What I know from news articles is that some of them openly "escort", like some traditional porn stars did more quietly. The fame on the screen can be brand-building for the even more lucrative in-person work.

As one said in a quote, regarding AI threat and crumbling economies: "The oldest profession will be the last profession."

If some of them want to move to the US right now, from currently healthier countries, one reason may be that social inequality means there are many deep-pocketed customers able to pay 5 figures for a weekend experience.

It increases the countries' soft power if people around the world watch content from there.

Eg. a self-reinforcing cycle that you get the best from the other immigrant categories arriving because they choose the country where everything "seems to be happening".

> A streamer / OF [may not have to be in person]

From what I understand about OF, it's not just people posting lewds, sometimes there are other actors in the media.

Having access to established actors and uh... "collaborating" with them would require being there in person I would guess.

> A streamer / OF worker is not like that as far as I know (but e-sports is).

Well Streamer vs Influencer can be different potentially, that said I can think of one example even for video game streamers, that being the AGDQ charity event where speedrunners/streamers do stuff live for charity at the event space.

> I thought the reason for this to be a visa is because their fields' activities were in-person (acting in movies/plays/shows, academic life & research, sports training & leagues, etc). A streamer / OF worker is not like that as far as I know

An OnlyFans worker may make the bulk of her money by meeting fans in person for dates. That can't be done over the internet.

Because once you move to live in the US (or any other country) then you become tax liable there and every gov wants more net taxpayers.

It's not that they need to be in the country; they want to be in the country.

- Youtube awards do not count towards the awards criteria. The award has to be for being highly selective not linked to mere subscribers.

Wait, HN has a leaderboard?

...or anything with a laugh track? I tried some show a couple years back and was shocked to find that those still exist. I discovered it's a great signal of a show that I would not want to watch.

It's maybe slightly less trivial to do, but still incredibly common to buy awards, recognition, press releases, positive reviews and commentary in publications.

You might be shocked to find out how much the performers being written about in magazines or discussed on TV shows is a direct line to the production company promoting them. Similar for awards.

Money is an option, regardless. EB-5 is about $1M invested into your own business, 10 people hired.

The specifics of the law are:

8 CFR 214.2(o)(3) ( https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/part-214/section-214.2#... )

    Extraordinary ability in the field of arts   means distinction. Distinction means a high level of achievement in the field of arts evidenced by a degree of skill and recognition substantially above that ordinarily encountered to the extent that a person described as prominent is renowned, leading, or well-known in the field of arts.

    Extraordinary ability in the field of science, education, business, or athletics   means a level of expertise indicating that the person is one of the small percentage who have arisen to the very top of the field of endeavor.

    Extraordinary achievement   with respect to motion picture and television productions, as commonly defined in the industry, means a very high level of accomplishment in the motion picture or television industry evidenced by a degree of skill and recognition significantly above that ordinarily encountered to the extent that the person is recognized as outstanding, notable, or leading in the motion picture or television field.

This isn't a local worker thing (the H visas) but rather bringing the best and brightest from across the world to the United States.

https://www.hio.harvard.edu/o-1-visa-individuals-extraordina...

> The O-1 visa is a temporary work visa designated for individuals who have achieved and sustained national or international acclaim for extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics, or individuals who have demonstrated a record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture and television industries.

> O-1 Extraordinary Ability visa status is reserved for those who are among the small percentage of experts who have risen to the top of their field. The approval of an O-1 petition by the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) decides whether an individual qualifies for O-1 classification. This classification requires a substantial amount of evidence. The O-1 is a very complicated visa category subject to high levels of scrutiny by the U.S. government. Due to the complexity, the O-1 visa is used very infrequently.

The internet is global, but having folks in our midst who make a living that way has more of an effect on our culture than if they are just on the internet.

i mean you said it yourself, the internet is global. those few thousand can have impressions of hundreds of millions. whether they do their cam shows abroad or local matters little. it's the inherent incentivization approved by a government that leads to deeper cultural erosion. if you're in a poor country with no access to education, and your only way into the US is porn, then that's what will ultimately win, rather than incentivizing higher education, etc. And before an argument is made that this will just be a way to get in and then those folks will go and seek PHDs and be productive members of society--i have a bridge to sell you.

You would not have a lot of trouble with your kid trying to be best in basketball, or football, and make a name for it.

I don't think the same would apply to OF or porn. Totally different things.

In the interest of fairness, can you really say different about "mainstream" French culture?

It is disappointing that it is so easy to bamboozle HNers with a straw man argument.

The original poster was clearly not making an analogy between professional soccer and only fans creators.

To be explicit, the comparisons were:

Cinematic actors -> TikTok creators

Victoria’s Secret model -> only fans creator

Pro soccer -> esports

I fail to see how the culture of our country will be negatively impacted by any of those changes. Comparing Cristiano Renaldo to OnlyFans is a straw man because that specific comparison was never suggested, except by the “rebuttal”

it's low iq pedantry/contrarianism that pervades the tech industry that i refuse to engage with. it's exactly the same people that will bikeshed every feature into the abyss. i agree and appreciate your sentiment.

Extracting money from horny young men with an illusion of intimacy/friendship just doesn't seem ethical. Or good for society as a whole.

Especially when you've got streamers using sites like Twitch, aimed at younger gamers, promoting their OnlyFans porn.

The regular porn industry is bad enough (https://traffickinghub.com/), but at least the content is non-interactive, there's no pretence of friendship/connection.

Sex work (OF or otherwise) is unsavory, that's what. You can't stop it but there's zero reason we should be going out of our way to grant visas to sex workers.

Speak for yourself :)

> Benefit to the person is probably a path to citizenship

As I understand it, from an O-1 visa (a temporary one that needs to be renewed every year after the third), the next step is the Employment-Based Immigration: First Preference EB-1 visa.

https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/permanent...

> You may be eligible for an employment-based, first-preference visa if you are an alien of extraordinary ability, are an outstanding professor or researcher, or are a certain multinational executive or manager. Each occupational category has certain requirements that must be met ...

An OF model isn't likely to fall under the "outstanding professors and researchers" or the "certain multinational executive"... so we're going with the extraordinary ability criteria.

> You must meet at least 3 of the 10 criteria* below, or provide evidence of a one-time achievement (i.e., Pulitzer, Oscar, Olympic Medal) as well as evidence showing that you will be continuing to work in the area of your expertise. No offer of employment or labor certification is required.

More on the specifics can be found at https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-6-part-f-chapter-...

After reading this... I'm going to say that it is unlikely that an OF model would meet the requirements for an EB-1 visa as a path to citizenship.

I would like to point out the long term prospects part may not be true for high earners. Some models make a senior software engineers annual salary in a matter of months. Many of these people can retire and live off investments at age 35.

What is the average turnover/tenure of a camgirl? I'd think that most popular camgirls come and go pretty quickly, such that giving them visas that were formerly reserved for performing musicians would not necessarily make sense.

It'd be fun to see a filter similar to [dead] where you could just blissfully ignore these baity throwaway accounts.

edit: ironically to the person using a throwaway to yell racial slurs under me I do browse with [dead] visible because I find some of them amusing, more amusing than most of the throwaways even, though the funniest ones have seemingly stopped posting.

You probably don't want to see where they pulled that fact out of...