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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

#671
post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They come with renewal expectations , assuming the situation hasn't changed. Reserving the right to change the rules unilaterally doesn't make you not an asshole if you actually exercise that right. And government only functions if it's predictable - if it's a random-number generator (outside of processes that are explicitly lotteries), what is anyone supposed to do? Why would anyone engage with it? In most states, e…

> They come with renewal expectations, assuming the situation hasn't changed What? Where is this expectation enumerated? An expiration date is in fact defined. I'm not sure where some legal expectation of guaranteed renewal could arise from. > unilaterally doesn't make you not an asshole if you actually exercise that right. "Asshole" is a matter of opinion, and rights aren't actually rights if you aren't ever able to…

> Where is this expectation enumerated?

Literally in the phrase "immigrant visa". An immigrant visa is definitionally a visa intended for someone to immigrate with.

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

#672

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And still exert downward pressure on wages. Just by virtue of having more people in the pool.

This would only make sense if there are a finite number of possible jobs and that more jobs are never added as an economy grows.

This would be interesting data to collect - given some field F, for each immigrant that enters the workforce, what is the delta between:

* The expected marginal increase in supply, from immigrants looking for jobs in F

* The expected marginal increase in demand, from immigrants (or non-immigrants identifying an opportunity) starting companies that need experts in F

And how strongly does that delta correlate with average salary in F?

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

#673
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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Re: U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

#674
post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1/ Training is only effective if you can fill the function of the job and learn from it. Many software engineering jobs people claim are stolen by H1B hires are filled by human beings more likely to meet the bar. Many American candidates just don’t. Filling a software role is hard. 2/ Demand for software is not static. Good software drives demand for more engineers in many cases, intra or extra-company. There is prob…

1/ Training goes all the way down the pipeline to colleges. If x% of students are foreign, then Americans didn't have the opportunity to get the education. Again... the skill issue falls apart when you consider teams at tech companies having 1 non-American national origin or caste. I'm very skeptical that, between two foreign candidates with the same U.S. education and experience but different national origins, the f…

People are not as capable as you think they are and software engineering (well) is actually difficult. You cannot just push more people in. People are not fungible.

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

#675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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> Every other refugee under the sun seemingly gets in with no issues What absolute steaming garbage. Literally 158 refugee visas have been approved this year for anyone but South Africans. And all asylum applications have been suspended since last 2025 except for... again, guess. https://www.rpc.state.gov/admissions-and-arrivals/ 2026 refugees: Africa: 10,255 (10,105 of which are South African) Asia: 0 Europe/Central…

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

#676
post #618
post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look around the thread and notice how little the comments defending these policies have to say about the policies themselves. Instead, what they all have in common is a vague underlying fear of being displaced, or sense that something owed to them is being taken.

The program has always "threatened" to displace citizens. That's not new and if that were the only reason motivating people then why wait till now to complain? Frankly I don't care if I'm fairly displaced. That's meritocracy at work. The reality is the program has been abused and stretched far beyond its intent by corporations in pursuit of cheap (I’d argue slave) labor. You cannot, with a straight face, argue that t…

Are you calling for open border with no controls? That's the only way to get meritocracy.

The system is set up so the casino wins. You cannot, with a straight face, argue the odds are in your favor, but there are rules about how the casino works, both formal and informal.

When a casino only investigates cases where someone wins $1 million on the slots, to see if there's a fault in the system, while never investigating all the times that people lose, that's technically within the legal system, but the spirit of gambling is not being upheld, and people get upset. Just ask Katerina Bookman.

The immigration system, with the thumb firmly in favor of the interests of capital, is still based on the expectation of good faith by those running the system, as doing otherwise results in orders of magnitude more rules, or an alternate set of unspoken rules based more on vibes.

"Pausing" is a bad faith breaking of the spirit of the system.

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

#677
post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cruelty is the point.

Look around the thread and notice how little the comments defending these policies have to say about the policies themselves. Instead, what they all have in common is a vague underlying fear of being displaced, or sense that something owed to them is being taken.

"Instead, what they all have in common is a vague underlying fear of being displaced, or sense that something owed to them is being taken."

This is true for both the citizens and the immigrants.

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

#678

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't ignore the impact of China also becoming a better place to live as well. China is a different place no than it was 20 years ago, and the need to go overseas anywhere is probably felt less today than back then.

Salaries are still very low (like 10x lower) compared to the US.

PPP is what matters financially, add on ethnic homogeny and familial presence in a culture that values both and staying becomes a lot more compelling.

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

#679
post #620

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Maybe if legal immigration were more achievable we wouldn't have so many illegal immigrants.

> Maybe if legal immigration were more achievable we wouldn't have so many illegal immigrants.

Maybe if cars were cheaper people wouldn’t need to steal then.

Do you hear yourself?

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

#680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No more than they like white people. The only race in any study you can find shows that every racial group prefers themselves the most, other races less, and whites the least. Except white people. Who've been conditioned to get rid of their in-group bias. If HN supported images, I could show you the charts. I looked at that data and decided deliberately, out of rational self interest to be just like them and put my o…

> The only race in any study you can find shows that every racial group prefers themselves the most, other races less, and whites the least. Hard to parse .. ESL ? That aside, what made up assertive nonsense is this? There are many stories and studies about various non Caucasian groups WhiteMaxxing to make themselves look more Caucasian because . eg: (2013) - Asian women are turning to plastic surgery to look more Ca…

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