AAO research

AAO EB-1A decision SEP282016_01B2203: Awards

AAO EB-1A decision SEP282016_01B2203: Awards

EB-1A awards — AAO decision SEP282016_01B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.

Decision summary: AAO decision SEP282016_01B2203: Appeal dismissed. AAO credited peer review of scholarly articles and authorship of seven professional-journal articles, but rejected claimed awards, membership, contributions and leading/critical role. Aggregate evidence still did not establish the required expertise/acclaim. (pp. 2–10).

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

SEP282016_01B2203

Decision date as printed

September 28, 2016

Classification / field stated in source

Sciences/medicine; cardiologist researching Takotsubo cardiomyopathy

Procedural posture

Appeal of Texas Service Center denial; AAO de novo review.

Operative disposition

Appeal dismissed.

Final-merits status

AAO expressly stated it need not provide the Kazarian-type final-merits determination; aggregate record nonetheless failed to establish required expertise. (p. 9)

What the AAO decision addressed

AAO credited peer review of scholarly articles and authorship of seven professional-journal articles, but rejected claimed awards, membership, contributions and leading/critical role. Aggregate evidence still did not establish the required expertise/acclaim. (pp. 2–10)

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 met
Student awards, research grants and travel award did not establish qualifying recognized prizes for excellence in field. (pp. 3–4) — source PDF

Membership

not met
Membership evidence did not show outstanding-achievement admission judged by recognized experts. (pp. 4–5) — source PDF

Published material about the person

Not coded — source PDF

Judging the work of others

met
AAO agreed record showed peer review of scholarly articles. (p. 3) — source PDF

Original contributions of major significance

not met
The research was not shown to have major significance beyond the beneficiary’s successful research activity. (pp. 5–7) — source PDF

Scholarly authorship

met — source PDF

Artistic display or showcases

Not coded — source PDF

Leading or critical role

not met
Fellowships and letters did not establish the required leading position or institutional impact. (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

Do not characterize the aggregate discussion as a formal final-merits determination; the opinion says it need not provide one. (p. 9)

How this record may be used in research

Comparison scope: Cited case can answer whether peer review and publication alone establish extraordinary ability (two criteria were met, but petition still denied).

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

  • Awards research

  • Membership research

  • Judging the work of others research

  • Original contributions of major significance research

  • Leading or critical role research

  • Medicine sector research

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

Primary source

Official USCIS AAO decision PDF for SEP282016_01B2203