of field-wide impact; letters and results about his competitive swimming did not establish coaching contributions.; pages: 3; 4
claim: Employment agreement identified a $30,000 base salary and tax return $40,951 total income, but no comparison with swim-coach compensation; the petitioner’s field was not performing arts.; pages: 4; 5
claim: AAO concluded fewer than three criteria and reserved formal final merits; it made aggregate no-acclaim observations and dismissed.; pages: 6
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: Eligible for individual case discussion
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
Membership research
Published material about the person research
Original contributions of major significance research
Leading or critical role research
High salary or remuneration research
Commercial success in the performing arts research
Athletics sector research
Threshold research
Final Merits research
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