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US demands social media details from visa applicants

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Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#151

Post by [deleted] »

godelski wrote: post #141
Swizec wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen how many vacation days most americans get? It’s not a lot and most of it goes towards visiting family around the major holidays.

Also add in that household income is (fairly) stagnant[0] but costs are increasing. Anecdotally the only people I know that visit other countries either are: not from the US; come from a wealthy family; or have little money and that's just what they spend their money on. I know very few middle class people that visit other countries (outside of work related tasks). The excuse is always "I can't afford it." For me, th…

[deleted]

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#152

Post by ghoji »

dahfizz wrote: post #140
klipt wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well traveling through the Schengen area is like traveling between US states. You don't even need a passport once you're in. If you're traveling on a non-EU passport, I don't know if entering the EU is much better. IIRC flying through Frankfurt once the customs people rifled through my carry-on for no apparent reason.

My anecdotal experience is similar. Entering the US on a US passport is a breeze. Entering the EU on a US passport felt very hostile. I would imagine it's the same everywhere - it is the most fundamental job of a government to secure its own borders and maintain its own power.

I have found entering the US after visiting the EU (Schengen, technically) to be more hostile.

The EU person typically looks at me for a second or two and then stamps. Maybe they ask me how long I'm staying, I say "a week" or whatever, and they stamp.

The US people (EWR or JFK, maybe it varies) have an attitude that suggests that they think someone who visited Switzerland or Denmark is likely to be coming back from a vacation training with ISIS. They also really can't decide if my girlfriend is supposed to come to the booth with me, all of the rules suggest no since we are not a family, but then they tend to get upset after they ask me if I was traveling alone and I say no.

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#153

Post by SmokeGS »

billforsternz wrote: post #145

I travelled to the US recently for the first time in 20 years or so. I had to apply for a Visa waiver (ESTA) and from memory they had a social media section that was flagged as "optional". I'm not big on social media and decided that my rarely used accounts would be of no use or interest to anyone. If I remember correctly though I did put my Github account on there (unless my memory is playing vicious tricks on me, y…

oh fuck, that's so true. O'hare is almost murder on non-us citizens if that is their airport of entry.

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#154

Post by llukas »

jorblumesea wrote: post #116
nutjob2 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The immigration policies of the UK are very much not representative of other European countries.

That's not my point, you don't see UK under the microscope. Just seems to be another case of "US bad/Europe good".

UK is not in Schengen zone - so it is not "Europe" - even EU citizens go through customs when entering UK (unlike within Schengen zone).

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#156

Post by [deleted] »

torben-friis wrote: post #93
godelski wrote: post #80

This seems isolationist. Why would we want to isolate ourselves? For a country that was founded upon immigrants, that extremely benefited (and continues to) from diversity of thought and ideas, why would we want to stop that? I'm just under 30 and I still remember growing up how I was told that a major part of what made America great was the melting pot. In academia and at labs I've seen this be a huge benefit. But I…

I think expanding it to Western culture is projecting a bit. Here in Europe, almost everyone I talk to considers the US a borderline hostile place to visit, let alone emigrate to... It's true that in part we're a bit spoiled by the ease of movement inside the EU, but the general experience of entering the US (including airport security) is unwelcoming to the point of being humiliating - very different to the way the…

[deleted]

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#157

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

jkaplowitz wrote: post #14
drskaugen wrote: post #8

Just filled in ESTA application, it is not demanded as the question regarding social media does not have to be answered.

ESTA is an application for permission to travel to the US by air carrier or cruise ship to apply for admission under the Visa Waiver Program. As the word Waiver suggests, that permission is not a visa. People of VWP nationalities can apply for true US visas, but for short-term tourist or business visits there's usually no reason for them to bother unless they've been individually denied VWP eligibility or they want o…

I’d wager VWP visitors outnumber Visa applicants by a wide margin. Assuming they actually intend to perform even a cursory check of each social media account they’ll get bogged down for hours by trying to prove someone lying about not having a certain account.

As an aside: someone posted a screenshot of the form showing one of the named sites was MySpace but doesn’t include Telegram (and you can use Telegram without a username too). Anyway - I hope someone comes to their senses (perhaps an ACLU lawsuit re: should people be forced to disclose membership of sites like Grindr?) and they remove the stupid question.

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#158

Post by dmode »

godelski wrote: post #97
HeavenFox wrote: post #74

As any US Visa applicant can attest to, the DS-160 is already some of the most annoying form you have to fill - in fact for most people it's less pleasurable than doing 1040. In addition to asking for details of every school you went to, every job you had, every country you've been to, they ask you questions like this: >> Have you ever violated, or engaged in a conspiracy to violate, any law relating to controlled su…

Can some lawyer explain why these questions are necessary? I understand that you can add extra convictions for lying on these applications, but all the above questions are quite damning themselves. Like >> Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization? Assuming you are: you answer yes and you get denied a visa (duh). Answer no and the gov doesn't know, what happens? You commit terrorist activities on…

I think there are several reformers who were former terrorists. They work to de-radicalize youth. This should apply to those kind of edge cases

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#159

Post by thunderbird120 »

godelski wrote: post #141
Swizec wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen how many vacation days most americans get? It’s not a lot and most of it goes towards visiting family around the major holidays.

Also add in that household income is (fairly) stagnant[0] but costs are increasing. Anecdotally the only people I know that visit other countries either are: not from the US; come from a wealthy family; or have little money and that's just what they spend their money on. I know very few middle class people that visit other countries (outside of work related tasks). The excuse is always "I can't afford it." For me, th…

I believe that that graph is adjusted for Urban CPI so so increased costs would be taken into account. It's also a bit difficult to see the change in median household income due to the scale so here's the federal reserve's version where it is easier to see[1]. The increase in real median household income has been significant since the mid 80s. There are plenty of factors in play but I don't really think stagnant wages relative to other countries are to blame for fewer American tourists. Honestly, I just don't know many people in the U.S. who would think to vacation to Malaysia. The Caribbean is a lot closer and less expensive to travel to.

[1]https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

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