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U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

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211–220 of 439 posts

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#211
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> every country Mostly the US and the UK, it seems. For example the EU Blue Card system is generally quite reasonable: if you have high qualifications and can find a job, you get a work visa, which eventually turns into permanent residency. US and UK immigration tends to be overcomplicated, draconian, and paranoid.

Usually when you screw enough people you have to remain paranoid. There is a reason countries like USA, France, and Uk are always targeted whereas countries like Denmark, Canada, Norway, and so on are never in the news despite being easier to get in, same philosophy, and more wealthy.

Is it really easier to get 'in' Denmark or Norway than the US or UK? Perhaps for vacation travel, but to settle permanently in small, wealthy, homogeneous countries is usually far more difficult than to settle in the US.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#212
post #32

Trump administration has been increasingly hostile to legal immigrants, so this doesn’t surprise me one bit. Everyday there is a new policy change in USCIS designed to screw immigrants, whose only crime is working on high paid jobs. I am on the verge of losing my work permit after having lived here for 12 years and working in high tech jobs in leading companies.

Why do you deserve a job over a resident with equal skills?

Perhaps the employer finds them more personable and pleasant to be around than other similarly qualified applicants.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#213
post #198

Your wife forgets to list that yahoo mail account to which she no longer has access and everything is deleted: family gets deported.* You forget to list that LiveJournal, Advogato or Quora accounts: family gets deported.* Your daughter forgets to list that Pinterest account: family gets deported.* Your son forgets to list that last.fm or SoundCloud account: family gets deported.* Your mom forgets her Academia.edu acc…

Under what conditions would any of these events actually occur? The government isn't going to waste resources to deport someone solely for forgetting an account; they would only go to such effort if there's another reason that they actually care about to deport that person.

It provides an excuse to be selectively abused to deport people, since it applies so broadly.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you deserve a job over a resident with equal skills?

After living in a country for 12 years, you legally are a resident. Additionally he is obviously a highly skilled worker considering he works for leading tech companies, therefore you cannot consider him an average Joe bricklayer who can be compared with others as he is in a percentile that is in demand (there is a shortage of these people). Two people are hardly ever equal when it comes to applying for a job, its no…

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Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GitHub is explicitly listed as "social media" on the optional question that is on the ESTA [1] form since 2016. If I remember correctly, the wording is relatively broad, so I would guess that HN and Reddit count as well. [1] https://www.evisaonline.com/en/usa/esta.html

Since when did GitHub stop being a code repository and start becoming a social network? Am I using GitHub wrong?

Isn’t GitHub’s motto “social coding” or something similar?

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#216

It feels good to complain on HN, but we all will be contacting our representatives, and following the EFF’s campaigning, won’t we? Please?

Yeah. That would be good, except you will get a canned response which more or less implies that they don't give a fuck about your opinions... That's the current state of affairs.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#217
post #179

People I've spoken to seem more comfortable acting like this is part of the current administration's agenda, rather than an encroaching trend which has been gradually getting worse year upon year. For example this specific policy was added as an "optional" (not really) question on an entry form before the 2016 presidential elections (I know, I wrote a letter protesting it during public comment period). My point is: B…

Yes, it's not Trump, it's the US. I will probably never visit that country again, and I don't much care; but, I'm kind of sad for my kids. That said, the world is a big place. Let's hope not every other country does the same.

You won't visit the US because they want your social media details?

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#218

People I've spoken to seem more comfortable acting like this is part of the current administration's agenda, rather than an encroaching trend which has been gradually getting worse year upon year. For example this specific policy was added as an "optional" (not really) question on an entry form before the 2016 presidential elections (I know, I wrote a letter protesting it during public comment period). My point is: B…

Wait, how can you have someone representative in US if you're on a visa? Shouldn't you be a citizen to vote? Also, I was under impression that any visa can be revoked at will, why would they need special trick questions for it?

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Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#219
post #198

Your wife forgets to list that yahoo mail account to which she no longer has access and everything is deleted: family gets deported.* You forget to list that LiveJournal, Advogato or Quora accounts: family gets deported.* Your daughter forgets to list that Pinterest account: family gets deported.* Your son forgets to list that last.fm or SoundCloud account: family gets deported.* Your mom forgets her Academia.edu acc…

Under what conditions would any of these events actually occur? The government isn't going to waste resources to deport someone solely for forgetting an account; they would only go to such effort if there's another reason that they actually care about to deport that person.

> they would only go to such effort if there's another reason that they actually care about to deport that person.

They would do that under those conditions. Not "only". So you answered your own question, if you actually want to make the argument (via slipping in that "only") that it's okay for the govt to use this to get rid of people they want to get rid of for reasons that on their own aren't sufficient, then make the argument.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#220
post #141

One thing to know is that apparently the reason for having seemingly idiotic questions on immigration forms ("are you a terrorist?", "are you a nazi war criminal?") is not that the government is stupid but rather that they're there in order to be able to deport someone for answering the question incorrectly in the event that the government wants to deport them but lacks sufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case.…

This is such a stupid explanation. Do people really think the government is going to go "You're a terrorist, but we can't deport you for that. But look here, you checked this form wrong.."

It's not silly in the least. Revoking citizenship is hard and you need to clearly define why it's happening and that the law stipulates you can.

You think the President or Congress can just snap their fingers and say "you no longer are a citizen!"?

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