Athletes Artists Entertainers P Visa
The Athletes Artists Entertainers P Visa category was specifically created to welcome certain kinds of individuals on temporary visits to the US, including outstanding athletes, athletic teams, artists and entertainment companies (including circuses) who have a job offer from an American employer. There is no annual limit on the number of people who can receive P visas.
The man who lifted weights with his hair, and got a
Athletes Artists Entertainers P Visa for the United States.
Tarachand Saggar had no idea that one day he would become world famous for a silly little trick. He came from a poor family in Punjab, India, and was full of ambition from childhood. But because his parents could not afford school, by the time he was 22, he was driving a beat-up old taxi on Calcutta’s streets.
It was here that he met and fell in love with a gymnast in the Gemini Circus from the distant state of Kerala. Saggar was fascinated by all the great things she could do. One day she said she could teach him to lift weights with his hair. Since her circus visited Calcutta every year, she groomed him slowly, first strengthening his hair with special oils and allowing it to grow out into long forelocks. Then she taught him how to make special knots with his hair and use them to hoist weights.
Saggar practiced a lot and finally was able to lift 150 kgs easily. The local press wrote about him and he became a small celebrity among taxi drivers. With help from the journalist, he applied for inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records — they accepted his record — and Ripley’s Believe it or Not books.
The Gemini Circus manager decided that Saggar would make a celebrity addition to the circus and offered him a job. By now the ex-taxi driver could lift 200 kgs with his hair. Over the five years that Saggar worked in the circus, his act became one of the circus standards.
And then one, the circus manager received a letter from the famous American touring circus of Culpepper and Merriweather, famous for its trapeze, contortionists, dogs, wire walkers, clowns, horses, big cats and other elements that make up traditional circus.
They were interested in a reciprocal exchange. They would send some of their best acrobats and trapeze artists to work in the Gemini Circus and see a bit of India. In return, they wanted Tarachand Saggar and a team of six gymnasts to tour with their circus. The circus manager was delighted to agree.
Saggar didn’t even have a passport but he applied for one right away. Then came the question of a visa to go to the United States. It turned out that he would be needing something called a P-2 visa, designed specifically for athletes, artists and entertainers visiting the United States on a reciprocal exchange program.
The P visa category, including 3 visas, was specifically created to welcome certain kinds of individuals on temporary visits to the US, including outstanding athletes, athletic teams, artists and entertainment companies (including circuses) who have a job offer from an American employer.
The people at Culpepper & Merriweather got cracking with the paperwork, as required by US immigration laws, and filed a petition to get visas for Saggar and his team. One day, the Gemini Circus manager came to Saggar, worried, asking if he could prove he was internationally recognized.
Of course, he was. Thanks to the Guinness Book of Records, the Ripley organization and all those amazing newspaper photo interviews, Saggar easily established his international stature.
And this was how an unschooled boy from a poor Indian family finally reached the USA on his Athletes Artists Entertainers P Visa
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