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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

#551

Post by Solstafir »

Georgelemental wrote: post #512
vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #342

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…

It is always possible to make rules stricter for the new applicants. While there was some complaints with visa price hikes, they were for new visas so it was okay. Denying existing legal visa holders entry or time to wrap things up doesn't seem bad to you? These are not criminals per say.

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

#552

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #548
Georgelemental wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An immigrant who has followed due process is equivalent to a homeless person who has convinced the property owner to willingly let the homeless person stay in the property owner's living room. The property owner is allowed to change their mind about the arrangement at any point, unless and until the person obtains part ownership of the property (citizenship).

The property owner in this case is the American people, who I'm pretty sure don't support this. They may have hired a property manager, but if the manager goes rogue, what the owners say is more important.

OK but that's a much different argument from "the cruelty is the point".

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

#553

Post by alexgoodhart »

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #342

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…

“Feels intentionally cruel”?

Where have you been? There is so much evidence of the deliberate cruelty that it beggars belief you’d say that.

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

#554

Post by GeneralMayhem »

15155 wrote: post #470
scoofy wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, anyone who is still defending this administration isn't even trying to have a conversation in good faith. I have a Republican friend who appreciates the Supreme Court Justices, and then suddenly has zero clue about any news story involving the administration, and shrugs off the war. This despite meticulously following Benghazi hearings when it was someone he wanted to dislike. He would rather Trump be Romney,…

> defending this administration "Leave to renew" has been policy for decades.

First, that's not what this is talking about. "Leave to renew" becoming "leave, and you will not be renewed" on a whim is insane, self-destructive cruelty.

But also, it's only been "the policy" since 2004. That's technically "decades", but only just, and it was also introduced for idiotic pretextual reasons. The ostensible reason is that domestic State Department offices don't have the equipment to capture biometric data. Seriously. That's the argument. The law doesn't say "you have to leave to renew", it says "you have to get fingerprinted to renew", and conveniently there's nowhere in the United States that can do that, despite every police station in the country having that equipment at this point.

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

#555

Post by jmyeet »

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…

This administration is clearly on a war against immigration of all sorts but... we need to be accurate here.

This is specifically a pause on immigrant visas. That is, green cards. So this is for family-based green cards and investor green cards through consular processing (ie when out of the country).

As yet, work visas and other nonimmigrant visas are unaffected.

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

#556

Post by itake »

nostrebored wrote: post #544
itake wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 2 issues: 1/ Employment provides training and experience. If the h1bs are given access to the jobs (training and experience), then is it the American's fault that they are no longer considered "best"? 2/ h1b increases labor supply, not the demand. More supply, means lower wages for everyone.

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 fact that the candidate whose nationality matches the current team composition is selected can be explained purely as a matter of skill.

2/ Great, lets train up more American engineers to push the demand higher.

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

#557

Post by wat10000 »

unselect5917 wrote: post #485
wat10000 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just how many people are being born through birth tourism and end up claiming more in welfare than they pay in taxes?

Estimates vary from 40-80%. Not just birth tourism, but all sorts of government handouts (your tax dollars). Especially under Mayorkas.

40-80% of what?

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

#558

Post by GeneralMayhem »

unselect5917 wrote: post #54
miltonlost wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it's on the Trump administration being full of racists and white nationalists and wanting to deport immigrants. Why do you wonder if it's economic instead of the Trump administration's announced policies of stopping immigration, including unconstitutionally removing birthright citizenship?

Conflating not wanting to compete with foreigners for jobs in your own country with racism is bad faith bullshit. Foreigners of the exact same race are equally unwanted competition.

They say it out loud. The people writing these policies are vocally proud of being white nationalists. Defending them with "well maybe they have a good reason!" is evidence that you're either on board with their actual agenda (i.e., evil) or incomprehensibly naive (i.e., stupid).

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

#559

Post by hvb2 »

rayiner wrote: post #442
baby_souffle wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s like saying that it’s “cruelty” to remove someone who uses a 2 hour parking spot as their permanent car parking. That's a very weak analogy for the moral issue here. The consequences are radically different; losing a parking space is a minor inconvenience; losing immigration status can/does involve relocation and upends employment, family, property, and years of life planning / general stability.

[flagged]

No, people are following the rules and politely asking for a renewal in a different country.

The issue here is that they're not being denied, the government is basically refusing to make a decision for an indefinite amount of time.

I'm assuming most normal cases will get their visas eventually, the question is when. In the meantime the applicant can pay rent in the US, find some place to live abroad and maybe continue working from overseas? All so the state department can retrain a few people?

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

#560

Post by 15155 »

GeneralMayhem wrote: post #554
15155 wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> defending this administration "Leave to renew" has been policy for decades.

First, that's not what this is talking about. "Leave to renew" becoming "leave, and you will not be renewed" on a whim is insane, self-destructive cruelty. But also, it's only been "the policy" since 2004. That's technically "decades", but only just, and it was also introduced for idiotic pretextual reasons. The ostensible reason is that domestic State Department offices don't have the equipment to capture biometric…

[flagged]
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