The Petitioner requests classification under the employment-based second preference (EB-2) immigrant classification as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree, as well as a national interest waiver of the job offer requirement attached to this classification. See Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act) section 203(b )(2), 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b )(2).
SCOPS denied the petition, concluding that, although the Petitioner qualified for the classification as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree, the Petitioner had not established that a waiver of the required job offer, and thus of the labor certification, would be in the national interest. The matter is now before us on appeal. 8 C.F.R. § 103.3.
The Petitioner bears the burden ofproof to demonstrate eligibility by a preponderance of the evidence. Matter ofChawathe, 25 I&N Dec. 369, 375-76 (AAO 2010). We review the questions in this matter de novo. Matter of Christa's, Inc., 26 I&N Dec. 537,537 n.2 (AAO 2015). Upon de novo review, we will dismiss the appeal.
Law
To qualify for the underlying EB-2 visa classification, a petitioner must establish they are an advanced degree professional or an individual of exceptional ability in the sciences, arts, or business. Section 203(b)(2)(A) of the Act.
Ifa petitioner establishes eligibility for the underlying EB-2 classification, they must then demonstrate that they merit a discretionary waiver of the job offer requirement "in the national interest." Section 203(b )(2)(B)(i) ofthe Act. Matter ofDhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. 884, 889 (AAO 2016), provides the framework for adjudicating national interest waiver petitions. Dhanasar states that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may, as matter of discretion, 1 grant a national interest waiver if the petitioner demonstrates that:
- The proposed endeavor has both substantial merit and national importance;
- The individual is well-positioned to advance their proposed endeavor; and
- On balance, waiving the job offer requirement would benefit the United States.
Id.
Analysis
SCOPS concluded that the Petitioner qualifies as a member of the professions holding an advanced degree. The record supports that conclusion. The remaining issue to be determined on appeal is whether the Petitioner established that a waiver of the requirement of a job offer, and thus a labor certification, would be in the national interest.
Although SCOPS determined that the Petitioner's proposed endeavor has substantial merit, SCOPS concluded that the record did not establish that the endeavor is of national importance, that the Petitioner is well positioned to advance the endeavor, or that it would be beneficial to the United States to grant a waiver of the job offer requirement. On appeal, the Petitioner reiterates previous assertions concerning her eligibility, stating that SCOPS did not fully analyze the evidence of record. Upon review, for the reasons discussed below, we conclude that the Petitioner has not sufficiently demonstrated the national importance of her endeavor under the first prong ofthe Dhanasar analytical framework.
The Petitioner stated that she intends to continue teaching and conducting research as an assistant teaching professor at ~------------~ Her research, she stated, would include "showcasing the risk implications of private blockchain use in insurance companies in order to enable smart contract cyberattack loss assessment and insurance product solutions for improved safety." She explained that the implementation of private blockchain technology by organizations presents cyber risks linked to certain vulnerabilities, and the growing use of smart contracts and digital assets creates "an opportunity for the insurance sector to provide policies that safeguard against risks like hacking, theft, and programming mistakes." The provision of services like risk assessment and smart contract audits by insurers, she further explained, "improves the security and dependability of digital assets [which] enhances trust in blockchain technology and expedites its adoption across many sectors." She stated she would use Hyperledger, an open-source collaborative effort created to enhance blockchain technologies, to develop an emulator to aid in the assessment of supply chain loss resulting from cyberattack failures.
The first prong, substantial merit and national importance, focuses on the specific endeavor that the individual proposes to undertake. Matter ofDhanasar, 26 I&N Dec. at 889. The endeavor's merit may be demonstrated in a range of areas such as business, entrepreneurialism, science, technology, culture, health, or education. Id.
In determining whether the proposed endeavor has national importance, we consider its potential prospective impact. Id. The relevant question is not the importance of the industry or profession in which the individual will work; instead, we focus on the "the specific endeavor that the foreign national proposes to undertake." Id. In Dhanasar, we further noted that "we look for broader implications" of the proposed endeavor and that "[ a ]n undertaking may have national importance for example, because it has national or even global implications within a particular field." Id. We also p. 3 stated that"[a ]n endeavor that has significant potential to employ U.S. workers or has other substantial positive economic effects, particularly in an economically depressed area, for instance, may well be understood to have national importance." Id. at 890.
We agree with SCOPS that the Petitioner established that her proposed endeavor has substantial merit. However, the record does not establish that the Petitioner's endeavor has national importance. To provide context concerning the national importance of her proposed endeavor, the Petitioner submitted documentation that includes information about the potential impact of smart contract technologies and blockchain technologies on the insurance market; the usage of the internet of things, or IOT, in healthcare and supply chain management; and the scalability of blockchain technology for cybersecurity. She stressed the importance of equipping insurance companies with "strong mechanisms to assess the risks of using private blockchains" in order to "evaluate smart contract cyberattack losses and develop appropriate insurance solutions." She also expressed the following: Through her work, the U.S. is in a great position to lead the world in developing cuttingedge cybersecurity mechanisms because of its access to extensive information on profound smart contract cyberattack loss assessment and state-of-the-art insurance solutions. Doing so not only upholds national security and safety, but it also ensures Americans are provided with the best services to improve their quality of life.
