Melania Trump was paid for 10 modelling jobs in the United States worth $20,056 (£16,022) that occurred in the seven weeks before she had legal permission to work in the country, according to detailed accounting ledgers, contracts and related documents from 20 years ago provided to The Associated Press.

The details of Mrs Trump's early paid modelling work in the US emerged in the final days of a bitter presidential campaign in which her husband, Donald Trump, has taken a hard line on immigration laws and those who violate them. Mr Trump has proposed broader use of the government's E-verify system, allowing employers to check whether job applicants are authorised to work.

Mrs Trump, who received a green card in March 2001 and became a US citizen in 2006, has always maintained that she arrived in the country legally and never violated the terms of her immigration status.

The wife of the GOP presidential nominee has said through an attorney that she first came to the US from Slovenia on August 27, 1996, on a B1/B2 visitor visa and then obtained an H-1B work visa on October 18, 1996.