Well, at least to the United States government they are. According to TIME, the U.S. Immigration and Citizen Service is allowing competitive gamers to use work visas normally used by professional athletes to stay in the country.
This new move will benefit people travelling to the United States for game tournaments who wouldn’t be able to stay for an extended period otherwise. One example of this is Canadian video game player Danny Le using the P-1 Visa (reserved for members of sports teams) to join Team Coast at the League of Legends World Championship in Los Angeles.
The change in definition of athlete visas sprung from Riot Games (the creators of League of Legends) lobbying the U.S. government and proving that professional video game tournaments bringing in millions of dollars in prize money and viewers.
So if you want an easy way to migrate to the U.S., pick up that PS3 controller and get practicing.
