Higher Education and Collegiate Athletics Chair LaKeisha Marsh in Chicago, partner Montoya Ho-Sang in Atlanta, and associate Sommer Sharpe in Chicago co-authored an article for a Lead1 Association newsletter on key considerations for athletic directors managing name, image, and likeliness (NIL) rights of international student-athletes. In particular, the article provides an overview of how performing NIL income generation activities fit within the F-1 student-visa construct.
LEAD1 represents the athletics directors of the 131 member universities of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), that encompasses 42 states, 55,000 student athletes, and more than 25,000 athletic administrators.
The authors wrote: "When the NCAA announced that student-athletes would be permitted to financially benefit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), it was welcomed by most student-athletes. However, many international student-athletes were unsure how the NCAA’s NIL Policy impacted them, given their nonimmigrant status in the United States. The F-1 visa, used by most international student-athletes, is an academic student visa that allows individuals to enter the United States as full-time students at an accredited college or university. However, international students on F-1 visas are limited in their ability to obtain employment and earn taxable income.