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U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

wsj.com

111–120 of 911 posts

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they are. I read somewhere a few days ago that France is vacuuming up academics and advanced students that have been displaced by various recent policy changes that have proven to be hostile towards academia and research.

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I'm sure you can name this university, then. So we can compare the actual questions versus your weasel wordy, "basically" "like".

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#112
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Even if this was true how would it be in Israel's interest to weaken the US of all countries?

Weakened so it can be controlled as a golem of sorts to carry out agendas like paving over the Middle East for them, not necessarily destroyed.

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#113
post #89
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked it up there are a few articles. https://cis.org/Camarota/New-January-Data-Still-Shows-Most-J... https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/7/immigrants-t... https://guestworkervisas.com/bls-a7-analysis.html

Thank you (and thanks to tzs) - was genuinely curious and wanted to read about it.

No problem it's a pretty interesting statistic one of the articles explains how it might be misleading but it doesn't dispute the numbers.

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#114
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were they able to come back when they did this?

I think the whole point of making someone leave is the possibility that they may not be allowed back in. If staying was a foregone conclusion then there’d be no point in leaving.

I can’t think of any other rationale. What, only border officers are able to process a visa renewal? Please. We can have offices inside the country handle this stuff, just like offices handle Trusted Traveler applications and Social Security card issuances.

The point is surely to get another chance to grill the immigrant and potentially bar them entry. Other countries don’t always do this: Canada for example has inland changes of status and I believe renewals.

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#115

As noted clearly in the article, this is a temporary pause while personnel are brought up to speed on the protocols. The real question is how just or unjust the refusals will be once it is unpaused. It's bad enough that the process is excruciatingly slow. Users keep downvoting my comment even though it is the only literal interpretation supported by the evidence, without any evidence to the contrary. I would rethink…

Consular staff are trained on this as-is. It is hard to imagine a re-training on process that could take any more than two days.

And yet we have an entirely open-ended "We have nooooo idea how long this will take!"

Garbage. This is the same administration that paused all immigration from Africa except for "Caucasian South Africans" who were classified as refugees by default, regardless of their motivation on immigration.

This is just Stephen Miller doing exactly what he said he intended to do, and exactly what Project 2025 said the government should do (meanwhile, Trump, "What's that? Never heard of it").

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#116
post #15

So for those that don't know, it's quite common for a visa renewal to be required to leave the country. Depending on the visa, you might have to do this every year. So just imagine, having a normal job in the US and you're asked to leave to renew your visa and this stuff happens. That's no more appointment, not even a new date and you're now very likely unable to work and possibly can't even enter the country to get…

At least for F1 and H-1B visas, one wasn't required to get a new visa physically stamped (for which one would have to leave) to switch schools (undergrad -> grad) or jobs. Is this forced now? Of course, if one wanted the freedom to be able to travel or visit one's home country, a new stamping was required if the old visa expired.

It's not ideal but a lot of us basically didn't leave for several years (even pre-Trump 1) to avoid the hassle of a new stamping.

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#117
post #106

As noted clearly in the article, this is a temporary pause while personnel are brought up to speed on the protocols. The real question is how just or unjust the refusals will be once it is unpaused. It's bad enough that the process is excruciatingly slow. Users keep downvoting my comment even though it is the only literal interpretation supported by the evidence, without any evidence to the contrary. I would rethink…

You're obviously wrong, it obviously doesn't make sense to close down instead is implementing the training for the new protocols in parallel. And the current disruption is just as real of a question as the future refusals. And obviously courts couldn't do it easily. By the way, you also haven't provided any evidence for your opinion, why would you burden type replies with it?

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Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#118
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you (and thanks to tzs) - was genuinely curious and wanted to read about it.

No problem it's a pretty interesting statistic one of the articles explains how it might be misleading but it doesn't dispute the numbers.

Yes I found that article (despite the white text at the top) to also be interesting! Thanks again to both of you.

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#119
post #108
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first responsibility is to protect the rights of all people in the country. Citizenship is not required for protected rights

Why be a citizen at all if non-citizens have all the benefits and none of the responsibilities?

They can’t vote in most elections (except a few local elections in some places) and aren’t guaranteed entry at the border. They also can’t work a litany of jobs requiring citizenship.

They get a plenty bad enough shake. Let’s grant them the absolute basics of humane treatment and a fair shake at getting citizenship, sheesh.

Other countries get by just fine not having such a huge delta between haves and have nots on citizenship, and their social cohesion is better for it.

Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#120
post #15

So for those that don't know, it's quite common for a visa renewal to be required to leave the country. Depending on the visa, you might have to do this every year. So just imagine, having a normal job in the US and you're asked to leave to renew your visa and this stuff happens. That's no more appointment, not even a new date and you're now very likely unable to work and possibly can't even enter the country to get…

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I don't want to minimize your friend's situation. But, a spousal visa is very different from being a permanent resident (maybe I am misunderstanding). If he got it through marrying a US citizen, there's a 3-year wait for naturalization and otherwise it's a 5-year wait.

Naturalization never required leaving the country, at least in my experience but things might have changed.

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