U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications • Hacker News Board

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

#821

Post by aprilthird2021 » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:24 AM UTC

itake wrote: post #600

Solstafir wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are arguments from the other side too. Many H1B folks do keep one foot back in the country they are from. But then a lot of backlash on specifically Indian folks for sending most of their salary back home. They know that this is transient state, many of them have rented housing, but still these visas are not like weekly visas, they are for 3 years, people would build somewhat of a life in that time and uprootin…

I don't have opinions about them sending their salary back home. Obviously its better for the USA if the money stayed in the USA, but "earning money in one locality and spending it another" is really really really situation, even in the USA. American Police officers are famous for not actually living in the cities they work in. In each country I have lived in, I was a guest. With that knowledge, I carefully designed…

These people are productive members of our society who enrich our country and our economy. The idea that they are guests we are hosting is absurd

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

#822

Post by bubblethink » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:24 AM UTC

dcow wrote: post #799

999900000999 wrote: post #791

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the point. The current people in power don’t want immigrants because the vast majority of immigrants are non white. The tall blond nordics they really want have no real motivation to deal with this bizarre BS as they usually already have a great standard of living in say Norway. So you end up with a ton of folks from places where running water is still a luxury. A lot of these people are even excellent church…

I find the idea the only immigrants can do low skill labor kinda… obtuse. Maybe Americans should pick their own crops instead of living in a delusion that certain labor is beneath them. Boomer era “all my kids are going to get white collar jobs” type thinking isn’t sustainable.

It's not beneath them per se. It's just that this trade only makes sense for a certain slice of the population at a certain time in their life. The immigrant is willing to work in that job because what is offered is not just the salary but something more (chance to immigrate, stability, arbitrage, etc.). It's similar to research assistants or grad students in universities. They are doing cutting edge research for peanuts because what they are getting is something more (degree, skills, future earning potential). It's hard to replace this dynamic. Or in other words, the dollar value of the intangibles is so high that if you were to put a price on it, it would make your business unviable.

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

#823

Post by flanked-evergl » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:25 AM UTC

DiscourseFan wrote: post #789

flanked-evergl wrote: post #710

[flagged]

This seems intentionally inflammatory

I mean this in the best possible spirit, but if it does seem intentionally inflammatory, then I think it's mostly a result of your political priors.

The 4th top reply on this submission is: "the current admin are working hard to destroy the U.S as if they're foreign agents."

If I were a less patient man I would also find this inflammatory, but I know the person saying it just says it because they genuinely believe it, they aren't saying it to make me angry. Furthermore, because of the political bias prevalent here, most people here would agree with it, instead of disagree with it, so they would not find it inflammatory at all and do not consider what people with other political views than their own think of it.

I get more people will disagree with my comment than with the comment I quoted, and downvote my comment, but that is their choice. I posted it because that is my sentiment on this matter, this is what I genuinely believe. This to me is good news. As good as news can be. This is just the reality, and there is nothing intentionally inflammatory about reality. It just exists.

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

#824

Post by dcow » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:26 AM UTC

This is political warfare. War is cruel and inhumane. If you want to stop the cruelty, stop the war.

There’s a lot of discussion about whether this is cruel or justified or legal—whatever. This sucks for people who get caught up in our immigration fight and ultimately it’s bad for all of us because it makes the US a less attractive place for immigrants.

However, we are here (1) because US citizens voted for more scrutiny of the immigration process to make sure people immigrating are successfully landing in the US and not taking advantage of the systems we have in place. And (2) because a vocal minority is unwilling to enforce any of our existing immigration laws and is actively sabotaging the administration’s attempts to do so. Nobody has clean hands.

In the US we do not approve visas for immigrants who we suspect will become dependent on our welfare system. This isn’t some new rule Trump made up to get rid of immigrants because he’s cruel, it’s existed for over a century. Fun fact: the current statutory language Rubio used in January to limit immigration from 75 countries comes from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, a Democrat sponsored bill.

The legal challenge honestly feels like a technicality which is probably why the state department responded as they did. A judge said we can’t limit the ban by country based on public-charge language, arguing that the public-charge consideration must be evaluated independent of nationality or in other words, it can’t be used to institute a country specific ban. So the state department removed the country specific ban and said fine all immigration is paused until we can properly train people to evaluate public-charge since the current training is ineffective.

