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Released
May 15, 2012
WASHINGTON—U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration
Services’ (USCIS)
Administrative Appeals Office (AAO)
today issued a binding precedent
decision addressing the term
“culturally unique” and its
significance in the adjudication
of petitions for performing
artists and entertainers.
In
the case at issue, the Skirball
Cultural Center filed a P-3
nonimmigrant petition on behalf
of a musical group from
Argentina that was denied a
performing artists’ visa for
failing to establish that the
group’s performance was
“culturally unique” as
required for this visa
classification. Due to the
unusually complex and novel
issue and the likelihood that
the same issue could arise in
future decisions, the decision
was recommended for review.
USCIS’s
AAO approved the petition after
its review of the entire record,
which included expert written
testimony and corroborating
evidence on behalf of the
musical group. The regulatory
definition of “culturally
unique” requires USCIS to make
a case-by-case factual
determination. The decision
clarifies that a “culturally
unique” style of art or
entertainment is not limited to
traditional art forms, but may
include artistic expression that
is deemed to be a hybrid or
fusion of more than one culture
or region.
Precedent
decisions support USCIS’s
commitment to consistency in the
administration of immigration
benefits. This is the third
precedent decision issued since
late 2010. Selected and
designated as precedent by the
Secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS), with
the Attorney General’s
concurrence, precedent decisions
are administrative decisions
that are legally binding on DHS
components responsible for
enforcing immigration laws in
all proceedings involving the
same issue.
The
Department of Justice’s Executive
Office for Immigration Review
(EOIR) publishes precedent
decisions in bound volumes
titled, “Administrative
Decisions Under Immigration and
Nationality Laws of the United
States.”
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