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Influencers and OnlyFans models are dominating U.S. O-1 visa requests
- tac19 10mo ago[flagged]
- Havoc 10mo agoOK I've got to know...which of these does OF fall under >extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business or athletics
- tom_ 10mo agoThat's for only one of the subtypes of visa. The official site (https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/o-1-visa-individuals-with-extraordinary-ability-or-achievement https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary...) mentions a few more options, which would probably turn out to cover onlyfans if you get the right sort of professional advice: > The O-1 nonimmigrant visa is for the individual who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- forkerenok 10mo agoI can easily see how 3 of the 4 categories mentioned here could fit.
- cvhc 10mo agoThat's O-1A. O-1B: Individuals with an extraordinary ability in the arts or extraordinary achievement in motion picture or television industry.
- tommy_axle 10mo agoMy guess is business (if they are doing well on the platform)
- yojat661 10mo agoWebcam athletics
- Avicebron 10mo agoHas to be athletics right?
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- bad_haircut72 10mo agoIf you ever get a chance with one of these women you'll learn its all of them
- magicalhippo 10mo agoI've seen some bedroom activities that I would definitely categorize as requiring extraordinary athletic abilities...
- areoform 10mo agoSuch articles are interesting because they're tacit disapproval, but I would argue that this use of the O-1 is the most American way to use it. There's a reason why Hollywood became the Earth's center of cultural gravity post-WW2, https://goldenglobes.com/articles/exiles-and-emigres-hollywood-1933-1950/ https://goldenglobes.com/articles/exiles-and-emigres-hollywo... You may argue that these people aren't of such import, but I would beg to differ. This is the future of culture. These people shape the culture that the young people around you consume. They create the memes of six-seven-ification.
- darth_avocado 10mo agoI have no judgement on these models. Everyone can make money through legal means as they deem fit. But at the same time, the immigration system historically penalized anyone who engages in prostitution and actively denied entry to people found to be engaged in it. There is an explicit question about this in all immigration forms. Which is why it’s surprising that O-1 visas are being awarded to OnlyFans models. Maybe OF isn’t prostitution according to how it’s being interpreted, but it’s very surprising.
- mrguyorama 10mo agoWhy should prostitutes not be allowed to immigrate to the US?
- darth_avocado 10mo agoThat is beyond my pay grade. I’m just stating how the immigration system has worked historically.
- rurban 10mo agoBecause their abilities are not in the extraordinary artistic abilities category. It's not Hollywood, it's Florida.
- palata 10mo agoIf OnlyFans is not prostitution (and in my understanding it is not), then I don't see why it is surprising?
- superfrank 10mo agoIt's funny, early on it says > The O-1 category includes the O-1A, which is designated for individuals with extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business or athletics and the O-1B, reserved for those with “extraordinary ability or achievement”. Then later it says > The O-1B visa, once reserved for Hollywood titans and superstar musicians, has evolved over the years. I understand those two aren't necessarily contradictory, but the wording of the first sentence paints a very different mental picture than the second one (at least it did for me), especially since they throw in the O-1A and then almost exclusively talk about people applying for the O-1B after that. Personally, I don't want the US choosing to give visas to influencers over scientists, but if this visa was already being heavily used to bring in actors, musicians, and athletes I don't see what the hubbub is about. I don't use TikTok or OnlyFans and I don't find e-sports entertaining, but I have a hard time arguing that a screen actor, Victoria's Secret model, or soccer player should be worthy of a visa and a social media star, OnlyFans model, or a professional Counter Strike player shouldn't is not. It's all just entertainment.
- tonyhart7 10mo agobasically, US Gov want to tax these ultra rich OnlyFans "model" that's why they accept so much, the circulation of money would bring an enormous currency more than "traditional" job ever could
- petterroea 10mo agoI think it's fair to say with the newly evolving markets, governments are fighting to house them and tax them
- lanyard-textile 10mo agoEntertainment is an industry :) It would be unwise to filter out the fun people. We'd all become a bunch of unfun nerds.
- readthenotes1 10mo agoKinda funny this comment is downvoted!
- stefap2 10mo agoActually, it falls under OF-1 visa category.
- robinsoncrusue 10mo ago[flagged]
- AlexandrB 10mo agoHow is this relevant?
- CaveDiver1999 10mo agoPresumably it's a Great Replacement dog whistle and the implication is that OnlyFans is a Jewish conspiracy to make white men impotent and to replace them with a different/preffered demographic. Total antisemitic garbage (and not in the sense that "any criticism of AIPAC is antisemitism," but actual and old school antisemitism). It's conceivable that that isn't what they mean but I doubt it. Let's just flag that comment and move on, it's flamebait of the worst order.
