Melania Trump obtained US citizenship on a visa reserved for immigrants with "extraordinary ability" and "sustained national and international acclaim", according to new reports. Nicknamed the "Einstein Visa", the EB-1 is in theory reserved for people who are highly acclaimed in their field - the government cites Pulitzer, Oscar, and Olympic winners as examples - as well as respected academic researchers and multinational executives.
It has already been documented that Melania Trump violated the terms of her tourist visa back in 1996 and should have been deported before being granted a work visa later that year. After she started dating Donald Trump, Melania began applying for her full visa in 2000, when she was still a Slovenian model working in New York. She was approved in 2001, one of just FIVE people from Slovenia to win the coveted visa that year.
It is very clear that Melania had not (at the time) to have excelled in a niche area of modeling, nor won any awards or had her work written about in significant publications. Nevertheless, testimonials can form part of an EB-1 application, and the more high-profile the reference the more weight it carries.
"If you're in the acting world, and Quentin Tarantino or Steven Spielberg writes a letter saying you're the next best thing, that can be very persuasive," said Nita Upadhye, a US immigration specialist at NNU Immigration Law. "You could [however] get a letter from President Obama, but if he can't say something significant about your achievements, it won't cut it."
Becoming a citizen in 2006 gave her the right to sponsor her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, who are now in the US and in the process of applying for citizenship.
The reports of how Melania obtained her EB-1 visa have disturbed many, especially when her husband is railing against immigrants and attempting to scrap the right of new citizens to sponsor family members (a practice known as "chain migraten")-- the process by which Melania is now attempting to exploit to get her own parents U.S. citizenship.
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