Published AAO appeal decisions

Financial technology company petitions for beneficiary in fintech as extraordinary ability immigrant. Claimed six criteria; director found two met. AAO finds three criteria satisfied: judging, leading role, and scholarly articles via comparable evidence of trade show presentations. Matter remanded for final merits analysis on sustained acclaim.

Software development executive in financial technology claimed extraordinary ability via membership, original contributions, critical role, and salary. AAO found only critical role criterion met, disagreed with director on salary, rejected membership and contributions as insufficient. Dismissed for failing three-criterion threshold.

A nonprofit research foundation sponsored a policy analyst as extraordinarily able in economics. The AAO rejected student scholarships, professional memberships, media appearances as published material, and judging roles as insufficient. Aggregate evidence did not demonstrate sustained national or international acclaim or top-level achievement.

A finance researcher claimed extraordinary ability based on academic awards, teaching honors, research grants, and professional memberships. The AAO found academic honors ineligible as student-only awards, internal teaching award not nationally recognized, grants not excellence prizes, and membership lacking evidence of outstanding-achievement requirements. Petition dismissed.

A financial researcher and assistant professor sought extraordinary ability classification. She presented academic honors, teaching awards, internal grants, and professional association memberships. AAO found academic awards student-limited, internal grants lack national acclaim, and association memberships lack evidence of merit-based admission requirements.

Senior quantitative analyst for financial institution claimed extraordinary ability in business. Met original contributions criterion through cutting-edge forecasting work but failed membership, judging, critical role, and high salary criteria. AAO dismissed appeal; only one criterion met when three required.