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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

#911

Post by SmirkingRevenge »

somenameforme wrote: post #612
eesmith wrote: post #604

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…

> But corporations have abused the system to unnecessarily employ immigrant labor in lieu of American

I'm not going to say this has never happened, but in general I don't think it's common or widespread. Generally, businesses going to the trouble of bringing in foreign labor through the various programs are trying to fulfill labor shortages.

You should be able to see evidence of it happening in jobs and unemployment numbers. You'd see it higher unemployment among American citizens than the workforce as a whole

Towards the end of the Biden admin, there was a great jobs report, but right-wing media and MAGA pundits spun it by saying the vast majority of all the new jobs were taken by immigrants.

That wasn't a lie, but it wasn't because immigrants were taking jobs that would have otherwise been filled with Americans as they tried to portray. If you looked at the employment numbers by citizenship status, citizens were sitting about as close to full employment as we could ever be. The only way to fill those jobs was to expand the labor pool.

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

#912

Post by valianteffort »

hvb2 wrote: post #526
conductr wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The leaving part is not the issue, as you try to immigrate into a country you're subject to the rules that country sets. You're always free to not immigrate into that country (this is not about asylum). The issue here is that, if you just left the country to do everything the country asked you, you are now in limbo. For how long? No one can tell. Does this mean you lose your job? Maybe. And when you decide it's no lo…

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

#913

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

hvb2 wrote: post #526
conductr wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The leaving part is not the issue, as you try to immigrate into a country you're subject to the rules that country sets. You're always free to not immigrate into that country (this is not about asylum). The issue here is that, if you just left the country to do everything the country asked you, you are now in limbo. For how long? No one can tell. Does this mean you lose your job? Maybe. And when you decide it's no lo…

> as you try to immigrate into a country you're subject to the rules that country sets

Always written and followed up with “but…”

If only the millions and millions of people that NGOs were shuffling in over the Biden years could have had some obvious and expected pushback… I don’t remember anyone here saying “geez, this could effect more than a response to illegal border crossings down the road!”

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

#914

Post by itake »

fg137 wrote: post #788
afavour wrote: post #687

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I’m informed on this topic…

Can you correct the mistake?

If I show up in China (or the USA) on a tourist visa with the plans to pursue a marriage and permanent residency, does that mean I get to backdate my permanent residency to the tourist visa because I’m able to pursue a marriage (PR)?

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

#915

Post by jpgvm »

y-curious wrote: post #873
aveao wrote: post #865

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Common around the world? I'd be curious what other countries require this, pretty much everywhere else I know has you renew your status within the country (incl. US), and they give you some form of proof of residence that takes the place of a visa (excl. US). In many cases I've seen this is either a sticker on your passport (incl. possibly a visa) or a physical card, and does not require traveling abroad for it for "…

Thailand explicitly requires you to leave the country. There are companies that specialize in bussing expats to nearby countries.

The so called "visa runs" are for getting around not having the appropriate visa.

I was on a proper employment visa 8 years, never needed to leave the country.

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

#916

Post by valianteffort »

bubblethink wrote: post #652
alphabeta3r56 wrote: post #637

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's on purpose too. To send a clear signal that we don't want you. It's just a mobster way of doing it.

It's not a mobster way, more like a weasel way. The reason it is a weasel's move is because decisions at the consulate are made by consular officers who are career public workers and won't deny visas for arbitrary reasons. That is bad for the political leadership because they just don't want to issue visas. So they need to invent evasive moves to throttle the pipeline by adding trainings, background checks, and other…

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

#917

Post by xyzelement »

rkozik1989 wrote: post #907
xyzelement wrote: post #888

As a relatively centrist American, I find this reasonable. I live in a very blue state (NY) and still 43% of my neighbors voted for Trump, with immigration cited as a key reason. So changes to immigration policy are to be expected. With regard to temporary visas, the article cited a few types of issues. For example the scenario where someone obtain a temporary visa (promissing to return is a part of the application)…

You do understand these rules impact Americans who petition for the visas of their foreign spouses, right? Its not just people coming into this country for work purposes only. Its awfully heartless to assume that the only immigrants coming over here are doing so to solely make money.

This was not mentioned in the linked article so I wasn't specifically holding that (nor did I see this mentioned in a lot of comments?)

Without knowing much about it - that sounds likewise like a something to be sympathetic about but also makes sense that it's part of the overall visa process.

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

#918

Post by Georgelemental »

afavour wrote: post #688
Georgelemental wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

H1B is explicitly a dual intent visa. You are allowed to pursue a green card while in the country on an H1B. It has been an accepted, valid path for a very long time now. If the government wishes to change that of course they can. But the humane approach would be to let those who have already started the process finish it.

You are allowed to pursue one, but the government is allowed to say no. Hence the need for a backup plan

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

#919

Post by pjc50 »

dijksterhuis wrote: post #799
ifwinterco wrote: post #689

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

couple of notes — 1a. Illegal immigration has nothing to do with visa based, legal immigration. illegal immigration is the type of immigration people are upset about here in the UK. most people have no problem with legal migration. 1b. anyone claiming the UK’s legal migration is any sort of problem right now, or in the past, should probably not be listened to in any way shape or form for anything they have to say on…

> illegal immigration is the type of immigration people are upset about here in the UK. most people have no problem with legal migration.

People claim that, but you can't read someone's immigration status from their face.

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

#920

Post by doc_ick »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #435
doc_ick wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see you trying to kick a field goal all the way from the school parking lot, good luck with that.

It's not popular to mention but the US is the most immigrated to country on the planet, almost 4x the next country. But really, immigrating to any country is quite complex. It's far from "just fill out a form" for pretty much every western country.

I’d like to see the data on that, as I wouldn’t be necessarily surprised but would like to verify first.

Though I may disagree on some for that, as now it seems the you should either mery someone from the admin or buy a gold 1million$ card and your good.

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