Meet Darshan Magdum, Indian member of US boy band, who finally gets O-1 visa and the Internet is behind it

Darshan Magdum announces to his band members in the US that he got his O-1 visa.

Darshan Magdum, an Indian vocalist, called his band members in the US on FaceTime to announce that his visa has been approved. “We did it, guys,” Magdum told his bandmates Zachary Sobania, Evan Papier and Anthony Key. Four of them are believed to be Boy Throb, a viral boy band about which not much is known. Their virality was born on the Internet and the visa battle too. There were many Reddit theories on whether Boy Throb is a real band or whether Darshan Magdum was a real person or not.Darshan’s visa battle started in December 2025. He wanted to come to the US for a tour with this new band which was till then only confined to the Internet. Immigration officials returned his appeal with a request for evidence, the Washington Post reported. The band had to prove that they were a real band so that Darshan could be granted a visa.The band then started its tour without Darshan and the demands for Darshan’s visa rose even from the audience when Darshan appeared via Zoom in those concert.

What is Boy Throb?

According to The Guardian, Boy Throb formed last fall, and the name was chosen from social media only. Evan Papier, Anthony Key, and Zachary Sobania, the three other members, live in Los Angeles. Dressed in pink, they started singing covers of familiar pop hits but then replaced the lyrics to persuade the government to approve Magdum’s visa. Their goal was to reach a million followers to support his application.O-1 visa is designated for people with extraordinary abilities, and now Internet personalities too apply for this visa.In March, Boy Throb shared with fans that the government had requested more information to support Magdum’s application. “Begging for press solely to improve an immigration beneficiary request is not indicative of an organization or an establishment that has a distinguished reputation,” the letter said.Boy Throb connected with Jonathan Grode, an immigration lawyer based in Pennsylvania, who submitted additional paperwork to support Magdum’s visa application. “This case really caught my attention because they knew that they had people with talent, they knew they had people with an idea, but they let the fame come before the recognition of the ability,” Grode said to The Guardian. “It fundamentally begs the question of: how is fame created?”