The record, however, does not support the Petitioner's assertions concerning her specific endeavor and its impact on the United States. She has not provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that her individual work developing an end-product, or emulator, intended for use by insurance companies would have an impact at a level of national importance.
For example, in response to a request for evidence, the Petitioner emphasized that Hyperledger, the open-source architecture she intends to use to develop her emulator, is also used by many large companies, including Walmart, Hitachi, and Change Healthcare. Because the Hyperledger framework is used by "over 200 firms globally, including sectors such as financial services, healthcare, supply chains, manufacturing, and information technology," she surmised that, "[i]n this way, my proposed emulator addresses the needs of businesses in numerous sectors vital to the health and economy of the United States." Here, the Petitioner has associated her intention to develop her emulator based on a widely utilized open-source platform with a presumption of its equally wide utilization by other framework collaborators. This equivocation is not corroborated by evidence in the record; she has not presented evidence indicating that her product would be adopted at a scale indicative of national importance. Further, although she stated that her proposed research offers "a novel approach to supply chain loss assessment," she did not offer evidence to support that statement beyond documentation in the record of research she previously conducted. She has not provided specific goals related to her continued research or definitive milestones for the development of her emulator to demonstrate how she would credibly carry out her proposed endeavor within a realistic timeframe to have broader implications. A petitioner must support assertions with relevant, probative, and credible evidence. See Matter ofChawathe, 25 I&N Dec. at 376. She has not done so here.
On appeal, the Petitioner points to evidence previously included in the record to demonstrate the national importance of her proposed endeavor. This evidence includes documentation discussing ransomware attacks on U.S. organizations and the growth of the cyber insurance market, the p. 4 relationship of the Petitioner's research to critical and emerging technologies of interest to the United States, and the use of Hyperledger Fabric by large companies in several service and manufacturing sectors. She also returns to previous descriptions ofher endeavor, which generally rely on the positive outcomes she envisions for insurers and organizations to undergird the endeavor's purported national importance. Her description of her endeavor consists of a broad, open-ended overview free from references to specific elements that might compare or differentiate it from other emulation applications available. She has not identified what features, for example, her emulator would include to help insurance providers mitigate cyber risks for their clients, nor has she provided any information concerning the potential efficacy ofher product for insurers or their clients. The Petitioner's assertions concerning the importance of her proposed endeavor primarily focus on the importance of strong security systems to guard against cyberattacks, as opposed to the prospective impact of her role as an individual researcher among many others in the field of computer science working to design and augment cybersecurity responses and barriers. Again, it is not the overall importance of the industry or field in which the Petitioner intends to work, but the particular endeavor on which the Petitioner intends to embark that we consider in evaluating whether it is of national importance.Argued the field's importance, not the endeavor's Matter of Dhanasar, 26 T&N Dec. at 889.
Finally, we acknowledge that the Petitioner initially stated, and reiterates on appeal, that her proposed endeavor is separate from her employment as an assistant professor. At the same time, the Petitioner has provided an overview of the subjects she would teach at~including applied cryptography and computer literacy, asserting that teaching enables her to "make significant contributions to academia while enriching students' learning experiences." She provided a letter from a director atc=J explaining the significance of the role that assistant teaching professors fulfill at the university and summarizing the Petitioner's qualifications for the position. The letter, however, does not provide additional insight into how the Petitioner's continued teaching activities align with her proposed endeavor or illuminate the logistics of how she intended to pursue her endeavor while continuing to fulfill her teaching responsibilities. She asserted her intentions to partner with the D business school and research centers on projects, present her work at conferences, and publish the results of her work in peer-reviewed journals serve as "eviden[ce] that her position at I I serves to expand the impact of her proposed endeavor." Whether interconnected or separate, we acknowledge the merit of intending to research cybersecurity solutions for organizations while continuing to educate students in the field by providing classroom instruction. However, in Dhanasar, we determined that the petitioner's teaching activities did not rise to the level of having national importance because they would not impact his field more broadly. Id. at 893.
The record does not establish the national importance ofthe proposed endeavor as required by the first prong of the Dhanasar precedent decision. Therefore, the Petitioner has not demonstrated eligibility for a national interest waiver. Because the identified reasons for dismissal are dispositive of the Petitioner's appeal, we decline to reach and hereby reserve remaining arguments concerning eligibility under the Dhanasar framework. See INS v. Bagamasbad, 429 U.S. 24, 25 ( 1976) (stating that agencies are not required to make "purely advisory findings" on issues that are unnecessary to the ultimate decision).
Conclusion
The Petitioner has not demonstrated that the proposed endeavor has national importance. As the Petitioner has not met the requisite first prong of the Dhanasar analytical framework, she has not established that she is eligible for or otherwise merits a national interest waiver as a matter of discretion. The petition will remain denied.
ORDER: The appeal is dismissed.
NOTICE: This constitutes the final decision in this matter. The filing of a motion will not postpone the effect of the decision. 8 C.F.R. § 103.5(a)(l)(iv). Aliens who are not lawfully present, or who are otherwise inadmissible or deportable, may be subject to the commencement of removal proceedings under section 240 ofthe Act through the issuance of a Form I-862, Notice to Appear. Those proceedings may result in their removal from the United States and possible ineligibility for future visas or other immigration benefits.