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

travel.state.gov

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

#61
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.

For us in the third world it is! As an example, in my country of residence, a non-national needs to wait more than a year to even get to an interview with a US consul.

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

#62
post #49
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

I have several examples and lots of personal experience. I’ve been asked to go back from Mexico, Brazil, and Chile while traveling there and applying for a visa to Peru. Finally the Peruvian embassy in Chile gave me a visa to visit Peru because I accidentally bumped into the assistant consul. https://bkpk.me/peru-visa-for-indians/ The San Francisco consulate of India refused to process my spouse’s Indian visa because…

I think we are talking about different things. I’m talking about a country’s requirements whereas you’re talking about a specific embassy.

An embassy will often have its own requirements based on the locality, whereas the visa requirements are uniform.

The Indian embassy in San Francisco might refuse to process non-resident applications but that doesn’t mean you can only get an Indian visa by going to an embassy in your country of nationality.

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

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right. It is also rather inconsistent to be the guy who says he is working on the trade imbalance, while simultaneously wrecking one of America's biggest export sectors: education, housing for education, and travel for education.

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

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm, this comment makes me realize that there isn’t really a social consensus on whether or not AI generated content is welcome in these kinds of discussions. On one hand, I’m generally annoyed any time I see unsolicited AI generations because it’s usually garbage and I could have just asked an AI myself. But in this case I probably wasn’t going to and this comment is genuinely insightful… I guess I would have preferr…

Can you point out what part of the summary is wrong? You’re welcome to write your own summary that’s as detailed as the one I posted with any necessary corrections and I’ll delete my post.

HN's moderation team has been pretty clear that generated comments aren't welcome here. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

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

#65
I was a US diplomat in India for 2 years and processed tens of thousands of visas. While this change will cause some inconvenience for, e.g., current H-1B visa holders from India who can no longer travel to Canada or Mexio to apply for new visas, in general it makes a lot of sense. I worked at the number one H-1B processing post worldwide. Our post had the expertise to quickly evaluate applications and approve the clearly legitimate ones while scrutinizing the potentially fraudulent ones. We tracked fraud patterns and kept tabs on known-bad petitioners. We could visit petitioner locations on the ground in India. This expertise doesn't exist in Canada or Mexico. Staff at those embassies and consulates would have to consult with us in India, or simply make uninformed decisions. Note also that bona fide residents of a country can still apply in their country of residence.

For a few weeks in India, we had a string of third-country nationals (I won't say which, but it's not hard to find) apply for foreign medical graduate visas. We weren't familiar with the context in country they were coming from. They seemed to be generally good quality applicants and many were approved. It turned out that there was a cheating scandal in that third country, an entire batch of test results had been invalidated, and the embassy located there was refusing their visas, so a few applied in India and were approved, then word got out and more came. We eventually wised up. However, there was really no good reason for these applicants to be travelling from their home country to India for a visa appointment even under normal circumstances (India isn't exactly known for having short visa wait times).

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

#66
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don’t know about Schengen but that’s not correct for Japan. You can get a visa to visit Japan from an embassy in a country you’re not a resident or national of, there’s no requirement for the visa to be issued in your country of nationality (although some embassies may choose not to accept applications from non-residents or non-nationals).

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

#67
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.)

It's common for countries to require you to apply from your country of nationality or residence, and to prove lawful residence if you're not a national of the country you're applying in. I'm in the middle of a French visa application for my daughter right now, and she must apply in the U.S. where she's a citizen.

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

#68
post #4

[flagged]

Hm, this comment makes me realize that there isn’t really a social consensus on whether or not AI generated content is welcome in these kinds of discussions. On one hand, I’m generally annoyed any time I see unsolicited AI generations because it’s usually garbage and I could have just asked an AI myself. But in this case I probably wasn’t going to and this comment is genuinely insightful… I guess I would have preferr…

I also agree that this comment is likely AI generated (i.e., "why this matters" gave it away for me. I think I've seen this phrase a lot with ChatGPT). I think it is the last part of the last sentence and the toeing of the party line that bugs me, "likely aimed at improving security screening and preventing abuse of the system". It's "Manufacturing Consent"[0] à la 21st Century.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

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

#70
post #4

[flagged]

I lament that there is tightening, but I wonder how prevalent visa shopping was. Wouldn't we want to close that loophole? It seems it would only be something that would benefit the wealthy.

This _is_ them closing the loophole.
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