Melania Trump denies violating U.S. visa rules as a model

Melania Trump

Wife of U.S. Republican presidential candidate, Melania Trump is back in the news.

This time she is rejecting suggestions that she violated visa rules when she started working as a model in New York.

While Mrs Trump said she began working as a model in the US in 1996, nude photos published by a New York tabloid appear to have been taken in 1995 for a now defunct French magazine.

That discrepancy is raising questions about her immigration status at the time and whether she had the right to work.

The owner of one modelling agency, Paolo Zampolli, says he sponsored Mrs Trump for an H1B work visa in 1996.

She has said that she had to go back to her native Slovenia every few months to renew her permit – something that is only generally necessary for tourist and business visas that do not permit work.

But she is yet to clarify what type of visa she used during the 1995 photo shoot.