Government Approving Artist Visas for OnlyFans Models Based on How Many Followers They Have

"For foreign-born people looking for an easy entry into the United States, success no longer seems to hinge on merit, or even lady luck. Nowadays, it's more about whether you flaunt your stuff on OnlyFans - and how many slobbering followers you can amass while doing it. Some downright bizarre reporting by the Financial Times found that when it comes to coveted O-1 visas, influencers and models - particularly ones operating on the adult-oriented subscription service OnlyFans - are dominating the government's approved list."

"Between 2014 and 2024, the number of O-1 visas granted each year has increased by more than 50 percent, per the FT. Though the number of O-1s granted pales in comparison to the number of H-1Bs, the infamous visas for skilled workers, attorneys told the publication that criteria for artist visas has been updated in order to make it easier for online influencers to make the cut. High follower counts and subscription earnings, for example, are easy to copy and paste into application documents in order to signify success. "Officers are being handed petitions where value is framed almost entirely through algorithm-based metrics," immigration attorney Shervin Abachi told the FT. "Once that becomes normalised, the system moves towards treating artistic merit like a scoreboard.""

"As a result of this shift, immigration attorneys like Michael Wildes are no longer representing transgressive painters or influential musicians, but OnlyFans performers and TikTok stars. "I knew the days of representing iconic names like Boy George and Sinéad O'Connor were over," Wildes told the FT."

O-1 visa approvals have risen substantially, with awards increasingly going to influencers and OnlyFans creators. The O-1 category covers O-1A for extraordinary ability in science, education, business, or athletics and O-1B for artists. Between 2014 and 2024 O-1 issuances increased by more than 50 percent. Immigration attorneys report that artist-visa criteria have shifted to emphasize algorithm-based metrics such as follower counts and subscription earnings, which applicants can paste into petitions. Legal practices are shifting from traditional artists to online creators, raising concerns that artistic merit is being reduced to numerical metrics.

Read at Futurism