AAO research
EB-1A withdrawal and mootness — AAO decision SEP192024_02B2203: Director decision withdrawn and matter remanded. Review source status, procedural posture…
Decision summary: The AAO director decision withdrawn and matter Remanded. AAO says the Director did not adequately analyze the RFE response and overlooked evidence on association membership, Sports Illustrated coverage, and leading/critical role. It remands for evaluation of whether at least three criteria are met; only if so, Director must conduct final merits.
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 | SEP192024_02B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | September 19, 2024 |
Classification / field stated in source | EB-1A extraordinary ability; field: water polo player. |
Procedural posture | Appeal after denial; Director found no one-time award and no three criteria. |
Operative disposition | Director decision withdrawn and matter Remanded. |
Final-merits status | "Initial criteria unresolved on remand; AAO did not itself find any criterion met in this decision. Final merits not reached." |
What the AAO decision addressed
AAO says the Director did not adequately analyze the RFE response and overlooked evidence on association membership, Sports Illustrated coverage, and leading/critical role. It remands for evaluation of whether at least three criteria are met; only if so, Director must conduct final merits.
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 water polo player, appeal, and Sep. 19, 2024 date.
PDF p. 2: Claimed awards, memberships, published material, and leading role; Director’s analysis did not address RFE response or evidence details.
PDF p. 3: AAO identifies omitted Sports Illustrated, membership, and role evidence; orders reevaluation and conditional final merits.
How this record may be used in research
Comparison scope: Strong procedural comparator for reasoned consideration of RFE evidence and sports awards/membership/media; unresolved remand, no eligibility outcome. 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
Final Merits research
Remand research
Coverage research
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