Potential visa change could make it harder for esports pros to become US residents Overwatch LeagueThe United States Senate is currently considering a new bill that could potentially increase the waiting time for esports athletes to get a green card \u2013 to compete and live in the U.S. \u2013 by up to seven years. According to esports immigration lawyer Genie Doi, esports players looking to work in the U.S. can apply for an EB-1A visa, or Extraordinary Ability Green Card, which gives permanent residency to foreign nationals who demonstrate \u201cextraordinary ability\u201d in their field. Doi explained on Twitter that the green card grants esports athletes the freedom to live in the United States long term, obtain in-state tuition at universities, or defer military service in their home country. What would the changes mean? Currently, EB-1 green cards are take at least 18-24 months and up to 3+ years for residents of most countries except India and China, according to Doi. \u201cThe current system of employment-based immigration has an annual cap on the total number of green cards, as well as a 7% per country cap,\u201d Doi explained. \u201cIn other words, India and China each get the same total number of immigrant visas every year as Korea or Germany.\u201d Essentially, the new act (S.386) would result in an immediate stoppage in employment based green cards for approximately seven years for all other countries that are not India and China, Doi said. This means, esports pros from any other country besides India or China could wait up to seven years to have their green cards approved, which is almost a lifetime and a half in the world of esports. The new bill could be very bad news for esports leagues based in North America, such as the Overwatch League, which has a high percentage of South Korean athletes. \u201cFor many players, it is not worth upending your life in your home country to move to the United States without the potential benefits of permanent residency,\u201d Doi explained. \u201cIn the LCS [League of Legends Championship Series], for example, a team must have at least three of five players on the starting roster be permanent residents of the United States or Canada.\u201d \u201cUnder the current system, a Korean player could join the LCS and potentially get a green card within a few years and open a roster space for an import,\u201d she continued. \u201cS.386 would essentially make it so that no foreign player could join the LCS and become a resident.\u201d Many esports players, and traditional athletes, cannot wait that long. Seven years is a lifetime in esports, during which a player\u2019s career or the game itself can come and go. 7\/12 \u2014 Genie Doi:soon:GameDaily Connect (@PureGenieUS) August 12, 2019 Will the new bill become a law? S.386 was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 365-65, but Doi admits that it would take a \u201cperfect storm\u201d for the bill to make it through the Senate and become a law. Still, the ease with which the act passed through the House has Doi and other immigration lawyers working in esports very worried \u201cabout the potentially devastating impact the bill would have on esports immigration.\u201d Even though there\u2019s a slim chance of the bill making it through, it would be a huge blow to North American esports in general, were it to pass. Unfortunately, the impact on the multi-million dollar esports industry in the United States probably wasn\u2019t even considered by lawmakers who voted for the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Potential visa change could make it harder for esports pros to become US residents Overwatch LeagueThe United States Senate is currently considering a new bill that could potentially increase the waiting time for esports athletes to get a green card \u2013 to compete and live in the U.S. \u2013 by up to seven years. According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}