Louis Oosthuizen faces race to get visa for Open Championship
Friday 15 June 2018 14:46, UK
Former champion Louis Oosthuizen could be forced to miss this year's Open Championship due to immigration issues.
The 35-year-old South African is based in Florida and applied for a green card, which grants permanent residency to non-US citizens, last summer, only to be told by officials that two documents had been misplaced.
Oosthuizen was eventually able to resubmit the documents in April but faces an anxious wait to discover if they will be processed in time to allow him to make the trip to Carnoustie.
"I'm playing Travelers next week and then I've got a bit of a situation," Oosthuizen told golf website Morning Read. "I'm busy doing my green card and I need a special permit to travel outside of the US.
"I don't have it yet. I hope I get it in the next week or two. If I don't get the permit to travel, then I might miss both the Scottish Open and Open Championship."
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If Oosthuizen left the United States without the required documents or green card, his application would be voided and he would have to start the process again.
"You've got the immigration lawyers that say there's not much you can do and if you ask them (Citizenship and Immigration Services), they just say it's pending," he added after an opening 74 in the US Open. "There's no one that can really say how far it is in the process."
Oosthuizen won the Claret Jug at St Andrews in 2010 and was runner-up to Zach Johnson at the same venue five years later. He has not missed the Open since 2008.
