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I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

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Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Okay, you can go but you should carry your passport Funny, since half of U.S. citizens don't have a passport.

It is insane to travel without a passport. How is it even possible! Americans are living in some weird timeline.

It's pretty common around the world.

EU citizens don't need a passport to travel across the EU (even outside the Schengen area, where you have to go through a border check), they just need an identity card.

(most) EU citizens could also travel to Turkey with their identity card.

EU citizens could travel to the UK with their identity card, for a few years after Brexit, as long as they got UK (pre-)settled status.

Russian citizens can travel to Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan without their international passport. They instead have an "internal" passport (meant to be used like an identity card, and for travel to closed towns inside the country), which is recognised by those other countries.

The same applies in the other direction for citizens of nearby countries travelling to Russia (even in the case of an Abkhazian internal passport. Abkhazia is recognised by only ~6 other UN member states).

I'm not sure in which way a US "passport card" differs from a plastic identity card. But it's notable that a few countries don't have either (UK doesn't... Russia and a few neighbouring countries, as mentioned before, instead have an "internal passport")

Of course, something in common with all the examples above, and with US citizens travelling to Mexico, is that you're travelling to neighbouring countries with friendly relations.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#392
post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought you only need a passport if you're crossing international borders?

If you're near a port of entry, you actually can be stopped at any time to be asked for proof of citizenship/visa/etc. See also https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/border-zone There are plenty of border patrol stops along highways that never cross a border where you'll be routinely stopped. In practice, that means "near the border with Mexico" where there are border patrol stations along highways well inside the US…

carry minimum documents especially inside the country.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#393
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In cases such as mine, where I am no longer the citizen of any other country except the USA, what would revocation of naturalized citizenship mean?

In theory, I believe the US is signatory to international treaties that say they will not make someone stateless. In practice, it probably depends on whether they can get any other country to accept you as a deportee.

They can also do it while you're abroad, and then it doesn't matter if the other country accepts you or not. The problem is wholly on your shoulders.

A notable case is Shamima Begum's: born in London, the UK deprived her of British citizenship, claiming that she anyhow had Bangladeshi citizenship (but she hasn't: the Government of Bangladesh said as much). Anyhow, since all of this time she has been in Syria, this is not really a problem for either the UK or Bangladesh.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is insane to travel without a passport. How is it even possible! Americans are living in some weird timeline.

It's pretty common around the world. EU citizens don't need a passport to travel across the EU (even outside the Schengen area, where you have to go through a border check), they just need an identity card. (most) EU citizens could also travel to Turkey with their identity card. EU citizens could travel to the UK with their identity card, for a few years after Brexit, as long as they got UK (pre-)settled status. Russ…

> I'm not sure in which way a US "passport card" differs from a plastic identity card. But it's notable that a few countries don't have either (UK doesn't... Russia and a few neighbouring countries, as mentioned before, instead have an "internal passport")

US simply doesn't have any official identity card.

So they make up replacements for when it's convenient to actually have one.

I suppose the goal is to encourage innovation in the identity theft industry... after all it adds to the PIB doesn't it?

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Okay, you can go but you should carry your passport Funny, since half of U.S. citizens don't have a passport.

It is insane to travel without a passport. How is it even possible! Americans are living in some weird timeline.

I have a US passport. I use it when I go to another country.

When I have traveling within the US I never take my passport. There is zero need and I may lose it so why even bother taking it when it serves no use?

My trip was a 6 week long road trip from the south eastern US through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, up to Seattle in the northwest, and then back to the south eastern US.

I had no intention of going to Mexico or Canada. They are fine countries but that was no the intent of this trip so I left my passport at home.

During this trip I learned that the US border patrol has set up border inspection points about 10 to 50 miles inside the US. Most of the southern border are remote desert regions where people can cross on foot and then try to meet up with someone in a vehicle on the other side. So the border patrol doesn't just patrol the actual border but has checkpoints inside the US on the roads near the border.

You don't need a passport to get through these as you never left the country.

But I was driving a vehicle (Honda CR-V) with an open cargo area that showed it was full of luggage, bags of food, and lots of water bottles. I probably looked suspicious like I was picking up immigrants on foot or smuggling drugs.

I wasn't. I was on a big road trip and wanted to be prepared for days if my car broke down on a side road and I was stuck in a desert area waiting 3 days to be rescued.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#396
post #3

I've seen recent examples of the government targeting green card holders for their speech. As a naturalized citizen who wants to exercise my free speech rights, how concerned should I be about potentially having my citizenship challenged on technical grounds? Are there realistic scenarios where this could happen despite First Amendment protections?

[flagged]

get ur brain worms checked out

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you denying that Hamas is a terrorist group? Committing terrorism is literally the central part of their operations. Are you denying that October 7th was terrorism? Are you denying that launching thousands of rockets against Israel to kill as many Jewish people as possible is terrorism?

Can you read the comment you're replying to again please? It doesn't mention Hamas anywhere in it

This is a very common trope in any Israel/Gaza debate. Person A says 'Palestinians' and Person B judos that into 'Hamas' to make Person A's point sound extremist.

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#398
post #3

I've seen recent examples of the government targeting green card holders for their speech. As a naturalized citizen who wants to exercise my free speech rights, how concerned should I be about potentially having my citizenship challenged on technical grounds? Are there realistic scenarios where this could happen despite First Amendment protections?

[flagged]

stop eating brain worms

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#399
post #242
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seats mean nothing. If there is a plurality and any kind of left movement there, what opposition have they given to the right? AFAICT, Yair's biggest criticism was that the war was managed poorly by Bibi. 80% of Israeli jews support the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. People are arrested for saying the oppressed have a right to defend themselves. You see videos of IDF troops calling for the death of all Arabs while they ar…

Yes, that's my point. Any plausible Israeli government, left, right or centre, would have conducted the war in roughly the same way, including the historical left governments of Ben Gurion, Meir, Rabin, Peres or Barak. Thus attempts to paint Israel as "right wing" due to its conduct of the war are fallacious. I'm just pointing out that painting falsehoods about Israel and its people (as you have continued to do in yo…

> Any plausible Israeli government, left, right or centre, would have conducted the war in roughly the same way

So why did Benny Gantz leave the unity government and say publicly that it was because of irreconcilable differences over how the war was being conducted?

"Roughly the same way" is a vague term that leaves a thousand miles of leeway of interpretation. Of course Benny Gantz also supported a military response in broad strokes, but stated war goals and prioritization of those goals were very different

Re: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

#400
post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not the policy of the Israeli military to torture prisoners. If your point is "The US behaved significantly worse than Israel in Abu Ghraib and I hate the US" then fair enough. I don't really have a response.

It is actually the policy though. There are tons of documented stories of physical and sexual abuse in Israeli prisons, which hold many people without formal charges or a right to any kind of due process. That being said, lots of countries do this. Iran, for example.

Israeli prisons are not run by the military. Holding people without formal charges is called "administrative detention" and also happens in Australia, Brazil, the UK and the US. Perhaps some abuses happen during that process. I wouldn't be surprised. But it's not the policy of Israel to abuse prisoners.
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