NIW Bearings
dismissedAPR172026_02B52032026-04-17 · 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 start a project management consultancy in the United States that would help small and mid-sized businesses enhance customer experience, adopt AI-driven tools, streamline operations, and launch products through structured execution frameworks.

Field: project management consultancy / AI-enabled digital transformation · Read the decision (uscis.gov)

EB-2 threshold — addressed

SCOPS found and AAO agreed that the Petitioner qualifies as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree, based on two foreign diplomas evaluated as equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's in marketing and a U.S. master's in business administration in marketing.

Prong 1 — national importancenot established · dispositive

“the record establishes an impact limited to the Petitioner's clients and therefore does not rise to the level of national importance set forth in Dhanasar.”
“the record does not provide evidentiary support to establish the Petitioner's specific proposed endeavor could have the stated economic impacts.”
“the relevance of the Petitioner's proposed endeavor to important issues does not establish national importance as it does not demonstrate its prospective impact.”
“Without supporting evidence of the basis for these projections, we cannot assess whether the stated impacts are credible.”
“the Petitioner improperly relies upon the importance of the industry as sufficient to establish the national importance of his proposed endeavor.”

AAO decision text

How the evidence was treated

  • recommendation letter · discounted
    “the recommendation letters in the record focus on the Petitioner's skill set and her prior work, but not the prospective impact of her proposed endeavor.”
    AAO decision text
  • business plan · discounted
    “the evidence in the record does not support the broader implications that Dhanasar requires.”
    AAO decision text
  • certification membership · discounted
    “this evidence is of the Petitioner's experience in the field and not the prospective impact of the proposed endeavor.”
    AAO decision text
  • other · discounted
    “interest or support from potential customers, users, investors, or other relevant entities or persons”
    AAO decision text
  • degree · credited
All 6 evidence items
  • resume experience · discounted
    “evidence of the Petitioner's past success and experience is relevant to Dhanasar's prong two analysis... It does not establish the national importance of the proposed endeavor.”
    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
  • Field importance conflated with endeavor · p1 — argues the field matters, not the specific endeavor
  • Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region
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Notable

AAO withdrew SCOPS's finding of a material change to the proposed endeavor under Matter of Izummi, confirming the business plan was included with the initial petition, but still dismissed on national importance grounds. The decision contains a gender inconsistency, referring to the Petitioner as both 'she/her' and 'his' in the same paragraph. AAO explicitly noted that letters of interest from potential clients and evidence of past professional success were more appropriate for prong 2 analysis, effectively redirecting that evidence rather than simply discounting it.

What this case teaches

Analyst reading of the decision text.

Decisive factor

Evidence (recommendation letters, certificates, client interest) addressed petitioner's personal skill and experience rather than the specific endeavor's prospective national-level impact, failing prong one.

Transferable lesson

Direct evidence to the endeavor's prospective broader/national impact with supported projections, not to the founder's credentials or client-limited interest, which belongs to prong two.

Endeavor framing

moderate

National-importance theory

economic_job_creation · critical_emerging_tech · economic_growth_generic

Evidence targeting

person_focused

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