The endeavor is locked at filing — you cannot swap it later.
An RFE or appeal can add evidence for the endeavor you filed; it cannot substitute a better-framed one.
The proposed endeavor is fixed at the moment of filing. An RFE response or an appeal can add evidence for the endeavor as filed; it cannot substitute a new, better-framed endeavor. When petitioners revise the endeavor itself under pressure, the AAO declines to consider the revised version and decides on the original.
The corpus surfaced a distinct late-stage failure mode — petitioners rewriting the endeavor at RFE or on appeal — that the AAO turns away in its own stock language: “A petitioner may not make material changes to a petition in an effort to make a deficient petition conform to USCIS requirements” (citing Matter of Izummi).
Get the endeavor specific and defensible before filing, because the filing draft is the one that will be graded. Treat the endeavor sentence as unamendable; build the evidence to fit it, not the other way around.
“If the endeavor draws an RFE, I’ll just reframe it in my response.” A reframed endeavor is disregarded, not rewarded — the RFE stage is for corroborating what you filed, not redefining it.
I am preparing an EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition and want you to review a draft against a finding from the public record of NIW decisions. THE FINDING: The endeavor is locked at filing — you cannot swap it later. An RFE or appeal can add evidence for the endeavor you filed; it cannot substitute a better-framed one. YOUR TASK: Stress-test my endeavor statement as if it can NEVER be changed after filing. List the questions an officer could ask that my current wording cannot answer, so I fix them before filing. RULES: Work only from what I paste — do not invent facts about me. Do not predict outcomes or estimate chances. Point to specific sentences and propose concrete rewrites. --- MY DRAFT --- [Paste your draft here]