Lebron Lopez’s management has sued the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for rejecting his visa application to enter the United States.
Lopez, 18, was signed by upstart professional league Overtime Elite last July 13, 2021.
The 6-foot-5 winger stopped school in Ateneo High School because of this but has yet to have his visa application granted.
OTE’s season ends on March 15.
According to the complaint which was filed in North Carolina’s federal court, Lopez’s management SDS Sports Agency raised that the USCIS disregarded the player’s achievements because of his youth.
Moreover, SDS alleged that the USCIS concluded that Lopez played for the youth team and is not “comparable to his older peers.”
At the age of 17, Lopez was called up for the Philippine Men’s National Basketball Team during the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers — a seniors tournament.
Photo from FIBA.basketball
“The fact that Mr. Lopez is already playing basketball at the highest levels of international competition despite his youth should have been viewed by USCIS as evidence in favor of his petition,” read the complaint of SDS Sports, who has Sherrod Seward as agent and managing member.
“Mr. Lopez was competing against top professional players around the world of all ages, not simply against other precocious youths.”
The complaint also showed that Lopez applied for an “extraordinary ability visa” but was rejected a month later with the USCIS saying that Lopez’s current accolades are not passable to be an “extraordinary talent.”
“The mere fact that Mr. Lopez was a part of the Philippines National Basketball Team, which only selects 12 people out of the 40,000,000 people who play basketball in the Philippines, is prima facie evidence that the beneficiary is a member of an association, which requires outstanding achievements of their members,” the complaint continued.
In a statement to Law 360, Seward bared that this was the first time a client of his that played for a national team was denied an extraordinary visa.
“Typically, anyone that we’ve had on a national team — in any sport — has pretty much gotten an O-1 visa,” he said.
“This is the only time we’ve had to explain the significance of being on the national team.”
