Fact check: Did Melania Trump hold a green card (permanent resident) before becoming a U.S. citizen and what visa did she originally enter on (e.g., H-1B, visitor, model visa)?

Executive summary — Clear timeline with debate: Melania Trump entered the United States on a visitor (B1/B2) visa in August 1996, obtained an H‑1B work visa in October 1996, received a green card in 2001, and became a U.S. citizen in 2006. Multiple investigations and reporting establish that she worked in the United States before receiving authorization and that there is dispute over which immigrant category (some reports say EB‑1 “extraordinary ability”) ultimately produced her permanent residency. The most detailed contemporaneous reporting identifying the initial visas and dates comes from a 2016 Associated Press investigation; later coverage and specialty outlets add claims about the EB‑1 route that are plausible but not uniformly corroborated ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.

1. How she first entered the U.S. — Visitor visa followed by a rapid switch to work status

Contemporaneous reporting documents that Melania Trump initially entered the United States on a B1/B2 visitor visa on August 27, 1996, then received an H‑1B work visa on October 18, 1996. The Associated Press investigation assembled payment records and immigration filings that show she was paid for modeling work while in the country on a visitor visa and that the H‑1B approval came in mid‑October 1996, creating a short interval during which she performed paid jobs without work authorization according to AP’s review ^{[1] [2]}. These details are the cornerstone of the timeline because AP obtained contemporaneous documents and payment evidence; other summaries and encyclopedic entries echo the H‑1B date but do not add materially different primary evidence ^[5].

2. Working before authorization — AP’s investigation and payment records

The Associated Press found evidence that she was paid for ten modeling jobs in the U.S. before her H‑1B took effect, totaling $20,056 over several weeks in 1996. AP’s reporting stressed that those payments occurred between September 10 and October 15, 1996, which precedes the H‑1B approval on October 18, 1996, and suggested she lacked legal authorization to work during that window ^{[1] [2]}. This aspect has been central to follow‑up coverage because it documents a concrete period when the visa status and paid activity diverged, and AP’s work is widely cited as the most detailed contemporaneous investigative account of that immediate period in 1996 ^[1].

3. The green card question — Dates agreed, classification disputed

Most sources agree on the broad outline that she received permanent resident status in March 2001 and was naturalized in 2006, but they diverge over the means by which she obtained the green card. Some accounts, including specialized outlets and later summaries, assert she obtained the green card through an EB‑1 “extraordinary ability” category, which fast‑tracks high‑profile professionals; those sources argue her modeling career provided the evidentiary basis for EB‑1 relief ^{[4] [3]}. Other reporting and encyclopedic entries note the green card date without a definitive public record showing the precise immigrant classification, leaving room for multiple plausible routes to permanent residence and therefore a factual dispute about the EB‑1 claim’s certainty ^{[6] [5]}.

4. Sources, corroboration and where reporting differs — Weighing credibility

The most rigorously sourced element of the timeline is the AP’s 2016 investigation, which used payment and immigration documents to fix the visitor entry, H‑1B approval, pre‑authorization work, and subsequent green card and naturalization dates; AP’s contemporaneous document‑based reporting is the strongest corroboration on those specific dates ^{[1] [7]}. By contrast, claims that the green card came specifically via EB‑1 appear in later articles and specialty outlets that may rely on immigration‑category inference or secondary reporting rather than on the same primary documents AP produced; these sources are credible but present a claim that is not universally documented in the public record accessible to journalists ^{[4] [3] [6]}.

5. Bigger picture, competing narratives and motives behind them

The differing emphases in coverage reflect competing narratives and interests: investigative outlets highlight timing and possible unauthorized work to illuminate immigration compliance questions, while profiles and niche immigration pieces emphasize elite‑immigrant pathways like EB‑1 to explain how high‑profile figures obtain residency. The result is a mixed public record where dates of entry, H‑1B approval, green card and naturalization are well‑established, but the precise immigration classification that produced the green card remains contested in secondary sources. Readers should treat the AP’s document‑based timeline as the backbone of the factual record and regard EB‑1 assertions as plausible but not uniformly corroborated by the same primary documents ^{[1] [2] [4]}.

Concluding answer: Yes — she held a U.S. green card before naturalization, and she originally entered on a visitor (B1/B2) visa in August 1996, secured an H‑1B in October 1996, received a green card in March 2001, and naturalized in 2006; the claim that the green card was through EB‑1 appears in several reports but lacks the uniform documentary corroboration that supports the basic timeline ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.