StarCraft II Gamer Receives US Pro-Athlete Visa

dotarray writes "The world's first professional StarCraft II gamer has been granted a five-year pro athlete visa for the United States, making Kim 'viOLet' Dong Hwan the first of his kind. viOLet was one of the first gamers to apply for the P-1A visa when they were introduced in July. The new paperwork doesn't mean that he can live permanently in the U.S., but it does mean he'll be treated like other (more traditional) athletes, able to easily enter the country temporarily to participate in tournaments."

Re:Doritoes and Wheaties

[stoolpigeon]

something like this? [twitpic.com]

P1 = Jet Li, Gary Kasparov, David Beckham Visa

[retroworks]

Because many competitive tournament visitors are atheletes, the State Department website designer chose to follow the vernacular to call it an "athletic visa". The US immigration code from the Immigration and Nationization Act of 1965 refers to "alien athletes, artists, and entertainers, and their spouses and children." The Starcraft gamer was issued a "P1" visa according to TFA which applies to "individual or team athletes, or members of an entertainment group (P-1B) that are internationally recognized. A maximum of 25,000 P visas are issued annually."[wikipedia] The whole article plays on a reader-friendly title for a government a web page. .

In other words, P1 is the same for Gary Kasparov or Jet Li. It's designed to keep USA employers from issuing "track and field" competitions to pick grapes, without impeding Hollywood or Olympic events.

Re:Are other 'sports' treated similarly?

[aiadot]

According to my local Japanese US embassy, there is no mention about what type of gaming/sport is allowed. They just say that it must have a certain degree of international recognition and the event must also be distinguished. Furthermore the whole reason this new visa was created was because Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends, the biggest MOBA PC game, lobbied for it, so I think it's safe to say that getting a visa for electronic gaming is easier than getting one for traditional table gaming tournaments.