What the World Cup taught us about welcoming the world to Los Angeles in 2028

The World Cup ended nearly two months ago, and it left the United States with genuine goodwill from thousands of international visitors who attended, spent money and went home with a positive impression of our country and its people. If Los Angeles wants to build on that in 2028, preparation must start now.

As an immigration attorney, I’ve spent my career helping employers, organizers and event workers navigate the maze of getting people into this country to do their jobs. Having worked directly with various stakeholders to assist over 1,200 workers come in for the World Cup, I had an inside view of that process. The United States pulled it off, but it was harder than it needed to be. LA28 will bring even more countries, athletes, media and support staff, all concentrated in one city.

As a resident Angeleno, this matters to me personally. I have been carefully following the city’s preparation process and I care deeply about whether Los Angeles gets this right and what the success of the Games will mean for the city and its communities.

The World Cup made it clear these events matter more than the sports and entertainment value. When people come to the United States and leave with a positive impression, it strengthens how our country is seen around the world. It adds to our security and it adds to the influence we can have globally. That is what’s known as soft power or soft strength. The 2028 Games will present that same opportunity.

If we want to continue hosting these seminal events, we need to upgrade a few things. Our immigration system does not work well for the short-term and the specialized workers these events depend on. It’s designed for long-term hiring: the university professor, the specialist transferred from a company’s foreign office. It is not designed for the venue technician who works events around the world in four- or five-month stints or the specialist a team needs for six weeks and no longer.

Those workers rarely fit our narrow visa categories. Many are freelancers who move from event to event and do not meet the requirements for the visas that might otherwise apply. Talented people who are clearly needed have no viable path in. Other countries figured this out: Mexico’s visitor visa comes with work authorization for up to six months, removing much of the separate bureaucratic process; Canada changed its rules ahead of the World Cup to create a work-authorized exception for event workers. We offered nothing comparable. As someone whose work is shaped by this complexity: we need an easier path for short-term event work. It doesn’t have to be a permanent, open-ended policy change. A tournament-specific exception, something like what Canada did, would go a long way.

Additionally, the organizations at the center of global events plan years in advance, but the trouble is everyone else. Affiliated groups, partners, sponsors and smaller organizations often assume immigration is something to sort out closer to the event date. For the World Cup, I had to take emergency calls a week before the event, when someone learns their performers can’t work on a visitor visa and need to file for something else, with no time left to do it. For the Olympics, that cannot happen. If you are bringing people in from abroad to work the Games, you need to be talking to an immigration attorney well in advance. Six to eight months, at a minimum. Organizations that start early are the ones avoiding the panic.

Clarity also matters, and media eligibility fueled unnecessary confusion during the World Cup. The media visa is actually fairly broad, covering journalists and even many of the crew members behind the cameras. But the guidance hasn’t kept up with how the world actually works. A content creator making newsworthy videos for a major platform looks a lot like a journalist in practice. An influencer documenting their experience of the Games isn’t so different from a documentary filmmaker. The line isn’t clear, and for an event drawing storytellers from every corner of the world, that ambiguity costs time and creates unnecessary friction. Modernized, specific guidance on who fits which category would help everyone: organizers, applicants and the agencies processing cases.

Los Angeles is ready in many ways. We have the venues, the hospitality infrastructure and a coastline keeping most competition sites within reach. Public transit remains a work in progress, and the city is investing to get there. But the immigration piece won’t fix itself. The World Cup showed us both what’s possible and where the system strains. We have a critical window to build on momentum before the world arrives again, before the applications stack up and before the last-minute calls start coming in. Let’s use it.

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