AAO research
EB-1A withdrawal and mootness — AAO decision SEP082023_01B2203: Director decision withdrawn and matter remanded. Review source status, procedural posture…
Decision summary: The AAO director decision withdrawn and matter Remanded. AAO finds petitioner established leading/critical role as head coach of Venezuela’s national teams: the Venezuelan Football Federation is recognized by FIFA, and the national team received favorable domestic/international coverage during his tenure. This supplies the third criterion. AAO remands for Director to make final merits, considering the full record, including recognition evidence even if it did not independently meet published-material criterion.
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; verified in source review. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | SEP082023_01B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | September 8, 2023 |
Classification / field stated in source | EB-1A extraordinary ability; field: former professional soccer player and professional coach. |
Procedural posture | Appeal after denial; Director found two criteria (membership and judging) met. |
Operative disposition | Director decision withdrawn and matter Remanded. |
Final-merits status | “Membership=met; judging=met; leading/critical role=met; other asserted criteria not decided as unnecessary. Final merits not reached, Remanded.” |
What the AAO decision addressed
AAO finds petitioner established leading/critical role as head coach of Venezuela’s national teams: the Venezuelan Football Federation is recognized by FIFA, and the national team received favorable domestic/international coverage during his tenure. This supplies the third criterion. AAO remands for Director to make final merits, considering the full record, including recognition evidence even if it did not independently meet published-material criterion.
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 | Not coded — source PDF |
Original contributions of major significance | Not coded — source PDF |
Scholarly authorship | Not coded — source PDF |
Artistic display or showcases | Not coded — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | Not coded — source PDF |
High salary or remuneration | Not coded — source PDF |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not coded — source PDF |
Source-cited findings recorded in review
PDF p. 1: Cover identifies professional soccer coach and Sep. 8, 2023 appeal.
PDF p. 2: Describes coaching history and Director’s two criteria findings; leading-role evidence at issue.
PDF p. 3: AAO finds leading role for distinguished federation/team; threshold met; directs totality/final-merits review.
PDF p. 4: Operative remand order.
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: Strong comparison for national-team coaching roles and the relevance of organizational reputation and team coverage; remand is not approval. Eligible for a source-grounded individual page with explicit procedural posture, criterion-level outcomes, final-merits status, and citations; avoid presenting a remand as approval or generalizing beyond the record.
Editorial use note: Eligible for a source-grounded individual page with explicit procedural posture, criterion-level outcomes, final-merits status, and citations; avoid presenting a remand as approval or generalizing beyond the record.
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
Athletics sector research
Final Merits research
Remand research
Coverage research
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