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 an IT consulting firm in the United States specializing in helping small and medium-sized businesses modernize their IT infrastructure, offering services including cybersecurity, cloud migration, disaster recovery planning, and workforce training programs.
Field: information technology infrastructure consulting · Read the decision (uscis.gov)
EB-2 threshold — addressed
AAO questioned whether the Petitioner's 'titulo de Tecnologo em Gerenciamento de Redes de Computadores' is equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's degree due to lack of transcripts or credential evaluation, but reserved the issue as non-dispositive. SCOPS had found EB-2 classification met; AAO declined to disturb that finding for purposes of this decision.
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, region, or nation more broadly.”
“the relevant question is not the importance of the field, industry, or profession in which the individual will work.”
“Working in an important field, including one that is the subject of federal priorities, is insufficient to establish the proposed endeavor's national importance.”
“the Petitioner's claims linking his proposed endeavor to these impacts are too attenuated and lack sufficient corroborating evidence to show the proposed endeavor's prospective impact.”
“the Petitioner does not offer an evidentiary basis to conclude that the 'ripple effects' from his proposed endeavor will have such far-reaching results.”
“the Petitioner also has not shown how his training activities for internal teams at his client companies would sufficiently extend beyond the individuals he trains.”
AAO decision text
How the evidence was treated
- other · discounted
“these documents provide only general background information and do not specifically relate to or discuss the Petitioner's proposed endeavor”
AAO decision text - recommendation letter · discounted
“he does not explain how the Petitioner's specific proposed endeavor would produce broader impacts rising to the level of national importance”
AAO decision text - recommendation letter · discounted
“the support letters praise the Petitioner's skills and past accomplishments, they do not discuss the Petitioner's proposed endeavor or specific impact thereof”
AAO decision text
Where this case turned
- 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
- Local, not national scope · p1 — impact confined to clients / a region
Notable
AAO expressly questioned the threshold EB-2 degree equivalency (Brazilian 'titulo de Tecnologo') but reserved it as non-dispositive, warning the Petitioner to address it in future filings. AAO invoked the Dhanasar classroom-teacher analogy to reject the workforce training component of the endeavor. The decision is notable for its detailed rebuttal of the 'aggregated ripple effects' and 'cascading national effects' arguments commonly advanced by IT consulting petitioners, and for explicitly rejecting the argument that alignment with federal STEM or critical-infrastructure priorities alone establishes national importance.
What this case teaches
Analyst reading of the decision text.
Petitioner failed to show his specific consulting endeavor's impact extended beyond his own company/clients to a regional or national scale, despite general field-importance evidence.
Tie evidence directly to the specific endeavor's projected scale of impact with concrete data, not generalized field importance or conclusory ripple-effect claims.
moderate
economic_job_creation · us_competitiveness · critical_emerging_tech · economic_growth_generic
person_focused
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