The US Immigration Service recognized League of Legends as a professional sport.

It would seem, and here the US immigration service and a computer game? It turns out that the other day representatives of this service made a decision according to which high-level professional players of League of Legends are recognized, again, by professional athletes. Accordingly, the procedure for obtaining a visa in the United States for such a person is greatly simplified and does not differ from the procedure for obtaining a visa, for example, by a professional baseball player from another country. The first person who was lucky to be a professional athlete during the visa application procedure was Danny “Shiphtur” Le, a Canadian who is one of the most well-known members of the League of Legends community (games that were mentioned at Habré more than once or twice).



On July 11 of this year, a representative of Riot Games, who deals with issues of electronic sports (we read - gamers' competitions), was able to convince the US immigration service that League of Legends is a sport. That Canadian, Danny “Shiphtur” Le, could not get a visa to the United States due to some kind of work permit problems. And the manager of Riot Games, who needed this player, still managed to negotiate with the country's immigration service.

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“The service acknowledged that e-sports is a sport. Now we (with a visa) have the same designation as professional NBA or NHL players, or any other professional sports leagues. ”



This change, as far as can be judged, will be able to easily facilitate the receipt of a visa in the US by foreigners who are part of the American team of gamers. Needless to say, the process of obtaining permission for the simplified visa procedure was not easy, and Riot Games had to make significant efforts to convince US immigration and other services dealing with foreigners.



It is worth noting that the visa for professional athletes in the United States allows players to stay in the country for a period of up to five years. So, high level gamers are likely to now look for an opportunity to become part of the American team and get a visa of this type.



Via theverge