International Supermodels and Me
My Journey Through the Absurdities of Immigration Law
At a time I was attempting a new life, a complete career change in midlife, I found myself working as a paralegal for an immigration firm in New York City. My mission was both peculiar and specific: to help foreign models secure O and H-1B visas.
My idea when training to be a Paralegal was to do meaningful work, to provide help to people who really needed it, asylum seekers or poor people seeking legal aid. I did in fact, do a lot of that work: ACLU, Legal Aide, Catholic Social Services, Lutheran Social Services, but as a volunteer.
The problem was those non-profit organizations had extremely limited budgets, that’s why they wanted my free assistance in the first place. They weren’t hiring. So, when I finally got a chance for paid employment, I jumped at it. Even though it wasn’t the kind of immigration work I wanted.
The Genius Visa and Fashion Models
The O visa, often known as the "genius visa," was originally designed to attract the best and brightest in various fields like science, arts, and education. Yet, in a twist of bureaucratic irony or some lawmaker's whim, fashion models found themselves eligible for this elite category.
My role was to prepare the paperwork that would elevate even the most obscure models into "International Supermodels." A single photo in a local newspaper was enough for us to craft a narrative of multi-continent acclaim.
Template letters were sent to associates: photographers, agents, etc., who would then sign off on the model's extraordinary abilities. All this for a visa that, in other sectors, was reserved for actual geniuses.
The Naked "Fashion Model"
One case still makes me smile, A hopeful "fashion model" submitted a colossal photo of herself in the nude. What fashion she was modeling remains a mystery, but it certainly added a layer of absurdity to the already surreal process. Admittedly, looking at photographs of beautiful women all day was something of a perk.
A Paperwork Avalanche
Many of our clients were renewing their visas, sometimes for multiple years. The procedure was Kafkaesque: we would submit an extensive new filing, legal forms, recommendations, and portfolios, then include complete copies of all previous filings, often most of the same material.
Since that filing also included all previous filings and copies of copies, the size would mount up exponentially, and a visa renewal application could weigh 20 pounds. When I questioned this redundancy, I was given an eye roll and treated as if I were an ignorant newcomer.
The Absurdity of Billing
In a large New York firm that dealt with a wide variety of legal issues, one would expect a sophisticated accounting system. Yet, there was no accounting department at all. Billing records were hastily scribbled on dog-eared flaps of ancient file envelopes.
Several times I stumbled upon cases that had never been billed at all. It was our job to prepare the bills, in triplicate-pink, white, and grey, each printed separately. If the printer chewed up even one, (which it did daily) the entire process had to start over.
The Template Letter Fiasco
Template letters extolling a model's talent were often recycled from previous clients. This led to some amusing blunders. A letter that began by praising the extraordinary talents of Miss Wu might later inexplicably mention Miss Vongrun, revealing the cut-and-paste nature of our "personalized" endorsements.
My time as a paralegal in this immigration firm was a fairly brief sidetrack in my life. But it was an interesting journey through a labyrinth of absurdities, ironies, and inefficiencies. It offered a window into a system that is as fascinating as it is flawed, as complex as it is comical.
