Persuade alien to visit Earth (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
get round
'persuade' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'alien to visit earth' is the wordplay.
'alien' becomes 'et' (extra terrestrial).
'to visit' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters visit others).
'earth' becomes 'ground' (synonyms).
'et' inserted inside 'ground' is 'GET ROUND'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for get round that I've seen before include "Evade (a restriction)" , "Coax to become circular?" , "Influence in one's favour, coax (3,5)." , "Avoid" , "Influence in one's favour or circumvent" .)