- LudwigNagasena 10mo agoIf you are a professional in a sphere like engineering, then getting eg 10k views on your videos is very remarkable and acts as a indirect proof of acclaim. But when it is the whole metric, then it just overvalues public professions where in itself 10k views is nothing remarkable. That's the core issue as far as I understand. (But even for professionals, it's a very gameable metric. There is a whole industry that helps getting published material and appearances for O-1 applications.)
- riazrizvi 10mo agoProof of interest, not acclaim. And online interest is heavily skewed to the narrow activities of entertainment and education - professional community communication happens but in far smaller numbers vs the other two.
- TZubiri 10mo ago"Whoever knowingly transports any individual in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or Possession of the United States, with intent that such individual engage in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both"
- potato3732842 10mo agoYou see comrade, the government represents all of us, so when the government deems something beneficial and worth doing we all benefit /s Me dumping oil on the ground -> bad. megacorp paying some engineers to make up a number for just how much oil is ok to dump on the ground and paying for government permission -> good Diddy flying hoes around -> bad OF models paying the .gov to fly around -> good (I'm joking here, but not nearly as much as I wish I was)
- TZubiri 10mo ago>OF models paying the .gov to fly around -> good Yes, with Republican govs, they can pay the government directly for a Golden Visa. But with Democrat governments it's a bit more fair, they have to pay an immigration lawyer at 300$/hr with John money to get in instead. /s At least it's better than them going in with a B1 visa and doing whatever. Sorry for the politics dang.
- cwillu 10mo agoFilming porn isn't prostitution nor a sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense. Hope this helps.
- gowld 10mo agoThe area seems greyer when, as happens in some operations, one person A is getting paid to have sex, and the other person B having the sex is paying person A, even if B is filming the sex and selling the video.
- password54321 10mo agoRemnants of a late stage empire. The US peaked out over 20 years ago.
- fHr 10mo agotrue
- phkahler 10mo agoWhy do they need a visa for remote work?
- throwttt 10mo agoThey wanna taste american life. Reality is gonna hit hard sooner or later
- mcintyre1994 10mo agoBecause they want to stay longer than tourist visas allow. And because most places (US definitely included) don't let you work remotely on a tourist visa either, with a few exceptions that wouldn't cover them sufficiently.
- superkuh 10mo agoCelebrities are getting visas instead of celebrities? Ok. I don't see the issue.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- drnick1 10mo ago> The O-1 category includes the O-1A, which is designated for individuals with extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business or athletics and the O-1B, reserved for those with “extraordinary ability or achievement”. > My whole thing is being the funny Jewish girl with big boobs.
- rtkwe 10mo agoThe O-1B category is broad because it's mostly entertainment based so there's more squishy room two of the requirements match a Top OF model though. > Evidence of a record of major commercial or critically acclaimed successes in the performing arts, as shown by box office receipts or record, cassette, compact disk, or video sales > Evidence of having commanded a high salary or other significantly high remuneration for services in relation to others A high earning OF model ticks both of those boxes pretty easily. We don't want to put dollar amounts on it to only attract movie stars because other professions don't pay as well would be blocked out and an explicit filter on (heh) explicit O1 visas would be a content based restriction that would (or at least imo should) be a 1A infringement. [0] https://www.pathlawgroup.com/o1b-visa-requirements/ https://www.pathlawgroup.com/o1b-visa-requirements/ [0] IMO a 1A restriction to who can come to the country is defacto a restriction on speech in the country.
- gowld 10mo ago> My whole thing is being the funny Jewish girl with big boobs. I thought that was Rachel Bloom. Is she passing the torch to the next generation? Anyway, it's not that different from having the extraordinary ability of having hand-eye-coordination on a 7-foot frame.
- strongpigeon 10mo agoI mostly don’t care about influencers and OnlyFan, but that… Seems fine to me? If you managed to amass 1M followers you clearly have strong abilities as an entertainer. The fact that the medium is different than what used to be the norm shouldn’t have an impact.
- ericmcer 10mo agoAs a strategy for strengthening our national economy it is great, as a larger cultural/societal marker it is bleak.
- phantom784 10mo agoHow is "extraordinary ability" defined? At what point does an influencer or OF model (or a traditional actor for that matter) have enough "extortionary ability" to get the visa?
- krautburglar 10mo agoThe hole-one visa... how fitting.
