AAO research
EB-1A awards — AAO decision OCT212005_17B2203: Appeal dismissed; prior denial affirmed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: The AAO Appeal dismissed; prior denial affirmed AAO found that research grants, scholarships, publications/citations, peer review, collaboration letters, and employment did not satisfy the discussed award, membership, published-material, judging, contributions, authorship, leading-role, or salary criteria. Older decision weighs overall acclaim but no distinct modern final-merits step.
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: Complete printed AAO Form I-140 EB-1A source; identity/date/posture checked against the opening page and disposition against the ending page.. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | OCT212005_17B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | October 21, 2005 |
Classification / field stated in source | Form I-140 EB-1A extraordinary-ability petition under INA §203(b)(1)(A). |
Procedural posture | Appeal of Vermont Service Center EB-1A denial; dismissed. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed; prior denial affirmed |
Final-merits status | The decision separately reviews the overall record but predates a distinct modern final-merits determination; it finds no sustained acclaim. |
What the AAO decision addressed
AAO found that research grants, scholarships, publications/citations, peer review, collaboration letters, and employment did not satisfy the discussed award, membership, published-material, judging, contributions, authorship, leading-role, or salary criteria. Older decision weighs overall acclaim but no distinct modern final-merits step.
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 | |
Membership | |
Published material about the person | |
Judging the work of others | Not met — p. 5 |
Original contributions of major significance | |
Scholarly authorship | |
Artistic display or showcases | Not considered — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | Not met — p. 9 |
High salary or remuneration | Not met — p. 9 |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not considered — source PDF |
Source-cited findings recorded in review
claim: Petitioner was a cancer researcher at NIH’s Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis and had prior doctoral/postdoctoral biomedical research.; pages: 2; 3
claim: AAO discounted grants and fellowships as awards, association memberships without selective outstanding-achievement requirements, routine peer review, publications with limited independent citation at filing, and testimonial claims of impact.; pages: 3; 5; 6; 8; 9
claim: AAO found neither the criteria nor overall sustained acclaim established and dismissed the appeal.; 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
Medicine sector research
Final Merits research
Waiv research
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