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U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

wsj.com

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

#881

Post by ekidd »

larsonian wrote: post #846
account42 wrote: post #790

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't now about the UK but having to leave to renew your visa is not unique to the US.

Name one country, then. None that I'm aware of require you to leave the country to renew an immigration visa. Switching from a visitor visa to an immigration visa, sure. But if you're already on an immigration visa or residence permit, it's normally expected that you are, well, an immigrant. That your home, domicile, center of vital interests, whatever you want to call it, is in the country. I know of immigration sys…

Yeah, this is the problem. If you're on an immigrant visa, working a real job, then you have a life in the US: an apartment or a house, a pile of belongings, maybe a spouse and kids. If you need to leave the country to renew your immigrant visa, you may not be allowed back in to pack your apartment, sell your house, or help your US spouse and kids prepare to move to a country that will allow your family to stay together. It's a giant neon sign telling you you're not at all welcome here.

Of course, if you have a spouse and kids, this all gets easier once you have permanent resident status. Which used to be comparatively easy to get once you were married and you had offspring running around. I don't know what that process looks like now.

In practice, this kind of arbitrary screwing with people makes the US far too risky for educated, professional immigrants. So the scientists and the engineers and the company founders will just go elsewhere and build that country's economy. Which is fine, in the long run: If the US doesn't want to build the future or create new industries, then the voters have every right to vote for that. We've already decided we have no hope of competing with China in cars. And we'll need to cede more industries over time. As far as I can tell, the US has benefited heavily from poaching other people's scientists and engineers and professionals for decades now. But maybe the voters don't buy my argument, and they believe that chasing away skilled professionals and imposing 100% tariffs will lead to the future they want. It's a difference in beliefs about about what makes a country prosperous, and people have a right to vote based on their beliefs.

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

#882

Post by enaaem »

khazhoux wrote: post #690
shostack wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cruelty is the point.

Like most internet meme phrases, this is both trite and inaccurate. The cruelty is not the point. This administration has decided foreigners are the scapegoat, and wants to get rid of as many as they can. It’s heartless, but cruelty is not the objective.

Cruelty is the objective, because the America is unwilling to enact the laws that will most effectively stem immigration. These are:

1. Make it illegal to hire undocumented immigrants. 2. Foreign specialists need to earn at least an x% above industry standard (to prove they are specialists).

These laws will obviously not fly among corporate donors. Trump will also never deport all illegals because of how much hospitality and agriculture rely on them. In the end it is all show and spectacle. That's what all the tactical gear is for.

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

#883

Post by CTDOCodebases »

soco wrote: post #810
dcow wrote: post #796

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yet here we are. They even recognized officially (Labor Department, October '25) that Americans are not willing to pick up these jobs.

The laws of supply and demand apply to labour as well.

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

#884

Post by noelwelsh »

philipallstar wrote: post #865
noelwelsh wrote: post #860

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between what is legal and what is moral. If you think that there is no difference you also hold that slavery was moral up until the time it was illegal (and you might then wonder why abolitionists campaigned against a moral act.) Similarly, the visa system may have always had this uncertainty but that does not mean it is moral, or that it is moral to use it in this way.

Who said it was moral?

That is the implication of what conductr wrote.

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

#886

Post by fg137 »

afavour wrote: post #771
itake wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an American that lives abroad. I have first-hand experience how other countries treat 'immigrants'. H1B is a temporary non-immigrant visa. I could never imagine myself buying a home in a country where I don't have permanent access to that real estate. I am not opposed to voting to prevent non-PRs from owning real estate in order to keep housing prices lower for residents and prevent non-immigrants from shooting t…

> H1B is a temporary non-immigrant visa. It’s a dual purpose visa. You are allowed to pursue immigration (i.e. a green card) while you have an H1B.

This. The dude has no idea what they are talking about.

It's amazing even on HN people are openly giving their opinions while being completely uninformed of the facts.

Imagine the discussions elsewhere.

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

#887

Post by haaz »

tptacek wrote: post #556
s1artibartfast wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is extremely common in europe and asia

In which European countries?

All students on visas in UK have to leave the country if they want to change to another visa, often involves people either flying home or else getting a cheap flight to a Schengen country

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

#888

Post by [deleted] »

mschuster91 wrote: post #787
ifwinterco wrote: post #773

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at the moment, but the result of the current UK system has been huge uncontrolled levels of immigration leading to deep public resentment, so that may change in the future

> leading to deep public resentment That "public resentment" mostly was fueled by a rabid, out of control yellow press and a healthy dose of Russian propaganda spread by Russia-financed entities (Brexit, UKIP and Reform UK all have been shown to have very suspicious links to Russian money).

[deleted]

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

#889

Post by avazhi »

hvb2 wrote: post #607
conductr wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The issue here is that, if you just left the country to do everything the country asked you, you are now in limbo. I feel like I’ve said it a few times but - Yes, exactly. The country wants you to leave and then get’s to decide if you can come back. That’s how it’s designed. On purpose. You’re approaching it from a perspective where you’re being asked to leave and your reentry is a right. It’s not. They never said,…

> I feel like I’ve said it a few times but - Yes, exactly. The country wants you to leave and then get’s to decide if you can come back. That’s how it’s designed. On purpose. That is how it's designed, and that's fine. But make a decision... They're pausing the decision making for an indefinite amount of time. That's not how it was designed, but it sure does look like that's on purpose.

Of course it’s on purpose. That’s the point: to get temp migrants to leave. There’s nothing inhumane about that, and the government is acting within the scope of its authority.

In the end this is 100% a political issue and who knows why it is on the HN front page.

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

#890

Post by fg137 »

Georgelemental wrote: post #524
vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #345

My company has a H-1B guy that travelled home to India a few months ago and since then can't come back because the next date he can get with the US embassy is next year. Seems he may get stuck even longer... I am to some degree on board with keeping a closer eye on immigration, but the way the current administration does it feels intentionally cruel. The guy at my company has a house, wife, and kids in the US; his vi…

An H-1B is a temporary non-immigrant visa. You're not supposed to rely on it to build a life in the US with no backup plan; that was never the intent of the law. However, successive administrations ignored the intent of the law, for so long that people began to rely on assurances that the law never promised. Now that the law is getting applied properly, those people are facing the consequences. It sucks for them, but…

Your first sentence is factually wrong.

I highly recommend that you refrain from commenting on any immigration related topics until you can get your facts correct.

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