Friday, October 25, 2019

Cuban Soccer Player Competes in the U.S. On P-1 Athlete Visa

Other the last 6 decades, the sports pages have been littered with stories of Cuban athletes defecting to the United States to participate in sports in this country.  This is an often-dangerous route, and typically involves the athlete turning his/her back on loved ones in Cuba.  Soccer player Luis Paradela has decided to take a more conventional (for non-Cubans) route to playing in the United States: applying for a P-1 visa.

Paradela is believed to be the only Cuban athlete in 60 years to join a U.S. sports team on a visa.

The unusual nature of the visa application was probably not lost on immigration officials, who likely issued a cumbersome Request for Evidence (RFE) in Paradela's case, resulting in longer than the usual 15 day timeframe that applies for petition approval under premium processing (which is how most P-1 petitions are filed).

Typically, an athlete arriving from abroad must wait two or three weeks for visa approval. In Paradela’s case, it took about three months.  

By choosing to pursue a nonimmigrant visa, Paradela remains eligible to compete as part of the Cuban national soccer team.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Cross-Fit Athlete's Visa Troubles Highlight ESTA v. B-1 Dilemma

The CrossFit Games is a fitness competition in which athletes from around the world compete for the title of “Fittest on Earth”.  Alexander Anasagasti, Spain’s top CrossFit athlete, has been issued a B-1 visa after initially being refused.

The problem arose because last year, when Anasagasti travelled to the US to train, he applied for a tourist visa that was longer than the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) form would allow him to stay. The disconnect meant his visa was rejected and the ESTA was revoked as a result. The sanction remained in place when he applied again this year.
As a Spanish citizen, Anasagasti was eligible to enter the United States through the fast-track ESTA program, which is an automated system that generally allows most eligible applicants to enter the country.  ESTA is the screening system through which foreign nationals can enter the United States under the Visa Waiver program.  Visa Waiver is available to nationals from certain generally-affluent countries, and allows entry as a tourist without applying for a tourist visa.

In contrast, the B (tourst) visa is one of the most difficult visas to procure.  One drawback of ESTA is that it only allows entry for up to 90 days at a time.  For this reason Anasagasti chose to apply for a tourist visa.  Unfortunately, his tourist visa was denied, which also led to the denial of his ESTA authorization (per the norm).  Luckily for Anasagasti, he posted about his plight and was successful when he reapplied for a tourist visa, thereby allowing him to compete in the CrossFit Games.  This episode shows that when entry using ESTA is possible and appropriate, it is often preferred to applying for a tourist visa.