Report: Melania Trump worked in US before getting proper visa

Melania Trump was paid more than $20,000 for modeling jobs in the United States before she had legal permission to work in the country, The Associated Press reported Friday. 

{mosads}Modeling agency accounting documents obtained by the AP show that between Sept. 10 and Oct. 15, 1996, Trump, née Knaus, was paid for 10 modeling jobs totaling $20,056 before she obtained her H-1B work visa. She arrived in the U.S. in late August of that year.

A New York immigration lawyer who has reviewed Trump’s immigration documents, looked at some of the documents obtained by the AP at the news organization’s request.

“These documents, which have not been verified, do not reflect our records including corresponding passport stamps,” Michael J. Wildes said in a statement to the AP. 

The modeling gigs included jobs for Fitness magazine and Bergdorf Goodman.

Trump, originally from Slovenia, married Donald Trump in 2005. Her husband, now the GOP presidential nominee, has taken a hard-line stance against illegal immigration and frequently promises to put a stop to illegal immigrants taking American jobs. He has in the past denied hiring illegal immigrants in his real estate projects. 

Melania Trump came back into the spotlight this week with a campaign speech in Pennsylvania, her first since this summer’s Republican National Convention.