{"id":596291,"date":"2026-04-11T04:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T04:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596291\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T04:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T04:36:10","slug":"aj-mccarron-called-senator-tommy-tuberville-to-push-for-taylor-elgersma-ufl-work-visa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596291\/","title":{"rendered":"AJ McCarron called Senator Tommy Tuberville to push for Taylor Elgersma UFL work visa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto courtesy: Gregory Payan\/AP content services for NFL.<\/p>\n

Birmingham Stallions\u2019 head coach A.J. McCarron has pulled every string possible in his attempt to get Canadian quarterback Taylor Elgersma a P1 U.S. work visa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old former NFL quarterback was visibly frustrated when asked for an update on the situation on Friday, telling local media outlet Birmingham Sports<\/a> that he anticipates a resolution in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of things to say about it. I\u2019m just gonna leave it as that\u2019s probably something to ask the league about. It\u2019s been a nightmare to deal with. I\u2019m going as a GM, head coach and now immigration officer, so having to do a lot of things,\u201d McCarron said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying as much as I can. I have everybody on it that I know. Took for me to call Senator Tuberville and work with the State of Alabama. That\u2019s pretty much it right now, and then we\u2019ll know more. Could be any day this week, all the way up to, I think, next Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elgersma has sat out the first two weeks of the United Football League season<\/a> while waiting for his paperwork to be approved, and is not currently expected to suit up in Sunday\u2019s game against the St. Louis Battlehawks. The London, Ont., native signed his UFL contract, but it has yet to be officially registered by the league due to the ongoing work visa process. He continues to practice with the team on an unpaid basis.<\/p>\n

In order to be eligible for a P1 athlete visa, a player needs only to be employed by a team in a professional league with six or more teams that governs its members, regulates the contests in which they compete, and has a combined annual revenue in excess of $10 million. The reason for the delay in Elgersma\u2019s approval is unclear, as the UFL would appear to meet all those criteria.<\/p>\n

McCarron hopes that Tommy Tuberville, a Republican senator from the State of Alabama, can help speed up that process. Prior to entering government, Tuberville was a college football head coach and won an NCAA national championship at Auburn University in 2004. The pair know each other from when McCarron was recruited as a high school prospect by the Tigers, though he eventually committed to the rival University of Alabama. They also share a political interest, as McCarron briefly ran for Lieutenant Governor of Alabama in 2025.<\/p>\n

Elgersma won the Hec Crighton Trophy at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2024, which is awarded annually to the top player in U Sports football. He then signed with the Green Bay Packers after going unselected in the 2025 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old was released by the Packers after training camp in August and has since worked out for the New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Chicago Bears, and Miami Dolphins. He is pursuing playing in the UFL in the hopes of landing another NFL opportunity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Stallions are 1-1 through two weeks of action, defeating the Louisville Kings in the opener before falling to the Houston Gamblers last week. Starting quarterback Matt Corral has completed 73.7 percent of his passes for 433 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions.<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers hold Elgersma\u2019s CFL rights<\/a>\u00a0after selecting him in the second round of the 2025 CFL Draft.<\/p>\n

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J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league’s Global initiative.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Gregory Payan\/AP content services for NFL. Birmingham Stallions\u2019 head coach A.J. McCarron has pulled every string…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,226249,19773,49,48,7028,521,522,520,527,168666,2002,82,183762,173382,49782,137438,168683,226250],"class_list":{"0":"post-596291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-3down","9":"tag-3downnation","10":"tag-aj-mccarron","11":"tag-birmingham","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-canadian","15":"tag-canadian-football-league","16":"tag-canadianfootballleague","17":"tag-cfl","18":"tag-football","19":"tag-golden-hawks","20":"tag-league","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-stallions","23":"tag-taylor-elgersma","24":"tag-tommy-tuberville","25":"tag-ufl","26":"tag-wilfrid-laurier","27":"tag-work-visa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}