Live data from Hacker News

British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

news.com.au

61–70 of 132 posts

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#61

I'm almost 100% certain at some point someone said that this would only ever be used to stop Bin Laden style terrorists, and now people are browsing through intimate text conversations to ban people on trivial technicalities from allied countries. The problem is not that this person received a harsh punishment, but that we will continue sliding down this slippery slope. Next thing you know, this won't be limited to o…

Not to undermine your point, but the entire visa-granting process is based on a pre-crime action. I'm unlucky to be from a country that still requires visas to the US(Poland - despite the fact that our government is literally crawling up the ass of the American government and participating in every single conflict America engages in for no reason other than to say we are great friends), and yeah, basically to be allowed to visit the US you have to visit the embassy and allow your whole life to be inspected - if there is any chance that you might stay - and it might be as minor as having a cousin already living in the US and being in vaguely the same industry you are in, which of course is an indication you will want to stay too /s - then you will be denied and told to try again in 10 years. It's absolutely brutal and yes, it's based entirely on officials guessing whether someone is likely to break the law or not - not whether the law was actually broken.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#62

Something similar, though much less extreme happened to me. My Australian girlfriend got a year long visa to stay with me in the US. The immigration officer detained her for 3 hours, and eventually told her she could only stay for six months. (This was a long time ago, late 99s, so I can’t remember the justification or how he had the authority to alter a visa she had already been granted. He may have been lying.) He…

> He himself wasn’t born in the US, a detail which really pissed me off at the time.

One thing that I constantly notice americans born in US don't understand about immigrants is that legal immigrants are one of the most anti-illegal immigration groups in the country. At least a lot of knowledge workers that got in through H1B or similar mechanisms are.

It makes perfect sense. I know a LOT of people who immigrated to US legally, and they see illegals as people who're trying to cheat at exactly the same rules that they have had to obey and spend a lot of resources and effort to do so.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#63
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unmatched opportunities for science, entrepreneurship, education, and technology. Population that's more welcoming to immigrants than any other place in the world by far. Outdoors. Cleaner air and water. Cheap prices. Diversity. Optimistic, friendly, and humble people.

As someone who, like you, was born in Europe, I feel like half of those points are open for debate and the other half are nonsensical. Are you saying that the nation that is the home of the Flint water crisis and has a weaker Environmental Protection Agency than ever is something you move to in order to get "cleaner air and water"? What do you mean when you say "diversity"? Have you been to the mid west? There are "u…

http://maps.who.int/airpollution/

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#64
post #47
post #2

Here's the text that caused this: https://imgur.com/O2SbNL8

a barrage of clingy text messages after a break up. Looks like border patrol was really trying to save the american person in this one case. /rimshot

I think that this is very unkind way to judge a person.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#65
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not wrong. I am Russian living in Europe, occasionally visiting the US. Here in Switzerland, and to a lesser extent in the rest of the western Europe, I will always feel like an immigrant. It is cultural, there is always a divide of those who lived here before and those two came after. Perhaps only my children or their children will be able to fully integrate here. In the US it is different. There are a lot…

It's probably not possible to have both these things together in the long term: * A strong distinctive local culture. * Treating immigrants just like locals. Immigrants aren't going to learn the local dialect of Schwyzerdütsch unless you give them some kind of incentive, are they?

[deleted]

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#66

Just wondering as to why people even bother with the US at all? What does the US give you that UK doesn’t, besides a fucked up government (even more so than the UK - see who’s in charge of the FCC or the tax filing situation), crazy & unreasonable immigration policies, etc? This won’t change as long as people accept it. But if tomorrow tourism & business travel slows down to a crawl because of this you can bet you’ll…

Unmatched opportunities for science, entrepreneurship, education, and technology. Population that's more welcoming to immigrants than any other place in the world by far. Outdoors. Cleaner air and water. Cheap prices. Diversity. Optimistic, friendly, and humble people.

sarcastic comments should have ~s after them. yours must be sarcastic as everything you have listed is fiction.

-Says CareerAddict, “The average scientist in Switzerland receives an annual salary of roughly $95,000 (in Euros, of course), making Switzerland the country with the highest salary for scientists in the world. The best scientists can earn over $100,000 per year, though that is primarily in the private sector.”

-An Investopedia article uses a World Bank report to rank Singapore as the top country for entrepreneurs (source: Best And Worst Countries For Entrepreneurs | Investopedia).

-The UK has scooped the first spot in The 2019 Best Countries for Education, maintaining its rank from last year, according to a study by US News & World Report.

-Japanese researchers have won many Nobel Prizes. Japan’s particularity lay down in the fact that they achieved results in every fields : from bio-technology to robotics.

-The claim that the USA is the best for immigrants is hard to disprove in terms of study's. but, sociopolitical it is quite clear The USA isn't as welcoming as seen. cough trump cough

-"outdoors" another almost impossible metric to prove/disprove, but i know for a fact that NZ (New Zealand) is held as the best place for adventurous activities.

-Finland sits at the top of the list with a 90.68 EPI score.(EPI = Environmental performance index.) https://improb.com/top-cleanest-countries-in-the-world/

-do you know about the flint water crisis? Switzerland has the cleanest water levels in the water, to the point that many places don't even treat their water with chemicals.

