What are the facts about Melania Trump's immigration history to the US?

1. Arrival and early U.S. modeling work: what’s reported

Public reporting establishes that Melania (born Melanija Knavs) arrived in the United States during the 1990s and worked as a model in New York and other markets while building her career ^{[1] [3]}; the Associated Press reported detailed ledgers and contracts showing she was paid for about 10 modeling jobs in the U.S. worth roughly $20,056 in the weeks before she had documented permission to work, an account summarized and affirmed by PBS and AP follow‑ups ^{[4] [2]}.

2. Work authorization and visa claims: H‑1B, EB‑1 and disputes

Reporting and later analysis indicate Melania received a U.S. work visa category tied to fashion modeling and has been described in some outlets as obtaining an EB‑1 (extraordinary ability) classification in 2001, a visa reserved for those with sustained national or international acclaim — a characterization that drew scrutiny because EB‑1 is an uncommon route for models and because critics said documentation and standards were unclear in her case ^{[5] [7]}. Her legal team and subsequent commentators have presented alternate explanations, including that she acquired H‑1B work authorization at a point in 1996 and that any irregularities would have been evaluated by immigration authorities as part of her later green card and naturalization process ^{[6] [7]}.

3. Green card and naturalization: established milestones

Multiple sources record that Melania received lawful permanent resident status (a green card) in March 2001 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen on July 28, 2006, milestones that are uncontested in available reporting ^{[2] [3]}. Those legal statuses enabled her, as a citizen, to later sponsor relatives; reporters and profiles note she sponsored her parents and that her family’s later naturalizations occurred years afterward ^{[3] [8]}.

4. Controversies, legal implications and competing narratives

The central controversy rests on AP’s reporting that she was paid for U.S. modeling work before formal work authorization versus the Trump camp’s assertions — via lawyers such as Michael Wildes — that she maintained lawful status and that any changes in visa category (to H‑1B or EB‑1) were properly processed, a dispute that prompted legal commentary about whether pre‑authorization work would have jeopardized later benefits and whether immigration officials would have approved subsequent petitions ^{[4] [6] [9]}. Media outlets differ in emphasis: investigative reports highlighted ledger documents and contractual evidence ^[4], while legal advocates and the former first lady’s representatives emphasized successful adjudication of her green card and later naturalization as evidence that the government accepted her record ^{[6] [7] [9]}.

5. What remains uncertain in the public record

The public record, as reflected in these sources, documents key milestones (arrival in the 1990s, green card in 2001, citizenship in 2006) and published AP evidence of paid modeling before documented work authorization, but it does not provide a single uncontested chronology of every visa application and internal USCIS assessment; some assertions about exact visa categories, timing of status changes and adjudicators’ reasoning rely on reporting, legal interpretation and statements by representatives rather than a fully public set of immigration files released in complete form ^{[4] [5] [6]}.

6. Bottom line

Factually, Melania Trump emigrated from Slovenia to the U.S. in the 1990s, became a lawful permanent resident in 2001 and a U.S. citizen in 2006 ^{[1] [2] [3]}; controversies reported by major outlets focus on whether she was paid for U.S. modeling before having formal work authorization and on how she qualified for the visa category later described as EB‑1, and those controversies persist because coverage, legal commentary and statements from her representatives offer competing framings without a single definitive public adjudication of all disputed details ^{[4] [5] [6]}.