- tdb7893 10mo agoMost of the scientists and engineers I know are on different visas. The US has gained a ton from being largely the cultural center of the world so it's good that there's a visa to take in cultural figures (even if I don't personally connect with influencer culture). As social media is new and fairly spread out, especially compared to traditional recipients like models and actors, it seems really unsurprising they are a ton of these now. I would say the problem is less we are taking in influencers and more we aren't accepting other people.
- linhns 10mo agoHardly a surprise considering how much more people have entered OF in the last few years.
- voxleone 10mo agoBy 1994, I was in triumphant optimism. I was young-ish, my country was in for its most beautiful decade ever, and the internet seemed to herald a time of final Liberation, with the Earth becoming home to a single, global scientist-philosopher society. And so, suddenly, we find ourselves mired between traditionalist discomfort and pragmatic acceptance, an unglamorous terminus for earlier dreams of Human synthesis.
- oompydoompy74 10mo agoGood lord at some of these comments. Sex work is work. Stop imposing your personal morals on others. You sound like a bunch of incels.
- tartoran 10mo agoI agree that sex work is work but it's no extraordinary ability.
- oompydoompy74 10mo agoYou obviously haven’t seen what I’ve seen.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- ZpJuUuNaQ5 10mo agoWhatever the case may be, this has nothing to do with morals, but rather with classification of it as an "extraordinary" ability. Talking about that, instead of seething and name-calling, you could show us your extraordinary ability to go back to Reddit.
- oompydoompy74 10mo agoI don’t have a Reddit fam, but I’m sorry if you’ve never seen a porn featuring extraordinary abilities.
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- codyklimdev 10mo agoI wonder how much "OnlyFans models applying for O-1 visas" is just sex trafficking with a thin veneer
- artursapek 10mo ago[flagged]
- majani 10mo agoO1 would probably want to see a huge number of followers. An OG model with a large following is someone with a huge amount of agency. Probably the highest agency sex worker of them all. Impossible to traffic
- vachina 10mo agoI wonder how much of the follower count is addressable. You can call to action for political followers but as a porn actor your values ends where your flesh stops being shown.
- blackswan101 10mo agoAmerica becoming the physical and virtual brothel of the world.
- tasadduq 10mo ago[dead]
- thisisauserid 10mo agoImmigrants are taking American handjobs!
- vivzkestrel 10mo agodude i chuckled really hard on that one, thanks for that
- OptionOfT 10mo agoInterestingly, the O-1 can also be used for Software Engineers. Given the amount of unemployed Software Engineers, it makes sense to reduce H1-Bs in that category. Companies can still hire exceptional people from overseas using this O-1 visa.
- qaq 10mo agojust make it $ contingent OF models make ordinary income if someone is pulling in several million USD a year they are going to be paying a ton of taxes here. What is the downside?
- psychoslave 10mo agoOk, but who else still want to go to USA lately? I hope the best for every people out there, including every usa citizen, but money alone won't attract every human profile under the sun, and unleashed imperialism which don't even pretend to export democracy anymore is doing nothing good for the the image of the country I'm afraid. What a world really! Take care everything, might safety and peace remain on you and your relatives.
- TheAlchemist 10mo agoI struggle to understand who pays for OF content and who follows them ? From what I've read 99% of OF is porn in some form or another. So there are millions of people who create accounts and pay for it - linking their personnal info to this thing ? As for the visa, it's not surprising and obviously idiotic for the society, but from the 'merit' standpoints it feels about right - if somebody has 10M followers, it's not that different from a radio or tv star.
- lazarus01 10mo agoIt is for this reason I am grateful to be a gen xr. I was at the end of my 20s when social media blew up, so it wasn’t a meaningful part of my personal development. I cannot bring myself to look at IG and the hot mess it serves up daily. A hyper focused lens on the potential of human desperation and stupidity. I don’t hate on the younger generation, I feel bad they grew up with this shit and try to be a positive influence. I see people of legit talent from doctors, to chemists and musicians dedicate themselves to posting content. What people don’t understand is survivor bias. For every success story you read about, how many people are going in reverse and not experiencing social mobility (and get depressed from it).
- jitbit 10mo agoThe title is misleading. It says “dominating” however no sources or percentages are provided. And later in the article it only says “increasingly applying”, with just two examples. I do have a friend (very popular drummer-YouTuber who makes covers, has millions of subs) who did get an O visa because he actually is a, kinda, celebrity, so I guess this is indeed happening occasionally. But nothing is being “dominated” here.
- bigwheels 10mo agoTo be clear: TFA is a thinly veiled legal services advertisement ("submarine" in HN parlance), so "dominated" is being used as a hype-generation / reality distortion term. That said, the reality of today is so-called influencers and OF sex workers are now becoming a relevant fraction of applicants compared to the past where they represented 0%. Is it possible fixating on the word "dominating" a bit overly pedantic? There is already a lot going on here without pedantry.
