USCIS Clarifies Requirements for Professional Athletes

22
/25
December
By Kateryna Heyman
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued new policy guidance in Volume 6 of its Policy Manual to address how the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system affects immigrant visa petitions filed for professional athletes. Because the FLAG system no longer includes minimum job requirements in labor certifications filed on or after June 1, 2023, USCIS may request additional evidence when adjudicating Form I-140 petitions if those requirements are not otherwise provided. This change is intended to ensure adjudicators have sufficient information to determine eligibility, even though it affects a relatively small number of cases each year, including petitions filed by major U.S. professional sports teams and their affiliates. Under the FLAG system, DOL revised Form ETA-9089 so it no longer collects minimum job requirements, instead shifting that information to Form ETA-9141 for prevailing wage determinations. However, because professional athletes are exempt from the prevailing wage requirement, their labor certifications approved through FLAG lack job requirement details altogether. USCIS requires this information to properly adjudicate labor certification–based immigrant petitions, making supplemental evidence necessary when athlete contracts or petition filings do not clearly establish the minimum job requirements.
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Kateryna has both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from nationally acclaimed Kyiv National Linguistic University, wherein she focused on multi-lingual translation. She has graduated from California School of Law and got licensed to practice law by the State Bar of California in 2024. Languages spoken: Russian, Ukrainian, German, and English. Federal Area of Practice: immigration.
Kateryna Heyman

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