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US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

travel.state.gov

51–60 of 152 posts

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#51

Can anyone explain a rational political motivation behind this? I realize "less immigrants" is the hand-wavy explanation, but how does this benefit those in charge?

This might also be tied to the incident with the South Korean nationals in Georgia.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#52
post #41
post #16

This was already the case for almost every other country. Most embassies required you to be resident or a national of the country you are applying in. So oddly, the US was far more permissive than other locales in this one aspect. All this change does is bring it in line with security practices that other nations already had in place. Honestly am quite surprised that the US didn’t already have this restriction consid…

Really? Do you have any examples? I’ve had visas around the world (and encountered numerous weird requirements) but never have I been required to apply for a visa from my country of nationality. Even China, which is very restrictive, allows for non-national applications. (And in fact, in my experience, it is getting easier with online applications becoming more common.)

Schengen works exactly like this. Also Japan I think.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#54
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I hate this “brown people” line that people keep bringing up to shame anyone who is against easy immigration as some kind of racist. Unchecked immigration has wrecked countries, it’s a big problem in Canada for instance. We have definitely passed the era in the world where immigration was automatically a good thing. The game has changed.

How has immigration ruined Canada?

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#55

Similar to Europe: for Schengen visas, you must apply to the consulate responsible for your country of legal residence. https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen/visa-pol...

I believe your link says you must apply at the country you're visiting, or the country you're visiting first. And you must apply at the consulate for the country you are a resident of. So if I was applying to visit France, I could do so from the US embassy in France. This seems to differ from the new US rule where you must also apply in the country you're a resident of.

Why would you apply at the US consulate for a visa to France? That makes no sense no matter how I try to interpret.

The way it works is, if you're applying for a French visa in Mongolia and you're not a Mongolian national, you need to provide your Mongolian residence permit or else your application will be refused outright.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#56

Can anyone explain a rational political motivation behind this? I realize "less immigrants" is the hand-wavy explanation, but how does this benefit those in charge?

It validates xenophobia. In a xenophobic population. This keeps them in charge. That is all. This administration is all about cutting off their nose to spite thir face.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#57
post #48
post #4

[flagged]

> This effectively ends “visa shopping” - the practice of applying at embassies with shorter wait times or perceived easier approval rates. It also prevents circumventing countries where the US has suspended visa operations. Exceptions remain for diplomatic visas, UN-related travel, and emergency/humanitarian cases. Let’s give this a computer analogy. Suppose I run a multi-datacenter service, and I have an endpoint i…

Now do the comparison if one endpoint is realtime user facing traffic and the other is batch processing which can easily eat up all available capacity and drive up latency.

If visa shoppers are overwhelming the normal processing of applicants who actually live in a particular country, it seems entirely appropriate to say "no, sorry, this location isn't for you" to the people who don't live there.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate this “brown people” line that people keep bringing up to shame anyone who is against easy immigration as some kind of racist. Unchecked immigration has wrecked countries, it’s a big problem in Canada for instance. We have definitely passed the era in the world where immigration was automatically a good thing. The game has changed.

How has immigration ruined Canada?

[deleted]

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#59
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It aligns with their effort to ruin the economic situation of American universities.

Yes, what America needs now is more students working in the grey economy after their student visa expires.

We either let them in and grow our economy or compete with them.

Re: US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

#60
post #4

[flagged]

I guess I am curious about this "visa shopping" problem - is it really a big deal? And if it is, how hard is it going to be for a motivated applicant to establish "proof of residence" in an arbitrary country? Are we talking about a utility bill? Is this just going to derail world travelers who want to add a last minute US leg to their itinerary? That would seem entirely pointless. Honestly I'm pretty confused.

I bet it's a minuscule amount. For a start, all they're shopping for is a shorter delay for the visa interview - maybe that is 1 month instead of 3 - and most people from countries that require visas will already be factoring that duration into their plans.

> how hard is it going to be for a motivated applicant to establish "proof of residence" in an arbitrary country

By residence they mean your legal status is a permanent resident, this is proven with a formal ID like green cards.

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