Northwestern State's Hansel Enmanuel receives historic O-1 visa

Amy Maldonado believes history was made Thursday. Maldonado, the principal attorney at the Law Office of Amy Maldonado LLC, helped Northwestern State freshman guard and Dominican Republic native Hansel Enmanuel receive approval for an O-1 visa, which gives him the ability to pursue NIL deals in the U.S. through his newfound work authorization.

It’s a landmark moment in the NCAA’s NIL era.

Enmanuel is one of the first international athletes, if not the first, who competes at the NCAA level who has received approval for a temporary work visa for NIL-related purposes under the O-1 visa criteria, which require an individual to prove he or she has extraordinary ability.

“To my knowledge, yes,” a celebratory Maldonado told On3 in a phone interview Thursday, when asked if Enmanuel is the first. “I know Oscar Tshiebwe‘s team was trying to get him an O-1. I don’t know if they were successful or not.”

In short, Maldonado described the O visa classification as the temporary visa version of a green card.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) defines the O-1 nonimmigrant visa for an individual “who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements.”

Maldonado works closely with a number of Major League Baseball players, who are clients of agent Alex Zapata, the founder and CEO of Z-Axis Sports, which represents Enmanuel. That’s how she connected with the basketball star.

Maldonado contextualized the bar that an individual must clear to receive approval for an O-1 visa.

“You have to show either that the person has received an internationally recognized award, which of course you’re not going to get as a high school basketball player,” she said. “And when they say that, they mean like an Academy Award, a Nobel prize, etc., or you show three alternative evidentiary criteria and you have to establish that the person is in the top percentage of their field.

“And so for Hansel, I mean how you draw the field is really important because if you said the field was basketball, you know obviously people in the NBA making $80 million are going to be at the top of the field. But because he’s an NCAA college athlete, that’s the field that we drew.”

Hansel Enmanuel’s On3 NIL Valuation submitted as evidence

Maldonado credited her colleague and immigration attorney Ksenia Maiorova for her help navigating the O-1 visa application process. Maldonado said Z-Axis Sports filed Hansel Enmanuel’s case about six months ago. Thanks to a premium processing filing, Enmanuel’s team was guaranteed a response within 15 days.

However, USCIS responded with a “brutally tough” request for additional evidence, Maldonado said. Enmanuel’s team had 87 days to respond, plus an additional 60 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maldonado said the response was filed last week, leading to Thursday’s notice of approval

“This is a novel use of the O and P categories that Ksenia and I strategized about together, and these are our test cases,” Maldonado said. “Ksenia has a P that’s pending and we’re getting really rough requests for evidence on these.”

Maldonado and her team had to prove Enmanuel received major media coverage, “which was obviously not a problem.” He was the subject of an ESPN documentary, among coverage from numerous other outlets. According to Maldonado, a newspaper printing a player’s name for simply appearing in a basketball game isn’t enough to satisfy the requirement for media coverage.

Media outlets must specifically provide coverage of an athlete in order to satisfy that requirement.

“You have to show that somebody has commanded a high salary, which in this case was an NIL deal that he had from a very big name that I cannot disclose without their permission because they’re going to roll out a big announcement, which is going to be very exciting,” Maldonado said. “… We definitely went with salary and we also actually used…On3’s article about his valuation to support the fact that he would command a high salary… It was very helpful, I will say that.”

Enmanuel has an On3 NIL Valuation of $1.5 million, which ranks No. 9 in the On3 NIL 100.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard NIL market value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL market value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories including an athlete’s performance, influence and exposure.

‘It’s not zero, but it’s not a lot’ of athletes eligible for O-1 visa

Maldonado said Hansel Enmanuel, a former On3 three-star recruit who had one arm amputated as a child after an accident, is unique. “He’s not just extraordinary,” she said. “He’s like one-of-a-kind. He’s such an amazing talent.”

The class of international college athletes, particularly basketball players, who could receive an O-1 visa now includes Enmanuel and it could potentially include Tshiebwe. But beyond that, the group is very small.

“I mean, it’s not zero, but it’s not a lot,” Maldonado said, later continuing, “I can tell you, I got an O-1A visa for a soccer coach who used to coach for Real Madrid. I mean, you have to be pretty badass to get these visas.”

Maldonado teased a significant, upcoming NIL deal for Enmanuel, who has previously signed a deal with Gatorade. He flew to Mexico City for the photoshoot because wasn’t in violation of his previous visa status to work in Mexico.

Given Enmanuel’s projected market value and his newfound work authorization in the U.S., more NIL deals could soon follow.

“Every time that Hansel gets another NIL deal, we’re going to have to amend his visa petition, which is going to be a giant pain,” Maldonado said. “But it’s better than not being able to sign NIL deals because he has no work authorization as an F-1 student.”

This story has been updated to clarify that Hansel Enmanuel is believed to be the first NCAA athlete to receive an O-1 visa for NIL-related purposes, rather than the first to ever receive an O-1 visa.