Were there any public records or reports about Melania Trump's immigration petitions or sponsors?
Executive summary
Public reporting shows journalists obtained and reviewed records about Melania Trump’s immigration role as a sponsor for her parents’ green cards and reporting on her visa status, while Melania herself has repeatedly declined to release her full immigration files; The Washington Post confirmed she sponsored her mother and federal records were released about that sponsorship [1]. Major outlets in 2016–2016 reported payment ledgers and questions about whether she worked in the U.S. before proper work authorization, and her lawyer Michael Wildes has released statements defending her compliance while declining to make her records public [2] [3] [4].
1. Records released about family sponsorship, not the full file
Federal immigration records made public in 2024 showed Melania Trump sponsored her mother’s immigration through a family-based process and listed Melania as the financial sponsor, a point the Washington Post reported after the documents were released [1]. Subsequent fact checks and reporting reiterated that those records show a family-based green-card sponsorship consistent with “chain migration,” a process her husband publicly opposed, and Newsweek and Yahoo referenced the same confirmation and the role of Melania’s attorney Michael Wildes [5] [6].
2. Journalists obtained payment ledgers and contracts that raised visa-work questions
The Associated Press obtained detailed ledgers, contracts and payment records showing roughly $20,056 in modeling payments tied to work done in the U.S. in the seven weeks before she had documented authorization to work, and that reporting was summarized and cited by PBS and other outlets—sparking questions about the timing of visas and work authorization [2]. Coverage from 2016 and later noted the ledgers were reviewed by Wildes but that those documents “have not been verified” against official passport and immigration stamps as he said [2].
3. Melania and her lawyer have declined to release full immigration records
Multiple outlets note that Melania Trump has refused to publicly release her immigration records; her attorney Michael Wildes issued letters and statements asserting compliance with visa laws but treated the underlying records as private, leaving some questions unresolved in public reporting [2] [4]. POLITICO’s 2016 reporting documented persistent gaps and inconsistencies in public accounts, and after that piece the campaign published Wildes’ letter asserting she entered in 1996 and complied with visa rules—but not the underlying government files [3].
4. Competing narratives: media documents vs. legal defense
Reporting presents two competing frames: investigative journalists citing payment records and federal files that show family sponsorship [2] [1], and Melania’s legal team asserting her compliance and treating specific immigration documents as private [2] [4]. The media’s factual claims rely on paper ledgers, contracts and federal filings; Wildes’ defenses rest on his review of official records and the argument of privacy rather than public release of the documents themselves [2] [3].
5. What the public record does not show (limitations)
Available sources do not mention a full public release of Melania Trump’s comprehensive immigration file: journalists reported on specific ledgers, court or federal records about parental sponsorship, and lawyers’ letters, but the complete set of her visa, green-card and naturalization files has not been published according to these reports [2] [1] [4]. Reporters repeatedly asked for the paperwork; Wildes declined to provide it publicly and said the records are private [2] [4].
6. Why this matters politically and legally
The documents that have been reported—payment ledgers, contracts and federal sponsorship filings—matter because they touch the same family-reunification process and visa rules that became central to Donald Trump’s political messaging; outlets explicitly noted the irony that Melania used family-based sponsorship while the former president pushed to curb “chain migration” [1] [5]. Legal commentators told POLITICO that allegations of visa misuse could theoretically affect later immigration benefits, a point that kept scrutiny alive despite Wildes’ public rebuttals [3].
7. Bottom line for readers
Public records and reporting confirm at least two things: federal records released and reported by outlets show Melania sponsored her mother’s immigration and was listed as the financial sponsor [1]; and media outlets obtained business records and raised questions about timing of her modeling work relative to visa status while her attorney has refused to release her full immigration files and said she complied with the law [2] [4]. For a definitive accounting beyond these cited documents, available sources do not mention a complete public release of Melania Trump’s full immigration records [2] [1] [4].