Foreign aid The changing world of polo visas By Lilian De Falco Shea, Esquire
Those of us in the polo world understand the importance of bringing good polo player professionals to elevate games, and support personnel or grooms to care for their strings. For the past 20 years, I have been helping polo players—high and low goal—with their immigration needs. I am now married to a polo player and sponsor, and we own a polo farm in the Denver area with operations in Colorado and Argentina. As an Argentinian, I grew up loving the sport from afar, but now get to live and breathe polo, its beauty, the horses, and the sacrifices we make to experience this passion. For several years, polo players, as well as grooms, have had a relatively easy experience when filing new visa applications or renewing their visas. This has changed dramatically with the Trump administration, and is likely to further change as a result of Covid 19. 38 POLO P L A Y E R S E D I T I O N
What has changed? The P-1 visa can be attained by professional athletes or people in show business to come and compete or perform temporarily in the United States. One of the crucial elements for this visa to be approved is to show that the polo player has “international recognition.” Your lawyer should be able to give you an idea of whether the evidence you provided will suffice to meet this criteria. There is a strong element of discretion and inconsistency in administration of this requirement. We have encountered situations where the applicant did not have much evidence of international recognition but the government still approved the case. This is an element that requires careful preparation. It can also be extremely challenging for pros involved in low- and medium-goal polo. The government frequently takes the position now that
