“Policy advice from Ali G”: Half of all O-1B visas for artists at the moment are going to influencers and fashions
U.S. O-1B visas reserved for these with “extraordinary ability” are more and more going to influencers and OnlyFans fashions, reviews say. These visas used to primarily goal actors, musicians, and different artists earlier than the time of TikTok and Instagram.
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Now, legal professionals are saying that over half of their O-1B instances symbolize influencers, and everybody’s whipping out that Ali G clip.
The land of the new influencers
In November 2025, immigration legal professionals started to report a transparent shift within the demographics of O-1B candidates. Instead of bringing over the following Sinéad O’Connor, their purchasers have been largely these with large platforms on YouTube, TikTok, and OnlyFans.
The Florida Phoenix highlighted one such lawyer who wasn’t so positive concerning the first OnlyFans mannequin who contacted him about this visa. Then he noticed how a lot cash she made.
“She said, ‘Let me show you the backend of my platform,’” mentioned Jacob Sapochnick. “I looked, and she was making $250,000 a month.”
“I was like, oh my god. Okay. I can use that.”
Today, immigration legal professionals rely influencers as as much as 65 p.c of their O-1B purchasers. Not all are on OnlyFans—that enterprise mannequin could also be on its method out, due to non-consensual porn producing machines like Grok. However, when you’ve got the metrics to show an viewers of hundreds of thousands, it’s lots simpler to get into the U.S.
O-1B visas are outlined as for these with “an extraordinary ability in the arts or extraordinary achievement in motion picture or television industry.” There isn’t any visa classification for YouTubers, nonetheless, so that they’re getting shoveled in with the actors.
In truth, they might be crowding out different artists as a result of YouTube comes with useful numbers.
“Officers are being handed petitions where value is framed almost entirely through algorithm-based metrics,” legal professional Shervin Abachi instructed the Financial Times. “Once that becomes normalised, the system moves towards treating artistic merit like a scoreboard.”
The backlash towards H-1B visas for international specialty staff additional opened the door for incoming influencers. In September, President Donald Trump imposed a $100,000 charge for every new H-1B applicant, creating a large barrier to expertise, maybe extra helpful than the flexibility to do TikTok dances.
“Donald Trump copying Ali G”
Following the Financial Times report, a number of X customers recalled the Sacha Baron Cohen movie Ali G Indahouse, through which the title character proposes the same coverage to English ministers governing his hometown.
When the ministers begin discussing the problem of asylum seekers, Ali G makes an uncommon suggestion after asking what the U.Okay. is missing. Hospitals? No. Libraries? “Behave!”
“We ain’t got enough fit women,” he says. “And we’s got too many mingers. No offense, Karen. So we let in all the fit refugees and turn away the rank ones. Then we solve both problems.”
Now, it could appear that anti-immigrant sentiments are bringing Ali G’s imaginative and prescient to life.
“Incredible that the US has taken policy advice from Ali G,” wrote @LaveenLadharam.
“Trump is literally doing the Ali G ‘Let The Fit Ones In’ policy,” mentioned @DrewPavlou.
“Donald Trump copying Ali G,” joked @ErikLUD97. “What a time to be alive.”
“The Trump Administration is literally stealing its foreign policy from an Ali G sketch,” @ErikExplains agreed. “This might be the least stupid and destructive thing they’re doing, so I guess there is that.”
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Categories Politics
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