AAO Reverses CIS Denial of Professional Manager

We recently received welcome news of an appeal having been granted by the Administrative Appeals Unit of the U.S. CIS. The case involved a permanent resident petition in the EB-2 category for an 'exceptional ability' worker - in this case, a professional baseball manager for a Major League affiliate.

The government originally denied the case, holding that the manager's abilities weren't exceptional because his record was perhaps only in the 70th percentile of MLB managers. On appeal, we argued that the relevant pool of workers against which his record, salary and other objective signs of achievement should be measured, was not MLB and affiliate managers; we instead argued his abilities should be measured against all professional baseball managers - those who earn a living managing the game of baseball. We calculated that pool to include more than 550 managers at the major college, minor league and MLB levels. Amongst that pool, the applicant was surely 'exceptional' as that term has been defined by the law, in terms of his record, but especially because he was turning out MLB stars with regularity.

Our brief stated, in part,

The Service has been chastised by the courts and Board with regard to misapplying the extraordinary ability level for dismissing Nick Price’s petition, as well as NHL players Stu Grimson and Craig Muni’s petitions for EB-1 status. See Matter of Price, 20 I&N Dec. 953 (BIA 1994)(where the Board found that his ranking of 10th internationally on the PGA tour qualified him for EB-1 status; as an aside, Mr. Price has turned out to be nothing short of a legendary PGA player); Grimson v. INS, 1995 WL 134755 (N.D. Ill. 1995)(where the Court remanded the case to the NSC with instructions on how to apply the EB-1 standard after it denied Stuart Grimson’s petition; as an aside, Stu Grimson became an icon of Chicago defensemen in the 1990s, both as an enforcer and as a checking, stay-at-home defenseman); Muni v. INS, 891 F.Supp. 440 (N.D. Ill. 1995)(where the Court, after the NSC denied an EB-1 petition, found that Craig Muni was a very good professional hockey player considered to be at the top of his field, as he was voted as the top hitting defenseman and most underrated player at his position). It appears that your office is in danger of making the same mistakes with respect to the EB-2 standard operative here....

The government, to its credit, understood and accepted the argument, reversing the Regional Service Center that had issued the denial.

Lawyering at every level, and perhaps especially within immigration law, requires thinking about problems in new ways. Anyone can research a question and regurgitate legal holdings. Changing the perspective of an analysis is hard work, but nearly always necessary, to successfully represent immigration clients against the government. This decision reflects that reality.

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I found it frustrating to update this blog so infrequently; that infrequency was due to the fact that blogs are best suited for in-depth writing, which of course, requires time. I promise, and swear, under penalties of perjury, that I will write more frequently the remainder of this year and beyond; in the meantime, follow us on twitter.com. We are chicagoimmatt. http://twitter.com/chicagoimmatt. I'll be posting snippets about immigration developments and firm results (anonymously, of course) each day. Happy reading!