INTERNATIONAL ATHLETES
One career. Two rulebooks. One strategy.
Your athletic opportunity and your immigration status cannot be planned separately.
Strata helps international collegiate athletes evaluate NIL opportunities, understand immigration risk, protect lawful status, and plan for what comes next in the United States.
*Immigration legal services are provided through Strata Immigration Law, a DBA of Manning Immigration, PLLC, and not by Strata Sports Group, LLC. A separate attorney-client engagement is required.
IMMIGRATION
Visa classification
School and program
Work authorization
Travel and reentry
Maintaining status
Future options
ATHLETIC OPPORTUNITY
NIL offer
Required activity
Where the activity occurs
Compensation structure
School or brand obligations
Career opportunity
An opportunity can make sense on one side and create risk on the other. The right immigration guidance is critical to your future.
NIL AND IMMIGRATION
Before you accept the opportunity, understand the activity.
Immigration analysis is about more than the amount of money involved in your NIL deal. The required activity, where it will be performed, how the athlete is paid, who controls the work, and the athlete’s status can all matter. Get advice tailored to the actual opportunity rather than relying on a general rule or something that worked for a teammate.
The questions that decide the analysis:
What will the athlete be required to do?
Where will the activity occur?
Who is paying and under what agreement?
Is the compensation tied to services or another right?
What does the athlete’s current status permit?
Could the activity affect travel, status, or future options?
This page provides general information only. Immigration consequences depend on the athlete’s individual facts and should be evaluated through a separate legal engagement.
IMMIGRATION STRATEGY
Protect the status that makes the opportunity possible.
International athletes may need guidance concerning visa status, school changes, travel, work authorization, maintaining lawful status, and planning for later study or employment. The right strategy begins before a deadline, transfer, paid activity, or graduation forces a rushed decision.
- Visa and status strategy
- Travel and reentry planning
- School-change and transfer-related immigration questions
- Work-authorization analysis
- NIL-specific immigration advice
- Post-college immigration planning
- Coordination with athlete-representation decisions when relevant
EXPERIENCE AT THE INTERSECTION
Immigration experience that understands the athlete’s opportunity.
Before founding Strata, Brian Manning served as an American diplomat and visa officer at U.S. embassies abroad, where he adjudicated thousands of visa applications, including applications involving athletes coming to the United States for college sports. He later served as a USCIS immigration officer and went on to build and lead a national immigration law firm.
That background gives Strata a perspective most athlete agencies do not have: the sports opportunity and the immigration consequences can be considered together, while the actual immigration legal work is handled through a dedicated affiliated law practice.
Brian Manning
Owner & Principal
NIL Agent & Sports Lawyer
GETTING STARTED
One place to start. The right professional path from there.
Tell Strata what opportunity or immigration concern you are facing. Agency representation, when appropriate, is handled through Strata Sports Group. Immigration legal services, when requested and accepted, are handled through Strata Immigration Law under a separate agreement. You do not need to determine the entity before contacting us; the intake process will route the inquiry appropriately.
Make the opportunity work for your career—and your future in the United States.
Tell us about your status, the opportunity you are considering, or the immigration-related challenge you’re facing.
*Immigration legal services are provided through Strata Immigration Law, a DBA of Manning Immigration, PLLC, and not by Strata Sports Group, LLC. A separate attorney-client engagement is required.