How did Melania Trump manage to land the EB-1 visa?

AS DONALD Trump pushes to end “chain migration”, numerous questions have surfaced regarding the First Lady’s green card.

PEOPLE are questioning how Melania Trump managed to bag a special visa reserved for immigrants with “extraordinary ability”.

In 2000, the First Lady — then Melania Knauss — was dating Donald Trump and applying for the EB-1 visa, also known as the “Einstein visa”, The Washington Postreported.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the visa is reserved for academics, researchers, professors, executives and people who demonstrate “extraordinary ability” that can be proved through documentation.

Ms Trump worked as a model in runway shows and magazines before her marriage, but she never reached “supermodel” status in the competitive fashion industry.

Her biggest job at the time was a spot in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated.

This photo of Donald and Melania is from 2001, the same year she got her green card to the US for ‘extraordinary ability’.

In 2001 — the year Ms Trump got her green card — barely one per cent of all green cards were issued to immigrants with “extraordinary ability”. She was also one of just five from Slovenia to get a green card through the program.

Michael Wildes, a lawyer for Mr Trump, told the Post she was “more than amply qualified and solidly eligible”.

In 2016, Ms Trump tweeted out about her immigration status following questions over the legality of her status.

She stressed that she has “at all times been in full compliance with immigration laws of this country”.

pic.twitter.com/U3VTY05mzc

— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) August 4, 2016

It comes as the President has proposed ending the sponsorship of relatives to the United States.

In recent months, he has posted a string of tweets slamming “chain migration” as “not acceptable”.

CHAIN MIGRATION cannot be allowed to be part of any legislation on Immigration!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2017

CHAIN MIGRATION must end now! Some people come in, and they bring their whole family with them, who can be truly evil. NOT ACCEPTABLE! pic.twitter.com/PQGeTTdRtX

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2017

Congress must end chain migration so that we can have a system that is SECURITY BASED! We need to make AMERICA SAFE! #USA🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/d7L1YW5iVY

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2017

Ms Trump’s parents, Amalija and Viktor Knavs, are reportedly legal permanent residents in the US, but they are not yet citizens.

Mr Wildes confirmed to the Associated Press that the couple was “lawfully admitted to the United States as permanent residents”, but declined to discuss how or when their green cards were obtained.

It’s likely that they used America’s family-reunification process to immigrate — or “chain migration”, as Mr Trump referred to the process.