NIW Bearings
dismissedAPR152026_02B52032026-04-15 · appeal · SCOPS Service Center

This is an AAO appeal decision — a case denied once and appealed. It shows how the framework is applied; it is not the filing population.

The petitioner proposed to establish his own company providing specialized business consultancy, auditing, and training services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food, construction, and financial services industries across North America.

Field: business consulting, auditing, and internal audit · Read the decision (uscis.gov)

EB-2 threshold — addressed

SCOPS found the petitioner qualifies for the underlying EB-2 classification as an advanced degree professional; AAO did not disturb this finding.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“the record does not illustrate how his specific endeavor would sufficiently extend beyond his company, clients, and the individuals he trains to impact the industry, economy, region, or nation more broadly.”
“these claims tying his proposed endeavor to these impacts are too attenuated and lack sufficient corroborating evidence to show the proposed endeavor's prospective impact.”
“the Petitioner's work in an important industry or sector, even one that is the subject of national priorities, is not sufficient, in and of itself, to establish the national importance of the proposed endeavor.”
“the business plan does not further elaborate on these claims of indirect job creation and is not supported by any independent evidence from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.”
“the professor's observations rely more on generalizations about the results of typical business activity, rather than providing probative information about how the Petitioner's particular endeavor would specifically accomplish these results.”
“the Petitioner does not provide sufficient details about these services or curricula to support his claims that his training would have such broader far-reaching impacts.”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

  • business plan · discounted
    “the plan does not provide sufficient details regarding the basis for these projections or adequately explain how these staffing and sales targets will be realized.”
    AAO decision text
  • recommendation letter · discounted
    “his opinion is largely conclusory and does not adequately explain how the Petitioner's work, in particular, would produce such nationally important impacts.”
    AAO decision text
  • recommendation letter · discounted
    “aside from these generalized assertions, Mr. [redacted] does not specifically or adequately discuss how these claimed impacts would extend beyond the companies, clients, and trainees.”
    AAO decision text
  • other · discounted
    “these articles and reports provide general background information on the aforementioned areas and speak to the substantial merit of the proposed endeavor, they do not establish how his future work specifically would impact these areas more broadly.”
    AAO decision text

Where this case turned

  • Business plan speculative · p1 — projections without a documented basis or steps
  • Economic claims unsupported · p1 — job/revenue projections with no corroborating basis
  • Employer-specific benefit · p1 — "work furthers my company's product" — value accrues to one firm
  • Field importance conflated with endeavor · p1 — argues the field matters, not the specific endeavor
  • Letters conclusory · p1 — letters praise skills in general terms without tracing specific impact
  • Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region
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Notable

SCOPS had already found substantial merit under prong 1 but denied on national importance; AAO agreed only on national importance and declined to reach prongs 2 and 3. The AAO explicitly invoked the Dhanasar classroom-teacher analogy to reject the training-services argument. The petitioner submitted a RIMS-II economic multiplier analysis, which the AAO discounted for lack of independent BEA corroboration.

What this case teaches

Analyst reading of the decision text.

Decisive factor

Petitioner failed to show the specific endeavor's impact extends beyond his company, clients, and trainees to the industry, region, or nation at a level of national importance.

Transferable lesson

Tie concrete, corroborated evidence (not generic industry articles or conclusory letters) directly to how the specific endeavor scales impact beyond direct clients/trainees.

Endeavor framing

moderate

National-importance theory

economic_job_creation · economic_growth_generic · field_advancement

Evidence targeting

person_focused

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