Politico has raised doubts about Melania Trump’s Immigration Status. Melania could have come to the US with the special H-1B status for models. H-1B for fashion models, unlike other H-1B categories, does not require education. However it does require that the model be famous in internationally, and that she has a job offer. Therefore Melania’s lie about her education in Slovenia was probably not instrumental. However, the facts as to (1) whether she had a job offer, probably from a modeling agency, before coming to the US and (2) Whether at that time she was a reputed model, can be in dispute.
Added to that, Politico also notes that both Donald and Melania Trump stated that she would return home every few months to renew her visa. Since most H-1B visas are given for three years, maybe Melania Trump came on a Visitor’s visa (B visa). Under a B visa, she was not allowed to work in the US.
The H-1B visa would require Melania to work for a modeling agency. She needed to sign up with the agency before coming to the United States. Maybe she was free lancing, because my guess is that free lancing models get paid more per job. So she came on a B visa, worked here, and went back to Europe after the job was done, to come back again. The only problem is that the B visa DOES NOT allow her to work in the US. So in this scenario, she committed Immigration fraud.
After the article came out, many left wing pundits are calling for deporting Melania. Not so fast. She is married to a United States Citizen. Her “fraud” can be waived (the technical term is 601 waiver) if the US Citizen husband suffers “extreme hardship” if she leaves. This standard is “Yuge”. However judging by the number of times Donald has mentioned “sex” in the campaign, not to mention his strong defense of his hand size, I think Donald would claim “tremendous loss” if Melania is deported.
For more information on Immigration, please contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee
