Opinion ID: 2744070
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Service’s Consideration of Evidence

Text: Experience in Brazil Beyond its articulation of the relevant legal standard, the Appeals Office relied on two related evidentiary conclusions in denying the Gasparetto petition. Specifically, the Appeals Office found that the company had failed to establish that Gasparetto had either (a) completed the company’s mandatory training program or (b) worked a sufficient amount of time in the churrasqueiro role to be eligible for transfer. Fogo de Chao disputes the agency’s factual findings on both points. We find merit in the first of those arguments; the second point had no apparent independent effect on the Appeals Office decision. First, Fogo de Chao challenges the Appeals Office’s finding that there was insufficient evidence of Gasparetto’s completion of the company’s internal 18- to 24-month churrasqueiro training program, which is a prerequisite before an employee may be considered for transfer to the United States. 36 We agree that this conclusion is not supported by substantial evidence. Frankly, the Appeals Office’s reasoning on this point is hard to understand. It said in its decision that Fogo de Chao “did not provide any documentation to confirm the beneficiary’s completion of such training for the record,” and that, “[w]ithout documentary evidence to support the claim, the assertions of counsel will not satisfy the petitioner’s burden of proof.” J.A. 664 (citations omitted). But Fogo de Chao’s evidence of Gasparetto’s completion of the training program went far beyond the “assertions of counsel,” and even beyond the Chief Executive Officer’s representations in the cover letter, which the Department now claims was the fatal evidentiary shortfall. Department Br. 48–49. Specifically, the uncontradicted evidence before the Appeals Office documenting Gasparetto’s completed training included (i) a sworn affidavit submitted by Fogo de Chao’s Chief Executive Officer attesting that Gasparetto had “completed the training program in Brazil,” J.A. 460, (2) Gasparetto’s curriculum vitae stating that he “graduated and specialized as waiter churrasqueiro” while working at a Fogo de Chao restaurant in Sao Paulo, J.A. 541, and (3) the letter from a Brazilian nutritionist concluding, after reviewing Gasparetto’s curriculum vitae and information on the churrasqueiro position at Fogo de Chao, as well as interviewing Gasparetto, that he had the cultural background and restaurant skills necessary to fill that position, J.A. 539. None of that additional evidence is referenced in the Appeals Office opinion. See J.A. 664–666, 673–674. While the substantial-evidence standard of review is generous, it is not boundless; it does not allow an agency to close its eyes to on-point and uncontradicted record evidence without any explanation at all. See Soltane, 381 F.3d at 151 (“[A]n agency is generally under at least a minimal obligation to provide adequate reasons explaining why it has rejected 37 uncontradicted evidence.”). That is especially true here where at no time prior to reopening the administrative case had the Service questioned the sufficiency of Fogo de Chao’s proof on this matter or requested further evidence. Second, and relatedly, Fogo de Chao challenges the Appeals Office’s conclusion that Gasparetto appears to have held the same position throughout his time working for Fogo de Chao, and, as a result, either was able to work as a churrasqueiro chef without any training or had not worked a full year in a specialized knowledge capacity before his proposed transfer to the United States. Fogo de Chao argues that the Appeals Office improperly focused on Gasparetto’s job title (“waiter churrasqueiro” or “garcon churras,” J.A. 339–350, 540), rather than on his job duties. That argument would have more traction if Fogo de Chao had identified evidence in the record describing when and how Gasparetto’s duties changed as a result of the training, even if his position remained the same. The record nonetheless does indicate that, while the company hires people whose preexisting skills and knowledge allow them to perform the churrasqueiro chef duties, the training remains necessary to some extent to instruct those chefs in how to apply their knowledge in Fogo de Chao’s business in international markets. There thus is no apparent inconsistency in Gasparetto’s duties or title remaining the same while he completed his training. In any event, regardless of whether the inconsistency in Gasparetto’s duties and title that the Appeals Office perceived is borne out by the record, that gap appears to be of no moment because neither the Appeals Office decision nor the Department on appeal identifies that concern as an independently sufficient basis for the denial of Gasparetto’s visa. 38
Fogo de Chao raises a number of objections to the second evidentiary pillar underlying the Appeals Office decision: that Fogo de Chao had not established that the churrasqueiro position itself requires “specialized knowledge.” We need not wade into those disputes, however, because the Appeals Office’s conclusion that culturally acquired knowledge is categorically irrelevant to showing “specialized knowledge” pervaded its analysis of the churrasqueiro position as well. The Appeals Office opened this portion of its analysis by reiterating that “the beneficiary’s knowledge of the culture and culinary traditions of his native region of Brazil is general knowledge,” and concluded that it is such cultural and traditional knowledge “that equips him to be a churrasqueiro chef in the petitioner’s industry.” J.A. 666. Similarly, Fogo de Chao submitted an expert report explaining the business’s critical reliance on the presence of a “core group” of Brazilian churrasqueiros at each of its restaurants, J.A. 672, and indicating that the Brazilian churrasqueiros have some duties that are distinct from Fogo de Chao’s non-Brazilian employees, see J.A. 307, 309. The Appeals Office dismissed that evidence by reiterating its conclusion that “an alien cannot qualify for this classification based primarily upon his or her life experience or culture.” J.A. 672. Another expert’s report was dismissed because “the L-1B specialized knowledge visa has no cultural component.” Id. While Fogo de Chao has not persuasively responded to every evidentiary defect identified by the Appeals Office, it did submit evidence, including an expert’s report, addressing the distinction between its Brazilian and non-Brazilian churrasqueiro employees. The Appeals Office disregarded this evidence as part and parcel of its as-yet unjustified 39 categorical exclusion of cultural knowledge. Accordingly, the Appeals Office’s factual conclusions must be remanded for further explanation as well.