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Melania Trump's 'Einstein Visa' controversy resurfaces after she 'LIKES' Dr. Oz

The former FLOTUS, 51, obtained an EB-1 visa reserved for immigrants with 'extraordinary ability' and 'sustained national and international acclaim'

Melania Trump is once again being harangued about her "Einstein Visa" amid claims that she "likes" Dr. Oz, the celebrity doctor who is in a tough Senate primary in Pennsylvania and holds both Turkish and American citizenship.

The former First Lady, 51, obtained US citizenship on a visa reserved for immigrants with "extraordinary ability" and "sustained national and international acclaim." The EB-1, dubbed the "Einstein Visa", is technically reserved for people who are highly acclaimed in their respective fields, including Oscar and Olympic winners as well as reputed researchers and multinational executives. A source recently told NBC News that Melania is a fan of Dr. Mehmet Oz, who has vowed to renounce his Turkish citizenship if he's elected to the Senate.

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“The first lady has let the president know that she likes Dr. Oz. And that matters,” a top Republican familiar with Melania's views reportedly told the outlet on condition of anonymity. “But this isn’t just about what Melania wants. There are a lot of Melanias out there. There are a lot of women, in whose living room and bedroom TVs Dr. Oz has been for a decade. They have a very personal relationship with Dr. Oz," the source added.

Shortly after claims that the former FLOTUS "likes" the celebrity physician, her critics pointed out how she herself obtained a special visa and raised questions about her suitability for the extraordinary ability category. 

"She barely speaks English, how did she get an Einstein visa for being a naked model?" one tweeted.

"And again, explain how she got in on an Einstein Visa? Am I missing something here? And she supposedly knows 6 languages….she does know the difference between just knowing ‘about’ the languages & being fluent, right?" another wrote.

"She thought she was applying for an Einstein Visa credit card. By the time she figured it out, Trump paid the mail-order-bride fee as she couldn’t back out," someone else quipped.
 

In 2000, then-real estate mogul Donald J Trump began applying for the visa when his future wife was still Melania Knauss, a Slovenian model working in New York. She was approved in 2001 and became one of just five people from Slovenia to win the exclusive visa that year, according to the Washington Post. In 2006, when she became a citizen, she earned the right to sponsor her parents Viktor and Amalija Knavs, who now reside with her in the US.

Melania came to the US in 1996, first on a tourist visa, followed by a series of working visas for skilled immigrants. She was working as a supermodel in New York when she met Donald Trump at a party in 1998. Before applying for a Green Card, she had worked as a top runway model in Europe and had been featured in several British and American magazines.

According to the BBC, an immigrant has to provide evidence of a major award or meet three of 10 criteria proving excellence in their respective fields if they wish to obtain an EB-1 for extraordinary ability. But while the federal guidelines cite Nobel prizes and international acclaim, the reality is "often more prosaic," Susan McFadden, a specialist US visa lawyer at the Gudeon and McFadden law firm in London, told the outlet. "You do not have to be a Nobel prize winner to get the extraordinary ability visa. I've gotten EB-1 visas for people you've never heard of and never will," she said. "An experienced lawyer knows what the US citizenship and immigration services is looking for, and how to bring out of the client's background things that will be attractive to the agency."