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Product Designer
Sports fan engagement has expanded beyond live game attendance and traditional broadcasts. Fans want to feel part of the action, collect digital memorabilia, and experience matches through immersive technologies that bring them closer to their favorite teams and athletes. The U.S. sports industry, one of the largest in the world, is evolving to meet these expectations.
Our client is a product designer from Germany whose proposed endeavor focuses on designing a digital platform that transforms how fans engage with sports. By integrating augmented reality match summaries, immersive game analysis, and digital collectibles, his work aims to strengthen fan engagement and contribute to the commercial landscape of American sports. Colombo & Hurd secured his EB-2 NIW approval with legal guidance from Senior Attorney Nizar Kafrouni.
Bringing Design Thinking to the Sports Industry
Our client holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Design Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Design, Art and Media. His career has focused on designing digital products that simplify complex systems into intuitive, engaging user experiences.
He has contributed to product development at globally recognized companies, working on projects that earned industry recognition for design excellence. His background combines technical knowledge with a deep understanding of how people interact with digital platforms.
In the United States, his proposed endeavor focuses on fortifying the cultural and commercial aspects of the sports industry. By building a platform tailored for sports enthusiasts, he aims to offer fans unprecedented ways to engage with their favorite teams and athletes beyond traditional broadcast and in-stadium experiences, while creating new opportunities for sports businesses to connect with their audiences.
Addressing a Broad Request for Evidence
USCIS issued a Request for Evidence (RFE) that questioned several components of the petition, including the national importance of the proposed endeavor, whether our client was well positioned to advance it, and whether waiving the labor certification requirement was justified. The RFE also raised questions about documentation related to the advanced degree and requested additional clarification on prior work experience.
A key complexity involved demonstrating how the proposed endeavor would be executed in practice, particularly given the client’s prior work history within corporate product teams. Because his work had been delivered through corporate structures, the petition needed to show that the impact of his contributions extended beyond any single employer and that his endeavor would benefit the U.S. sports industry broadly.
Building a Clear Path to Approval
The response focused on reinforcing the national importance of the proposed endeavor by tying it to objective documentation about the U.S. sports industry and its economic significance. Attorney Kafrouni worked closely with our client to clarify how he would advance his endeavor, including his role in product design, development planning, and industry collaboration, supported by an updated plan that explained his path forward while maintaining consistency with the original filing.
Additional employer letters detailed our client’s technical contributions and the significance of his work, while the response carefully explained how each piece of evidence related to the specific legal requirements under the Matter of Dhanasar framework.
As Attorney Kafrouni noted, “The most rewarding aspect was transforming an RFE into an approval by relying on precise legal arguments and ensuring that evidence was evaluated under the correct legal lens. It reinforced the value of careful advocacy.“
EB-2 NIW Approval After RFE Response
USCIS approved our client’s EB-2 NIW petition after reviewing the comprehensive RFE response. USCIS recognized the national importance of his work in advancing digital innovation within the U.S. sports industry.
EB-2 NIW approval establishes the foundation for our client to build the platform he envisioned upon obtaining immigrant visa status, creating new ways for fans to connect with sports while contributing to an industry that plays a significant role in American culture and economy.
The approval came after a focused response that addressed each element raised in the RFE. The petition demonstrated national importance through objective evidence about the scale of the U.S. sports industry and the growing role of digital platforms in fan engagement and commercialization strategies. Documentation of our client’s professional trajectory showed he was well positioned to advance his endeavor based on his prior contributions and clear plan outlining how the platform would be developed, deployed, and expanded within the U.S. market.
The response also clarified how work delivered through corporate employment can still serve as a foundation for a nationally important endeavor. By showing that our client’s impact extended beyond individual employers and that his proposed platform would benefit the industry broadly, the petition addressed a question that arises frequently in EB-2 NIW cases.
Our client is now positioned to bring his vision to life in the United States. He can now develop immersive platforms that reshape how fans experience sports, collaborate with teams and technology companies, and contribute to an industry that continues to grow and innovate.
