Denial-reason pattern
Economic Impact
USCIS raised economic impact as a reason for denial in 701 of 2369 EB-2 NIW decisions in this archive (30%).
How USCIS actually phrased it
The most common ways this shows up in decisions, grouped from the AAO’s own wording (real phrases, not paraphrased):
- “insufficient evidence of economic impact”141×
- “insufficient evidence of substantial positive economic effects”56×
- “insufficient evidence of economic effects”35×
- “insufficient evidence of prospective impact”35×
- “no substantial positive economic effects”32×
- “insufficient economic impact”23×
- “unsupported economic projections”20×
- “unsupported financial projections”20×
Recent decisions discussing this
- cybersecurity and application security →DISMISSED2026-04-28
- chemistry →DISMISSED2026-04-22
- alternative dispute resolution →DISMISSED2026-04-22
- information technology (IT) →DISMISSED2026-04-17
- project management consultancy →DISMISSED2026-04-17
- financial, consulting, and internal audit →DISMISSED2026-04-15
What this statistic doesn’t mean
This archive only contains petitions that were denied and then appealed to the AAO. This count describes that selection-biased set, not the odds that any individual petition — including yours — will be denied over this issue. It is not an eligibility assessment.
USCIS raised economic impact in 30% of the decisions in this archive. Describe your own work and see which decisions discussed the same issue.
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