AAO research

AAO EB-1A decision APR152025_02B2203: law and failure to meet the three‑criterion threshold (waiver/abandonment)

Abandoning a criterion on appeal causes the AAO to treat it as waived, so petitioners must still prove at least three other EB‑1A criteria with concrete, field‑specific evidence. specific salary data comparing petitioner to field averages; documentation of distinguished reputation of petitioner’s em

Decision Snapshot

Field Value --- --- Decision ID APR152025_02B2203 Decision date not stated in the extraction Outcome dismissed Field or occupation law Final merits discussed Yes

Criteria Discussed

  • awards

  • high_salary

  • leading_critical_role

  • membership

  • original_contributions

  • published_material

  • scholarly_articles

Criteria Accepted

Not stated in the extracted decision plan.

Criteria Rejected

  • awards

  • high_salary

  • leading_critical_role

  • original_contributions

  • published_material

Core Lesson

Abandoning a criterion on appeal causes the AAO to treat it as waived, so petitioners must still prove at least three other EB‑1A criteria with concrete, field‑specific evidence.

Evidence Issue

  • specific salary data comparing petitioner to field averages

  • documentation of distinguished reputation of petitioner’s employers

  • original contributions that are widely cited or have generated substantial commentary

  • published material that directly discusses the petitioner’s achievements

  • contest of SCOPS denials on membership and scholarly articles

How This Connects

This decision is part of Extraordinary's AAO EB-1A corpus. It is exposed as a structured decision card so readers, search engines, and AI search systems can connect the decision to broader EB-1A evidence patterns.

Source Note

Non-precedent AAO decisions are used as evidence examples. They are not binding authority and do not predict any individual case.