-cost of living is what i'll use to debunk the claim that america is "cheap" most expensive is Switzerland at COI= 121.16, USA is 20th at 69.91. below the USA at 99 countries, including at 24th the United Kingdom at 65.28, at 48 is Fiji with 50.93 and plenty more. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.js...

-Papua New Guinea is the most diverse, There are thousands of ethnic groups in the country, each with their own languages and customs.

-supposedly china is the most optimistic, "The survey found that 94% of Chinese youth – defined in most cases as those aged 12-15 – were optimistic about their own country’s future, compared with 64% of their American counterparts. "

-Portugal is the most friendly "Friendly attitude towards expats: 94%, Ease of making local friends: 58%, Expats likely to stay forever: 47%" https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennysouthan/2018/03/21/the-wor...

-i couldn't find any stats or studies about humble, but if you have to boast about how humble you are, you probably aren't.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Now let's talk about some things America is the leader the way in:

-the US, Lesotho, Swaziland and new guinea are the only countries in the world that doesn't have paid mandate leave for mothers of newborns.

-also the only country to not require companies to have paid vacation.

-there is also no guarantee workers will get paid Sick days.

-The US's education budget is the largest, but the results are shocking poor.

-the US exports the most weapons in the world.

-have the highest incarcerate % in the world.

-highest healthcare costs, by a staggering amount.

-babies death rate is the highest than any other industrialised country.

-the wage gap between the "uber" rich and poorest is the biggest in the world.

no hate, just don't enjoy the spread of false information.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#67
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unmatched opportunities for science, entrepreneurship, education, and technology. Population that's more welcoming to immigrants than any other place in the world by far. Outdoors. Cleaner air and water. Cheap prices. Diversity. Optimistic, friendly, and humble people.

As someone who, like you, was born in Europe, I feel like half of those points are open for debate and the other half are nonsensical. Are you saying that the nation that is the home of the Flint water crisis and has a weaker Environmental Protection Agency than ever is something you move to in order to get "cleaner air and water"? What do you mean when you say "diversity"? Have you been to the mid west? There are "u…

> I doubt that "friendliness" is really something you see drastic differences in around the globe

So, you have never been to Eastern Europe or CIS countries.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#68

I'm almost 100% certain at some point someone said that this would only ever be used to stop Bin Laden style terrorists, and now people are browsing through intimate text conversations to ban people on trivial technicalities from allied countries. The problem is not that this person received a harsh punishment, but that we will continue sliding down this slippery slope. Next thing you know, this won't be limited to o…

Not to undermine your point, but the entire visa-granting process is based on a pre-crime action. I'm unlucky to be from a country that still requires visas to the US(Poland - despite the fact that our government is literally crawling up the ass of the American government and participating in every single conflict America engages in for no reason other than to say we are great friends), and yeah, basically to be allo…

It is interesting that Poland looks to be the only EU country that is not on the list of US Visa Waiver program - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program#/media/Fil...

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#69

Does the US _really_ have a problem with UK citizens overstaying their visa? I highly doubt it, this is insane.

Yes, they do have issues with this. Whether UK or any other nationality. Funnily, I have a colleague who overstayed his entry visa by exiting a day late and frequently gets stopped and questioned when he goes back, which he does often as he had since married an American and probably entitled to US and UK passports by now!

Getting a green card would presumably reduce his border hassles. On the flip side it would require him to file US taxes as long as he retains it no matter where he lives.

In my case even with that I got hassled every time - multi hour delays on every arrival because of something screwed up in their records of me. Eventually I went so far as to get citizenship because of the hassle. That requires me to file US taxes for the rest of my life even if I choose to permanently reside outside the US.

Re: British man banned from US because of text to American girlfriend

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to undermine your point, but the entire visa-granting process is based on a pre-crime action. I'm unlucky to be from a country that still requires visas to the US(Poland - despite the fact that our government is literally crawling up the ass of the American government and participating in every single conflict America engages in for no reason other than to say we are great friends), and yeah, basically to be allo…

It is interesting that Poland looks to be the only EU country that is not on the list of US Visa Waiver program - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program#/media/Fil...

It's 100% because in the 90s after the fall of communism a lot of people travelled to US on tourist visas and stayed permanently(illegally). It's still being used as an argument by US to exclude us from the US Visa Waiver program, even though nowadays in 2019 you'd be hard pressed to find any Pole interested in emigrating to the US for unskilled work. The risks are huge, the pay is not great, and you can hop on a 4-hour bus to Germany and work there visa-free for much better money, while having full access to healthcare, worker protections and essentially 90% same rights as a native citizen. Why would you risk going to US and overstaying a visa to what, pick strawberries? That made a lot of sense 25 years ago, when even the most basic of basic jobs would pay 50x better than any job in Poland, but that time is long gone now. Not only our salaries are better, but the entire EU market is open to us without limitations. It feels like US still lives in some kind of bubble where they believe that America is a dream land and the second Poles get access to the Visa Waiver programme they will come in droves and stay - I think they are hugely mistaken on that point.
Post reply on HN