The state department tried the surgical path, judicial activism, whether technically correct or not, vacated the surgical path. So the state department escalated with a tactic that more literally adheres to the judges interpretation but also has more collateral damage.

This bickering is dumb and shouldn’t be happening in the first place.

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

#825

Post by deadbabe » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:27 AM UTC

dcow wrote: post #799

999900000999 wrote: post #791

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the point. The current people in power don’t want immigrants because the vast majority of immigrants are non white. The tall blond nordics they really want have no real motivation to deal with this bizarre BS as they usually already have a great standard of living in say Norway. So you end up with a ton of folks from places where running water is still a luxury. A lot of these people are even excellent church…

I find the idea the only immigrants can do low skill labor kinda… obtuse. Maybe Americans should pick their own crops instead of living in a delusion that certain labor is beneath them. Boomer era “all my kids are going to get white collar jobs” type thinking isn’t sustainable.

Immigrants aren’t the only ones who can do low skill labor, machines can do it too.

But doing any kind of labor that a machine can do, is beneath your capacity as a human, so you shouldn’t do that job, you should do other jobs that require human effort or where the quality of human output is valued.

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

#826

Post by enaaem » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:28 AM UTC

somenameforme wrote: post #687

eesmith wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 investigatin…

I think what he's saying is if a corporation has a genuine need of some high specialist in a skill, and no American has that skill - then okay, such is life - bring in a foreign worker. But corporations have abused the system to unnecessarily employ immigrant labor in lieu of American, because immigrant workers not only tend to earn well below market wages (which is supposed to be illegal), but also tend to be far mo…

The way it works in some countries in Europe is that you have to pay the foreign worker a minimum wage that is x% above industry standard for that role. No need to check if they have special skills. This will obviously not fly among corporate donors.

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

#827

Post by 999900000999 » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:29 AM UTC

dcow wrote: post #799

999900000999 wrote: post #791

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the point. The current people in power don’t want immigrants because the vast majority of immigrants are non white. The tall blond nordics they really want have no real motivation to deal with this bizarre BS as they usually already have a great standard of living in say Norway. So you end up with a ton of folks from places where running water is still a luxury. A lot of these people are even excellent church…

I find the idea the only immigrants can do low skill labor kinda… obtuse. Maybe Americans should pick their own crops instead of living in a delusion that certain labor is beneath them. Boomer era “all my kids are going to get white collar jobs” type thinking isn’t sustainable.

I’d only say change the system to provide a pathway to residency. If you’re willing to work 12 hour days to ensure my fat American born self keeps eating , you deserve a spot here.

One of my former partners was making around 200k. Her grandparents cleaned homes.

The idea is that you come here and your life is crappy low paid work, but your kids and their kids have amazing careers.

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

#828

Post by BrandoElFollito » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:30 AM UTC

retired wrote: post #386

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the EU you do not need to leave to renew your visa. I don't know how common it is elsewhere.

Visa rules are country specific and don’t apply to the EU in general. There are countries that require you to leave.

Do you have any examples? I expected Schengen to have a common set of requirements regarding visas.

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

#829

Post by ulfw » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:30 AM UTC

hvb2 wrote: 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…

Inhumane is the whole idea of the NewUSA

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

#830

Post by orhmeh09 » Thu, Aug 27, 2026, 9:31 AM UTC

Balooga wrote: post #285

tialaramex wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that you can "just renounce" although notice that this won't necessarily work (it will for the US assuming you follow the procedure properly) However being a dual citizen isn't necessarily all upside. Citizenship comes with requirements, particularly in some countries military service is mandatory and so if you're a citizen - even though you are a permanent resident of somewhere else, you must either go do yo…

> You also get treated differently if things go wrong. Not treated differently. Treated the same. You are required by law to enter your country of citizenship using that country's passport (this is true for every country). Not doing so can result in fines or jail time. This is precisely to stop idiots from playing the "foreigner" card to try to, for example get out of paying a speeding ticket or parking fines.

You are spreading false information. I routinely enter my other country with a combination of US passport and national ID card. I haven't renewed my passport for that country in almost 20 years, more than half of which I was living there for.