Experienced user, never realized I can't import directly from iCloud Drive?

Working on the road with a project that needs to be done ASAP, generally connected to my library but moved some work files to iCloud only to find now that I'm not able to import them. What gives? Any work around to access files stored on iCloud or I'm I going to have to move them locally? Didn't find anything on search items "iCloud Import"

Bummed.

You can’t play back video from the cloud. It hasn’t to be downloaded locally before importing.

As far as I can remember you can use Dropbox.

- Andreas

Well, if you put the file in iCloud then I am not sure what the issue is?
iCloud is a cloud storage and all the files are saved in the cloud, not locally. You can manually download at any time and they stay on your Mac. If you then decide to remove the file from your Mac you can do so, too, the file is still available though, saved in the Cloud. So if you're file is saved in the iCloud Drive then there is no way of importing it (if you don't have WIFi) as it is not locally on your Mac. If you have wifi you can just download it (there is a little symbol on the right) and then you should be able to import it (at least by drag and drop).
Hope that helped

So, MacOS keeps a cache of iCloud Drive files in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud Drive -- you can navigate to the folder in the Finder and drag it onto the word "Favorites" in the FCPX import window sidebar. Then at least you'll have easy access to the local cache. But yes, to import, even to copy media to a local fcpx library, if the item you want is not already in the local iCloud Drive cache, you have to go to iCloud in the FInder and hit the download icon to the right of the file name, or right (context) click and choose "download now." That will put the file in the local cache and you can then import it from there. Some people find Finder drag and drop import from iCloud to the import window easier, though (which downloads the file to the local cache and imports it all in one step).