Rijal v. United States Citizenship & Immigration Services, 772 F. Supp. 2d 1339

Rijal is a Nepalese citizen who entered the U.S. on a visitor visa in May 2005 and filed an I-140 petition for extraordinary ability as a film/TV producer.
Rijal has a multi-decade career in film/television in Nepal, including developing Young Asia TV and producing award-winning documentaries Kumari: The Living Goddess and Four Years in Hell.
USCIS denied the petition in 2007; AAO denied on May 28, 2009; motions to reopen/reconsider were denied March 25, 2010.
Rijal argues he meets the extraordinary ability standard under 8 C.F.R. § 204.5 and Kazarian v. USCIS, with evidence addressing threshold criteria and sustained acclaim.
The court reviews the agency’s May 2009 decision and March 2010 denial on summary judgment under the APA, limited to the administrative record.
The court grants USCIS’s motion and denies Rijal’s, concluding the agency’s decision was not arbitrary or capricious.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether USCIS acted arbitrarily in dismissing one-time achievements	Rijal contends both awards are major, international.	USCIS found they were not major, international awards.	No arbitrary or capricious conduct; rational link to findings.
Whether USCIS erred in applying the alternate evidentiary criteria	Rijal satisfied several criteria (i, iv, v, vii, viii).	USCIS properly evaluated criteria and found insufficient in aggregate.	USCIS errors did not mandate reversal; within range of reasoned decision.
Whether Rijal suffered prejudice from USCIS's errors	Errors affected threshold-to-merits analysis leading to denial.	Even with errors, the final merits could not be met.	No prejudice; remand would not yield different substantive outcome.
Whether USCIS properly denied motions to reopen/reconsider in March 2010	New evidence should merit reopening/reconsideration.	Evidence was not new and would not change result.	USCIS did not err; denial upheld.

Kazarian v. USCIS, 596 F.3d 1115 (9th Cir. 2010) (framework for evaluating extraordinary ability; threshold criteria and final merits)