HOW TO GET A VISA TO FIGHT FOR COMBAT SPORTS PROMOTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
How To Get A Visa To Fight For Major Promotions
Sherrod Sports Visas is a leading resource for foreign fighters to obtain work authorization to fight in boxing and mixed martial arts promotions in the United States. The United States Promotions typically requires foreign fighters to have P-1, O-1, or EAD work authorization in order to compete in the United States. In recent years, the promotions only obtain P-1 visas for fighters already signed and who have a fight coming up. This is because P-1 visas have become much harder to obtain approvals for and longer validity times. Please refer to the two links below.
● UFC fighters from Brazil with P-1 visas denied entry to the United States
● Current negative trends in visa adjudication in combat sports
Promotionso Prefer Prefers Fighters with Visa Stamped in Passport w/ National Interest Exemption (if necessary)
Our law firm maintains a great relationship with several combat sports promotions, and we know that the company prefers to sign talent that has both a visa and ability to enter the United States. Having an approved visa is not enough, the athlete must also have their passport stamped and a national interest waiver in a COVID-19 country. Or, the athlete can already be in the United States and then change status to having an appropriate work visa to compete in the United States. Over the past 6 months, Sherrod Sports Visas has enjoyed success obtaining P-1 and O-1 visas for the following athletes now competing major promotions.
● Ilia Toporia – 3 year P-1 visa (immediately signed after P-1 approval and interest waiver)
● Alan Baudot – 3 year P-1 visa (immediately signed after P-1 approval)
● Herbert Burns – 3 year O-1 visa
There are two ways for a fighter to obtain the proper visa to come to the United States
1. They can obtain a P-1 or O-1 visa while outside of the United States and travel into the United States on that visa. The basic steps are as follows:
a. USCIS P-1 or O-1 approval
b. Obtain a visa interview to get the visa stamped on the passport
c. Get past United States Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) at the airport
2. Come to the United States on a different visa and change status to P-1 or O-1 while in the United States. The basic steps are as follows:
a. Obtain a visa such as a B-1/B-2 visitor visa or a P-1S support staff visa (NOT ESTA!)
b. Get past United States Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) at the airport
c. Change status to P-1 or O-1 visa while still in the United States
There are a number of reasons why each of these steps has its own level of difficulty and issues. We wrote extensively about these issues in a previous article but will highlight issues again.
Here are the big problems for MMA Immigration
a. Obtaining a P-1 or O-1 visa approval is not easy, but our law firm has tremendous success even in this climate.
b. Most consulates are either only open for emergency appointments or only have appointments available in the distant future.
c. Several countries are under COVID-19 travel restrictions and only allow travel if the athlete has a national interest waiver.
Here are the solutions to the big problems for MMA immigration
1. Obtaining a P-1 or O-1 visa approval. This is difficult, but we give honest assessments to clients who complete our intake sheet as thoroughly as possible.
www.sherrodsportsvisas.com/candidate – English
www.sherrodsportsvisas.com/candidate-spanish - Spanish
www.sherrodsportsvisas.com/candidate-portuguese – Portuguese
www.sherrodsportsvisas.com/candidatae-russian – Russian
2. Obtaining a visa interview to get visa stamped
There are only two ways to get an interview. There are certain organizations that include the UFC and Top Rank Boxing that have special authorization from the Department of Homeland Security to obtain 212(f) waivers for athletes, corners, and their training partners. These organizations can email the DHS, which can approve these individuals for national interest waivers and expedited interviews. If you already have a visa and are serving as a corner for an affiliated athlete, you can potentially change status to a P-1 or O-1 visa while in the United States. You cannot change if you come on an ESTA visa waiver.
Here is an example of the 212(f) Visa Waiver Program for Top Rank
The other pathway is to obtain an individual appointment expedite and national interest waiver as a business traveler. This method is a toss-up and the effectiveness depends on what country you are in. Individual requests for expedites are at the discretion of the consular officer in charge and can only be attempted one time per DS-160 appointment request. Oftentimes, it is necessary to try several different jurisdictions to obtain the expedite interview.
