Questions linger over how model Melania scored ‘Einstein visa’
WASHINGTON — In 2000, Melania Knauss, a Slovenian model dating Donald Trump, began petitioning the government for the right to permanently reside in the United States under a program reserved for people with “extraordinary ability.”
Knauss’ credentials included runway shows in Europe, a Camel cigarette billboard ad in Times Square and — in her biggest job at the time — a spot in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, which featured her on the beach in a string bikini, hugging a six-foot inflatable whale.
In March 2001, she was granted a green card in the elite EB-1 program, which was designed for renowned academic researchers, multinational business executives or those in other fields, such as Olympic athletes and Oscar-winning actors, who demonstrated “sustained national and international acclaim.”
“We called it the Einstein visa,” said Bruce Morrison, a former Democratic congressman and chairman of the House subcommittee that wrote the Immigration Act of 1990 defining EB-1.
The year that Knauss — now first lady Melania Trump — got her legal residency, only five people from Slovenia received green cards under the EB-1 program, the State Department said.
In all, of the more than one million green cards issued in 2001, just 3,376 — or a fraction of 1 percent — were issued to immigrants with “extraordinary ability,” according to government statistics.
Melania Trump’s ability to secure her green card not only set her on the path to U.S. citizenship, but put her in the position to sponsor the legal residency of her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs. The Washington Post reported in February that the couple is now close to obtaining their own citizenship.
President Donald Trump has proposed ending the sponsorship of relatives such as parents, slamming as “chain migration” the decadeslong ability of U.S. citizens to assist relatives in obtaining legal residency.
“CHAIN MIGRATION must end now! Some people come in, and they bring their whole family with them, who can be truly evil. NOT ACCEPTABLE!” Trump tweeted in November.
Michael Wildes, an attorney for Melania Trump and her family, declined to comment on whether she sponsored her parents for green cards. He said he was not surprised that so few immigrants from Slovenia obtained EB-1 green cards in 2001 because the criteria is stringent.
“Mrs. Trump was more than amply qualified and solidly eligible,” he said. But he declined to discuss the qualifications that the first lady cited in her petition for permanent residency.
“There is no reason to adjudicate her petition publicly when her privacy is so important to her,” Wildes said.