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US demands social media details from visa applicants

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311–320 of 355 posts

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they've thought about how precise 100% compliance is literally impossible for those of us with catch-all email domains, unless we have a record of every email address at that domain we've ever given out or through which we've received unsolicited email. (Yeah, I realize that in practice they will probably accept partial compliance in that scenario, and that it won't affect me as a US citizen. But it cou…

Couldn't you just write something like "All emails @mydomain.com" if asked you could explain how it works and they can't say that you ever lied.

I think the US nonimmigrant visa application must usually be done online (some exceptions exist) using an interactive series of web forms. So your solution works if and only if they don't apply validation rules to that input field and throw an error.

I guess they may have some procedure to handle the case where technical limitations of the form prevent an accurate answer, but even if yes that's still a huge obstacle many applicants won't overcome.

(Yes, applicants with the technical savvy to catch-all domains are more likely to be able and willing to overcome that type of barrier. Other categories of people will have a harder time, like who are sure they've forgotten some email addresses but don't remember enough details to reconstruct that info. They'll have to say exactly that, if they can even find a place to provide that answer, and possibly get refused as a result.)

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#312
post #32

“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” Immigrants are non-citizens are among the weakest members of American society (an outsize number of laws that impact them and zero capacity to participate in its political machinery)

Do you realize a massive amount of immigrants are actually US citizens and have exactly the same rights as born Americans? With the exception of running for President.

typo, I meant "immigrants and non-citizens", not "immigrants are non-citizens", can't edit

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#313

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…

A lot of people working for the US government and some US corporations wouldn't be able to give the preferable answer to a lot of those questions.

Of course those people don't need a visa; the US has no problem with terrorism, torture, or extrajudicial killings as long as it's home grown.

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#314
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All that good energy and hope broke like a wave against that huge political cliff, and had far less impact than everyone needed. He seemed happy enough with the party-line vote in the Senate on the first major bill of his presidency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvest... And he wasn't too concerned about bipartisanship when it came to passing the ACA only a year later, arguably the biggest…

The ACA is already a result of a lot and even more compromise. It's even modeled after a Republican plan implemented in a red state. (In Mass. when governed by Mitt Romney, who at first vetoed it then took credit for it.)

And yet it received basically no bipartisan support in Congress. The Romney stuff is a talking point, not a reasonable way to pursue bipartisan progress on healthcare (which is still a mess).

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My guess (pure speculation) is that they won't manually check most social media accounts indicated on the form, but will automatically check the provided info against (and add the provided info to) some intelligence community database. Then they'd manually check any cases where security concerns are flagged by that database or otherwise.

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. A lot of people wanted an "outsider" and to "drain the swamp". In other words they don't feel represented by their elected officials, or treated fairly by the government, and they want things to change. Despite this desire being co-opted and twisted by Trump's campaign and Fox News, the underlying feelings are valid for a lot of people across the USA. The Democratic party should have realized this back durin…

> All that good energy and hope broke like a wave against that huge political cliff, and had far less impact than everyone needed. He seemed happy enough with the party-line vote in the Senate on the first major bill of his presidency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvest... And he wasn't too concerned about bipartisanship when it came to passing the ACA only a year later, arguably the biggest…

Thank you for an interesting reply, you've rebutted the image of Obama pretty well. I think that my own personal feeling about Obama are very much affected by the political and social climate that has appeared since Trump was elected.

I think I agree with you on all of this, especially the Chicago comment.

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. A lot of people wanted an "outsider" and to "drain the swamp". In other words they don't feel represented by their elected officials, or treated fairly by the government, and they want things to change. Despite this desire being co-opted and twisted by Trump's campaign and Fox News, the underlying feelings are valid for a lot of people across the USA. The Democratic party should have realized this back durin…

Reagan was entertaining - he was an actor. Dukakis was not. I like your theory on the entertainment value of Presidential hopefuls.

Once Trump is no longer president, I wonder whether the Republicans will rally around Pence. He's most definitely not entertaining.

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#318

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…

I’m here in the US via ESTA (sixth time in ten years maybe? More?). Three month road trip. I have active social accounts (not without a political slant) and didn’t list them. Didn’t seem to be a factor when I came through (with wife and kids), nor previous trips.

Colleague with minimal social profile but travelling by himself copped a three hour pressure-grilling last year. They were most concerned with the idea that he’d try to work and overstay.

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They only have 5-10 days vacation a year on average. Give them a break already!

> They only have 5-10 days vacation a year on average. Your figures are off by a large margin (70% to 240%). The average American worker took 17 days of vacation time in 2017. For paid vacation time - the more important item - it depends heavily on experience and company size. "In 2017, the average worker with five years of experience at a company was given 15 days of paid vacation and the average worker with 20 year…

15 days is still a laughable situation compared to all of western Europe.

Re: US demands social media details from visa applicants

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They only have 5-10 days vacation a year on average. Your figures are off by a large margin (70% to 240%). The average American worker took 17 days of vacation time in 2017. For paid vacation time - the more important item - it depends heavily on experience and company size. "In 2017, the average worker with five years of experience at a company was given 15 days of paid vacation and the average worker with 20 year…

If they take sick days do they come out of vacation time?

Most of the time yes.
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