Nude photos of Melania Trump, published in the New York Post this week, have caused some to question inconsistencies in the timeline of when and how the wife of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump came to live and work in the United States.
According to a story from Politico, the photographs were taken during a 1995 photo shoot in New York City. However, Mrs. Trump has told more than one media outlet that she first came to the United States in 1996 and had to return to her home country of Slovenia a few times to have her visa “stamped” in the years afterward until she applied for and received a "green card" (or permanent resident card) in 2001.
“It never crossed my mind to stay here without papers. That is just the person you are,” Mrs. Trump told Harper’s Bazaar in January. “You follow the rules. You follow the law. Every few months you need to fly back to Europe and stamp your visa. After a few visas, I applied for a green card and got it in 2001.”
However, as the story points out, if you work in the United States using an H-1B work visas, as was reported that Mrs. Trump did in the National Review, there is no requirement to return to her home country, Slovenia, to have a visa stamped every few months.
H-1B visas can be valid up to three years.
Politico wrote:
“Instead, Trump’s description of her periodic renewals in Europe are more consistent with someone traveling on a B-1 Temporary Business Visitor or B-2 Tourist Visa, which typically last only up to six months and do not permit employment."
... While Trump and her husband, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, have said she came to the United States legally, her own statements suggest she first came to the country on a short-term visa that would not have authorized her to work as a model. Trump has also said she came to New York in 1996, but the nude photo shoot places her in the United States in 1995, as does a biography published in February by Slovenian journalists."
A Trump campaign spokeswoman told Politico, “Melania followed all applicable laws and is now a proud citizen of the United States.”
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