JOY FEELINGS MAGAZINE December 2016 New Year issue | Page 78

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Career and immigration to the United States
She began modeling at age 16, when she posed for the
Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko. At 18, she
signed with a modeling agency in Milan, Italy. She was
named runner-up in the 1992 Jana Magazine "Look of the
Year" contest, held in Ljubljana, which promised its top
three contestants an international modeling contract.

After attending the University of Ljubljana for one
year, she modeled for fashion houses in Milan and Paris.
She then relocated to New York City in 1996, her contract
and visa negotiated by Italian businessman Paolo
Zampolli. Through her lawyer, she has indicated she first
entered the United States on a business visitor visa in
August 1996. She obtained an H-1B visa in October 1996.
After that, she regularly returned to Slovenia to obtain a
series of four more one-year work visas because, at the
time, Slovenians could only obtain one-year visas in the
United States. In November 2016, the Associated
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