We have had success in the following jurisdictions
1. Guido Vianello – Boxer – Rome, Consulate
2. Ilia Topuria – MMA Fighter – Madrid, Spain
3. Tony Luis – Boxer – Ottawa, Canada – Provisional P-1 approval at consular office
Below please find a summary of current trends with the processing of O-1 and P-1 visas for athletes coming to the United States. These issues also apply to essential support staff such as coaches and training partners.
3. National interest waiver for COVID-19 travel countries
This step is very similar to obtaining an expedited interview. If you are in a country that is subject to COVID-19 travel restrictions, you will be stopped at the airport unless you have a national interest waiver. A list of countries that are subject to these restrictions are available here:
There are three options to get past this issue
1. Pursue a national interest waiver as a business traveler. Requests for individual waivers can be obtained here – https://www.sherrodsportsvisas.com/national-interest- exemptions-for-sports-leagues-and-organizations
2. 212(f) waiver through an approved organization such as the UFC or Top Rank Inc. by serving as a corner person of someone signed to their organization
3. Travel to a non-restricted country and stay for 14 days before entering the United States such as Canada or Mexico.
Below are the options that are most effective for fighters to obtain a P-1 visa and obtain entry into the United States
Option 1 – File the application with regular processing, wait for things to calm down and appointments to open up.
If you file an application for regular processing, you will have to wait 2–5 months for a response on the petition. The thought is that appointments will be available more readily in the future and you can always use the receipt number to purchase an appointment date, which can be used to request expedited appointments. In our experience, many consulates prefer that your visa application be approved before expediting an appointment. The problem is they will not give instructions on if they are accepting expedited appointments unless you already purchase an MVR appointment request through form DS-160 online.
Remember, you always have the option of adding premium processing at any time if you need to speed up the process.
This process is the slowest but also has the least amount of risk.
Option 2 – Change Status in the United States
Changing status in the United States means you enter into the United States in one visa category and then change status P-1 or the O-1 visa. This is pretty easy for Canadians because Canadians, most of the time, receive a B-1 visitor visa stamp every time they fly NOT DRIVE into the United States from Canada. Other countries may find it more difficult to obtain a B-1/B-2 visa before coming to the United States. Once in the United States, the athlete is now eligible to change status into a new visa category without having to do an interview.
There are two ways to go about changing status:
a. The safest approach is to fly into the United States and then file a premium processing petition. The drawback is that it can be expensive or not practical to stay in the United States while the petition is pending. Even with premium processing, applicants can expect for petitions to take at least 25 days because USCIS is issuing requests for evidence in almost every premium processing case.
b. The more risky approach is to submit an application for P-1 or O-1 while still in another country and then attempt to come into the United States while the application is still pending. Sometimes the consular officer will let you travel into the United States and we can request for USCIS to request that the adjudicator change the petition to Change of Status. However, it is also common for Customs and Border Protection to deny entry into the United States until the new visa application is processed and the visa stamped. In rare cases, the CBP office will issue a provisional visa approval at preclearance airports. We have an example of this for a Top Rank boxer earlier this year – https://www.sherrodsportsvisas.com/consular-congressional-success-stories/p- 1a-consular-practice-success-cbp-provisional-p-1-approval-canada-top-rank-boxing. If you already have a B-1 visa, you can also try to drive across the border and request a change of status in the petition.
This process is the fastest way to obtain P-1 or O-1 status but can be expensive to stay in the United States while the petition is pending or risky if attempting to travel into the United States while the petition is pending. It is important to be honest and upfront with consular officers about plans to change status to avoid any issues down the line for not being honest.
Option 3 – Apply for P-1 or O-1 visa with premium processing
Option three is to apply for the P-1 or O-1 visa with premium processing while out of the country and wait for the approval. Once the approval is done the applicant can go through the process of applying for a visa interview using the DS-160 online platform. –
https://www.sherrodsportsvisas.com/p1-o1-visa-approval.
Once the applicant pays the MVR fee, there probably will not be any appointments available at the consulate or they will be far into the future. From here, we can use our consular practice to submit requests to expedite appointments utilizing our congressional contacts. – https://www.sherrodsportsvisas.com/congressional-inquiries-for-immigration-cases.
This method is unpredictable on timing because expediting the interview is not an exact science.