- saalweachter 10mo agoI would also note that, even if the title is accurate, and (say) 90% of applications are from social media influencers, it doesn't even make a claim about how many are granted. It could be that countless influencers are applying... and being rejected.
- testfrequency 10mo agoSays a lot about who actually wants to and is willing to relocate there…
- drstewart 10mo agoSo what does it say about the fact that Europe's immigration is dominated by skill-less and jobless migrants and refugees?
- testfrequency 10mo agoWe are all pretty happy! Also, I’m sorry you think cam girls and people who #ad carbonated water are considered skilled in the context of work and contributing to society meaningfully..
- ck2 10mo agofun-fact: Melania got an "Einstein Visa" shortly after she started dating the president https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43256318 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43256318 and the owner of the modeling agency she came from "committed suicide" in prison
- bubblethink 10mo agoPeople are getting hung up on definitions of extraordinary. The thing you need to understand is that US immigration is a political blackhole. The main pathways to immigrate to the US are family, misery (asylum, refugee, tps), or luck (diversity). Employment or economic immigration is frowned upon and visas like H-1B are limited and exploitative and still ultimately politically unpopular as the masses don't want to compete. So, that leaves O-1 as an escape hatch for a basic economic immigration visa that won't rile up the masses. Afterall, a chud does not reasonably believe that an influencer or a pornstar is stealing his job. So it goes.
- kwar13 10mo ago> “I don’t think [people] realize how much work actually goes into it,” she said. “You might not agree with the way the money is being made, or what people are watching, but people are still watching and paying for it.”
- tamimio 10mo agoGolden age!! Try now to convince a young person to become a doctor or an engineer, when an OF individual can make in a day what they will make in 40y, assuming they found a job anyway. Idiocracy was a glimpse into the future, not a movie.
- borroka 10mo agoCouldn't the same be said of all professions in which some people earn a lot, such as acting, sports, singing, entertainment in general, and which are considered less “serious” than the professions of medical doctor and engineer? One might say that, in theory, the well-earning actor or actress has to show some craft at least, but there are plenty of actors whose popularity comes only from their looks--my dog would act better than them. A lot of the youngsters who'd decide to make money undressing themselves on OF will soon realize they might have the will, but they lack the market power.
- wiosnaintel 10mo agoThat's because you compare a median doctor/engineer with the best OF individuals. Wouldn't you want to compare them with Sergey Brin/Thomas Frist in this case.
- firefax 10mo agoIs an O-1 the "model visa"? Because OF models are models... so I wonder if model management companies are upset about folks selling content directly to consumers without abusive middle management and drumming up outrage to protect their shitty business model. Say what you want about sites like OF, but at least the performers get a huge chunk of the earnings.
- ilhanomar 10mo ago[flagged]
- wotsdat 10mo ago[dead]
- eli_gottlieb 10mo agoOh lovely, we're becoming a Grifters' Republic of Social Media.
- twobitshifter 10mo agoHow do you know that the followers are not bots? It seems that on platforms with a clear bot problem like X, it would be relatively easy to hit that 1M target if you are willing to pay a bot farm.
- natas 10mo agoOne of my past manager was on a O-1 (in a tech company); he was from india. So, it goes like this, you register to be a presenter in a conference, copy some material from another tech talk and (re-)present it there as a novelty (rince and repeat). Pretty Simple. Step #2, create your facebook, youtube channel (etc.) and buy subscribers (from mediamister.com, getafollower.com, views4you.com, socialwick.com, buzzoid.com, etc) which is perfectly legal; he must have spent 10% of his salary to buy millions of subscribers; and that's how he's been working in tech for the past 10+ years.
- touristtam 10mo agoThis is just a sad read. And probably worth an in-depth article.
- Schiendelman 10mo agoDo you have evidence this was true? This sounds like a good story but I thought getting these visas was mostly about revenue receipts, and if he bought a lot of subscribers, they must've been subscribing to something that paid him.
- joenot443 10mo agoOutside of naming and shaming the guy, what kind of evidence are you asking for? To my knowledge an O-1 visa isn't about revenue receipts.
- Schiendelman 10mo agoYou're right! I looked it up. It's not about followers either though: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-2-part-m-chapter-4#S-C https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-2-part-m-chapter-... I'm not asking for evidence. I'm asking if he has evidence.
- casey2 10mo agoGood, EU/AU are playing dirty when it comes to the fight between traditional social media. I'm glad the best talent continues to come to America.
- rurban 10mo agoAnd before that it was DJ's and "Dancers", btw.
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