Immigration System Grants Genius Visas to OnlyFans Models While Legitimate Applicants Wait

The facts are straightforward, and they are damning. The O-1 visa program, ostensibly designed to attract the world’s brightest minds in technology, science, and innovation to American shores, is increasingly being granted to OnlyFans performers and social media influencers. This is not a joke. This is not satire. This is the actual state of American immigration policy in 2024.

The O-1 visa was created as a renewable temporary visa for individuals demonstrating “extraordinary ability” in their fields, particularly those working in emerging technologies, advanced software development, or pioneering new concepts that could benefit the American economy and society. The operative word here is “extraordinary.”

Yet according to recent reporting, a growing percentage of these visas are now being issued to foreign nationals whose primary qualification is their ability to generate clicks, views, and subscription revenue on platforms like OnlyFans and Instagram. The logic is absurdly simple: these applicants can provide concrete metrics. They have follower counts. They have revenue streams. They have engagement numbers. And apparently, that is sufficient to qualify as a “genius” under current immigration standards.

This represents a fundamental perversion of the visa’s intended purpose. The program’s complexity, which was meant to ensure thorough vetting of applicants’ credentials, has instead created vulnerabilities that can be exploited by those with sufficient cash to purchase fake credentials or game the system. Meanwhile, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials are forced to spend considerable time reviewing applications, yet the system still produces these absurd outcomes.

The real victims here are legitimate applicants with genuine extraordinary abilities. Immigration attorney Protima Daryanani stated the problem plainly: “We have scenarios where people who should never have been approved are getting approved for O-1s.” Her clients include actual artists and innovators whose contributions to their fields are substantive but perhaps less easily quantifiable than subscriber counts on adult content platforms.

The situation becomes even more problematic when considering the displacement effect. The influx of social media personalities and adult content creators is edging out applicants from countries like India, where highly skilled technology workers face stringent caps on H-1B visas and per-country limits on green cards. These are individuals with advanced degrees in computer science, engineering, and mathematics who could contribute meaningfully to American innovation and economic growth.

The question is not whether social media influencers or adult content creators should be allowed to immigrate to the United States through appropriate channels. The question is whether they meet the standard of “extraordinary ability” that justifies special visa treatment reserved for the world’s most exceptional talent.

The answer, based on any reasonable interpretation of the law’s intent, should be obvious. A system that prioritizes follower counts over patents, subscription revenue over scientific breakthroughs, and viral content over genuine innovation is a system that has lost sight of its fundamental purpose.

This is not about moral judgment regarding the content these individuals produce. This is about properly allocating limited immigration resources to serve American interests. When genius visas go to OnlyFans models while legitimate innovators wait in line, the system is not working. It requires immediate reform to restore the program’s original intent and ensure that extraordinary ability means something more than extraordinary social media engagement.

Related: The Left’s Immigration Argument Collapses Into Plea for Exploitable Servant Class