Marrying a billionaire may have greased the road to obtaining that visa.
In August 2024, Munjala applied for another of what is an alphabet soup of visas: A permanent residency card for people with extraordinary abilities known as the EB-1A—nicknamed the Einstein Visa— that lets holders bypass the regular green card queue that has a much longer wait. However, in December, his application was denied.
Since Munjala is among the few experts in data analytics for rare diseases and blood plasma, and had also reviewed others’ research papers in top journals, he was surprised and disappointed by the rejection. If his expertise and impact doesn’t meet the bar, what does?
“I led projects that impacted millions of people who take flu vaccines, plasma therapies and gene therapy product releases to market,” Munjala said.
The image is from the New York Post
Melania Trump obtained US citizenship on a visa reserved for immigrants with “extraordinary ability” and “sustained national and international acclaim”, according to a report in the Washington Post.
Nicknamed the “Einstein Visa”, the EB-1 is in theory reserved for people who are highly acclaimed in their field – the government cites Pulitzer, Oscar, and Olympic winners as examples – as well as respected academic researchers and multinational executives.
Mrs Trump began applying for the visa in 2000, when she was Melania Knauss, a Slovenian model working in New York and dating Donald Trump. She was approved in 2001, one of just five people from Slovenia to win the coveted visa that year, according to the Post.
Becoming a citizen in 2006 gave her the right to sponsor her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, who are now in the US and in the process of applying for citizenship.
The reports of how Mrs Trump obtained her EB-1 visa will rankle with some, at a time when her husband is railing against immigrants and attempting to scrap the right of new citizens to sponsor family members. And questions have been raised about her suitability for the extraordinary ability category.