"The approval rate for individual immigrant petitions for permanent residence based on “extraordinary ability,” a category used by professional athletes, scientists, professors and industry executives, fell from 82.1% in the 2016 government fiscal year, the last full year of the Obama administration, to 69.4% for the 2018 fiscal year. It stood at 56.3% for the 2019 fiscal year, new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data show."
...
"For athletes, though, the hurdles in getting to the U.S. also include explaining their sports to immigration adjudicators to show how they meet the set criteria for determining who is extraordinary.
“I feel like we’re living in the Twilight Zone,” said Ksenia Maiorova, a Florida immigration lawyer who works with track and field athletes, of recent decisions she had seen. “ESPN is not major media, European championships in swimming are not a major international competition. They’re questioning everything; It’s just become absurd.”
...
"At least one athlete has sued the administration to further their cause. Canada-born Christina Carreira and her American partner, Anthony Ponomarenko, U.S. junior ice dance champions and world junior silver medalists in 2018, want a green card for Ms. Carreira so the couple can represent the U.S. at the Olympic Games.
Ms. Carreira was rejected, her lawsuit said, after USCIS determined that her medals didn’t constitute internationally recognized prizes because they could only be won by participants of those competitions. She dropped the lawsuit earlier this year; her family declined to comment on her next steps." (my bold)
...as opposed to the medals won by people who didn't compete? What are these officials smoking?
www.wsj.com
...
"For athletes, though, the hurdles in getting to the U.S. also include explaining their sports to immigration adjudicators to show how they meet the set criteria for determining who is extraordinary.
“I feel like we’re living in the Twilight Zone,” said Ksenia Maiorova, a Florida immigration lawyer who works with track and field athletes, of recent decisions she had seen. “ESPN is not major media, European championships in swimming are not a major international competition. They’re questioning everything; It’s just become absurd.”
...
"At least one athlete has sued the administration to further their cause. Canada-born Christina Carreira and her American partner, Anthony Ponomarenko, U.S. junior ice dance champions and world junior silver medalists in 2018, want a green card for Ms. Carreira so the couple can represent the U.S. at the Olympic Games.
Ms. Carreira was rejected, her lawsuit said, after USCIS determined that her medals didn’t constitute internationally recognized prizes because they could only be won by participants of those competitions. She dropped the lawsuit earlier this year; her family declined to comment on her next steps." (my bold)
...as opposed to the medals won by people who didn't compete? What are these officials smoking?
Athletes Seeking Green Cards Find Proving They’re Exceptional Has Gotten Tougher Under Trump
For foreign-born swimmers, jockeys, tennis players, gymnasts and ice dancers who want to live in the U.S., the toughest competition these days may be persuading the Trump administration they are extraordinary.
www.wsj.com
and both girls, Belbin and Carreira, are pretty classic caucasian girls, from well to do families... so it is hard to assume "discrimination"..
