AAO research
EB-1A membership — AAO decision SEP302015_01B2203: Appeal dismissed. Review source status, procedural posture and the official USCIS PDF.
Decision summary: The AAO Appeal dismissed AAO accepted judging, original contributions, and scholarly authorship, but found the totality did not establish sustained acclaim or top-of-field standing; appeal dismissed.
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 Form I-140 EB-1A decision; any case-specific field-of-endeavor limitation is captured in the verified facts and caveats.. This is a source-review label, not a legal conclusion.
Decision snapshot
Decision ID | SEP302015_01B2203 |
|---|---|
Decision date as printed | September 30, 2015 |
Classification / field stated in source | Form I-140 EB-1A extraordinary-ability decision under INA §203(b)(1)(A). |
Procedural posture | Appeal of Texas Service Center denial of Form I-140; appeal dismissed after final-merits review. |
Operative disposition | Appeal dismissed |
Final-merits status | The decision contains an express final-merits determination; despite three initial criteria, totality did not establish sustained acclaim or top-of-field status. |
What the AAO decision addressed
AAO accepted judging, original contributions, and scholarly authorship, but found the totality did not establish sustained acclaim or top-of-field standing; appeal dismissed.
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 considered — source PDF |
Membership | abandoned — p. 2 |
Published material about the person | Not considered — source PDF |
Judging the work of others | |
Original contributions of major significance | |
Scholarly authorship | met — p. 5 |
Artistic display or showcases | Not considered — source PDF |
Leading or critical role | Not considered — source PDF |
High salary or remuneration | Not considered — source PDF |
Commercial success in the performing arts | Not considered — source PDF |
Source-cited findings recorded in review
claim: Petitioner sought EB-1A as a structural biologist; the decision is Matter of R-D-, ID# 12414.; pages: 1; 8
claim: Membership issue was not contested on appeal and was treated as abandoned; peer review for scientific journals was accepted as judging.; pages: 2; 3
claim: AAO found original contributions met based on articles/citations, other researchers’ use, patents citing the work, and corroborating expert evidence, while post-filing achievements were excluded from eligibility timing.; pages: 3; 4; 5
claim: Scholarly authorship in journals was accepted; the petitioner had 22 articles and 110 citations at filing, with the AAO evaluating article-level influence and comparison evidence.; pages: 5; 7
claim: Formal final-merits analysis found membership did not indicate acclaim, peer review was moderate/routine, and citations/impact were not enough to show sustained top-of-field acclaim.; pages: 6; 7; 8
claim: AAO concluded the totality did not establish sustained acclaim or top-of-field status and dismissed.; pages: 8
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
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
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