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, a mechanical engineering graduate with about seven years of masonry and construction experience in Canada, proposed to start a U.S. construction company specializing in masonry, concrete, levee, and historic restoration work framed around sustainability and cultural preservation.
Field: masonry and historic preservation / construction · Read the decision (uscis.gov)
EB-2 threshold — addressed
SCOPS found the Petitioner qualified as an advanced-degree professional but never determined whether his proposed job actually requires an advanced-degree professional; AAO remands for SCOPS to make and explain that determination.
Prong 1 — national importanceestablished
“we are unable to meaningfully review that finding because SCOPS' did not explain the reasons for its determination.”
AAO decision text
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Notable
Unusual procedural posture: rather than affirming or reversing SCOPS' prong findings, the AAO withdraws the decision because SCOPS failed to analyze whether the job requires an advanced-degree professional and failed to explain its own favorable national-importance finding; the matter is remanded for a new, adequately explained decision rather than decided on the merits of prongs 2 or 3.
Authorities this decision leans on
From the doctrinal survivor set — 187 authority tests across 47 distinct authorities cleared the differential-lift gates. Only those appear here.
- 8 C.F.R. 204.5(k)(2)
What this case teaches
Analyst reading of the decision text.
SCOPS failed to (1) assess whether the proposed job requires an advanced-degree professional and (2) explain its reasoning for finding national importance, precluding AAO review; remanded rather than decided on merits.
Adjudicators must articulate specific reasoning tying the endeavor to job-duty advanced-degree requirements and to concrete national-scale impact, not conclusory findings.
moderate
field_advancement · economic_job_creation · economic_growth_generic
person_focused
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