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U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

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

#401
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the current admin are working hard to destroy the U.S as if they're foreign agents The U.S. had a draconian restrictive immigration policy from 1921-1965. That worked fine. How can you say with a straight face that someone must be a “foreign agent” to think doing the same thing again will have the same result? Surely the burden is on you to prove the opposite, right?

And the U.S. has been doing even better since 1965. So really the question goes back to you. Either way, your whataboutism isn’t even relevant since those were congressional changes. This is the executive trying to undermine the law.

There is a whole site with various trends that diverged or changed since 1971.

https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

It's not exactly an unbiased selection but it is interesting.

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

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not connected - this is a pause on immigrant visas, not work visas.

What do you think EB visas are: immigrant visas or work visas? Answer: they are both.

You're correct. I spoke a little too loosely, there are many different kinds of visas, but something like 95% of all work visas issued each year fall into the category of non-immigrant.

I'll concede that this statistic is cold comfort if you fall into that 5% category, but the point is that work visa almost always means non-immigrant.

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

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Foreign workers are here for the benefit of the United States But that's the point, isn't it? Some foreign workers who "worked the US for the benefit of the US" are now unable to come back to the US. Isn't that bad for the US too?

Not until all Americans who can work have jobs

But America is a capitalist system. The market has determined that not all Americans deserve jobs. Are Americans willing to work a 996 schedule for 2.00/hr to compete with labor overseas?

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

#404
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can’t think of any other rationale. Lack of real domestic enforcement would be an obvious one, so everything gets pushed to the border entry points.

They know who you are and where you work… how hard could it be to enforce rules? Wait, what’s getting enforced here, anyway? They are getting a new visa, no? I don’t believe this rationale at all.

No, not necessarily. Sometimes visas are rejected. Unless you're talking about giving everyone who gets a visa a green card?

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

#405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money does not fix the supply problem the parent comment pointed out (at least for fields that need multi year training). Let’s say that tomorrow we need 1M nuclear physicists. How can money help? You still need to wait for the talent pipeline to divert.

Fortunately such ridiculous hypotheticals have no correspondence to reality. Most every job can be easily trained or cross trained. Mathematicians make good physicists. Nor is there some foreign pipeline of a million physicists. Such ridiculous argument exist only to perpetuate the lie of a skills shortage and deny the wage shortage.

They may make good physicists, but not great physicists. Similar to saying I know how to drive a car, now let me win the inde 500. Things take to for specialization, even with the advent of guessing and checking machines (llms).

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

#406
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…

Not trying to make a political point at all and perhaps a controversial take. But, it’s specifically and maybe implicitly by design. Meaning they made this way precisely so you have to reapply so they can change their mind or block you out later. Nothing about getting a visa is permanent and you’re fully at risk when you move here with that type of status. If you evaluate the situation that’s always been the case.

Lots of countries have temporary worker status. The requirement to leave the country to re-up it appears to be a distinctively American thing.

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

#407
post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not until all Americans who can work have jobs

But America is a capitalist system. The market has determined that not all Americans deserve jobs. Are Americans willing to work a 996 schedule for 2.00/hr to compete with labor overseas?

Nothing in capitalism prevents a country from prioritizing its own citizens.

And it is uncontroversial in most countries that a country should do this.

So this isn't a contradiction. Indeed america is capitalist. And it is also prioritizing its own citizens. There is nothing weird about that.

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

#408
post #146

Not just immigration, seems like travel in general is becoming difficult too. It's a real shame that just when we have the tech and infrastructure to allow people to travel anywhere in the world within a day, for a single person to be able to explore the entirety of this awesome planet for the first time in human history, that the worst among us have to enforce artificial borders and deny everyone this basic freedom.…

> to enforce artificial borders and deny everyone this basic freedom. a very postnational view, humanist in a way, lipsius or erasmus would recognize it. that sort of individuated cosmopolitanism only works for educated men and women with means, who have or have the capacity to self-actualize. not for the masses. the nation is still a cradle to protect and nurture the commonwealth, and given that they took hundreds t…

> and given that they took hundreds to sometimes thousands of years to form, i don't think borders are artificial in the least.

"Borders" as they are treated today began barely 200 years ago, and only started being enforced so strictly since WW1 and then even worse after WW2.

For the vast >95% of human history, if you could walk to somewhere and survive there, you could live there.

The real ironic shit is that most of the travel and immigration restrictions of today are instituted by the descendants of people that invaded and occupied the lands of other people :')

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

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a couple of reports that this applied to. It's incredibly disruptive. "I've got to fly back to India to renew my visa." "Okay, when will you be back?" "I have no idea, it depends when I can get an appointment. It could be next week, it might be in a month." "[State department] We're pausing all visa appointments." "Well fuck." Meanwhile I've got a tech lead who is 12 hours away from the rest of the team. He…

[flagged]

You are a great person. Thankfully you work at a non-profit and donate all of your money to charity, otherwise if you work for personal profit or company profit you may be a hypocrite.

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

#410
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…

This report is for immigrant visas. H-1B visas are not immigrant visas and are the ones that require the stamp renewal in the home country.

That being said, yes, the way the current administration handles immigrant visas, worker visas, and more is absolutely inhumane and completely asinine. I've been through it with family and friends, and it is painful and can be heartbreaking even.

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