“Policy advice from Ali G”: Half of all O-1B visas for artists are now going to influencers and models
U.S. O-1B visas reserved for those with "extraordinary ability" are increasingly going to influencers and OnlyFans models, reports say. These visas used to primarily target actors, musicians, and other artists before the time of TikTok and Instagram.
Now, lawyers are saying that over half of their O-1B cases represent influencers, and everyone's whipping out that Ali G clip.
The land of the hot influencers
In November 2025, immigration lawyers began to report a clear shift in the demographics of O-1B applicants. Instead of bringing over the next Sinéad O’Connor, their clients were largely those with huge platforms on YouTube, TikTok, and OnlyFans.
The Florida Phoenix highlighted one such lawyer who wasn't so sure about the first OnlyFans model who contacted him about this visa. Then he saw how much money she made.
“She said, ‘Let me show you the backend of my platform,’" said Jacob Sapochnick. "I looked, and she was making $250,000 a month.”
“I was like, oh my god. Okay. I can use that.”
Today, immigration lawyers count influencers as up to 65 percent of their O-1B clients. Not all are on OnlyFans—that business model may be on its way out, thanks to non-consensual porn generating machines like Grok. However, if you have the metrics to prove an audience of millions, it's a lot easier to get into the U.S.
O-1B visas are defined as for those with "an extraordinary ability in the arts or extraordinary achievement in motion picture or television industry." There is no visa classification for YouTubers, however, so they're getting shoveled in with the actors.
In fact, they may be crowding out other artists because YouTube comes with handy numbers.
"Officers are being handed petitions where value is framed almost entirely through algorithm-based metrics,” attorney Shervin Abachi told the Financial Times. "Once that becomes normalised, the system moves towards treating artistic merit like a scoreboard."
The backlash against H-1B visas for foreign specialty workers further opened the door for incoming influencers. In September, President Donald Trump imposed a $100,000 fee for each new H-1B applicant, creating a massive barrier to talent, perhaps more useful than the ability to do TikTok dances.
"Donald Trump copying Ali G"
Following the Financial Times report, multiple X users recalled the Sacha Baron Cohen film Ali G Indahouse, in which the title character proposes a similar policy to English ministers governing his hometown.
When the ministers start discussing the issue of asylum seekers, Ali G makes an unusual suggestion after asking what the U.K. is lacking. Hospitals? No. Libraries? "Behave!"
"We ain't got enough fit women," he says. "And we's got too many mingers. No offense, Karen. So we let in all the fit refugees and turn away the rank ones. Then we solve both problems."
Now, it would seem that anti-immigrant sentiments are bringing Ali G's vision to life.
"Incredible that the US has taken policy advice from Ali G," wrote @LaveenLadharam.
"Trump is literally doing the Ali G 'Let The Fit Ones In' policy," said @DrewPavlou.
"Donald Trump copying Ali G," joked @ErikLUD97. "What a time to be alive."
"The Trump Administration is literally stealing its foreign policy from an Ali G sketch," @ErikExplains agreed. "This might be the least stupid and destructive thing they’re doing, so I guess there is that."
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