Influencers and OnlyFans models are dominating U.S. O-1 visa requests

Summary

Content creators and influencers in the US are now increasingly applying for O-1 work visas. Astoundingly, the number of O-1 visas granted each year increased by 50% between 2014 and 2024, as noted by recent reporting in the Financial Times.These visas allow non-immigrants to work temporarily in the US. 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”.The Guardian spoke with some influencers who have had success in obtaining or are still trying to obtain the coveted O-1 visa and talked about what was involved in their process.Influencers are filling a large gap in the [world’s] retail and commercial interests ... immigration has to keep upJulia Ain decided to post some videos of herself on social media at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, when she was a student at McGill University.“I was bored during the pandemic – like everyone else – and started posting on TikTok,” she told the Guardian. “I started livestreaming, and I grew a fanbase kind of quickly.”Five years later, the 25-year-old Canadian content creator now has 1.3 million followers combined across various social media platforms. Her influencer success led her to an O-1 visa.“It became really obvious that you could make a lot of money doing this in a short period of time,” she said. “It felt like a very time-sensitive thing. Nobody knows how long this is going to last for.”Ain posts photos and videos across Instagram, TikTok, X and Snapchat, sometimes in collaboration with other creators. Of her brand, she says: “My whole thing is being the funny Jewish girl with big boobs.” The majority of Ain’s income is from Fanfix, a safe-for-work subscription based platform for influencers to monetize their content. She first applied for the O-1B Visa after launching on the platform in August 2023, and the company ended up sponsoring her appli...