Melania Trump got green card through program for people with extraordinary ability: report

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I also have intimate knowledge of the case. That's as far as I'll disclose. There are essentially two paths to a green card (permanent residence/lawful permanent resident status). One is through family (family based/FB). The other through employment (employment based/EB). That's what EB means. Within the EB queue there are priorities (since there's only an allotted number of 'green cards' per fiscal year).
EB-1 is for those who possess 'extraordinary ability' as set out by USCIS regulations. EB-2 are multinational managers/executives, outstanding researchers, etc. (EB-2s get to avoid the preliminary step of obtaining a PERM labor certification through the DOL). EB-3s are professionals (they have to first get a PERM labor certification through the DOL. The PERM is its own hell which I'm not going to get into - too long). EB-4s are unskilled workers and EB-5s are the infamous investors.

'Extraordinary ability' as defined by USCIS is fairly objective for disciplines in the hard sciences and business, but far less so for the arts. How do you define 'extraordinary ability' for a model? Simply stated, that would mean appearing in publications of international reputation and circulation, being photographed by world-famous photographers, being featured in advertisements by prestigious brands, making a lot of money per assignment (as evidenced by contracts, invoices, etc.), having well-known people in the industry write letters on your behalf, etc.

I've done EB-1 I-140 petitions (the I-140 is the Immigrant Worker Petition step prior to filing the I-485 adjustment of status to permanent resident) for designers, athletes, architects, hairstylists, photographers, makeup artists, tattoo artists, surgeons, writers, directors, actors, musicians and yes, even adult movie stars. In the case of Melania, nothing out of the ordinary was done that isn't done for other models (not all of whom are supermodels). I can assure you there was no pressure by anyone and I can also assure you that everyone involved despises Trump with a passion.