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> "America is a private club which accepts membership applications of people that it likes for whatever reasons" This is every nation state on earth. Of course

> "America is a private club which accepts membership applications of people that it likes for whatever reasons" This is every nation state on earth. Of course they care about your background, skills and likelihood of naturalization. It's hardly unique to the US

izacus 7y ago
> Of course they care about your background, skills and likelihood of naturalization. How is all that relevant when you're on a week long business trip or visiting as a tourist? Vast majority of visitors in USA are not staying.
- nraynaud 7y ago
  Or F1 student.
- gamedori 7y ago
  Afaik, for nonimmigrant visas they don't care about skills, but they do care about any ideological background (preventing terrorism) and they care a lot about the probability of overstaying the visa: they want to see evdence of connections and plans to return from the US.
  - vinni2 7y ago
    > Afaik, for nonimmigrant visas they don't care about skills, I am afraid they actually do. I know someone’s visitor visa was rejected because the consular officer thought he works on AI. I have no idea why working on AI is grounds for rejection.
    - vinni2 7y ago
      I don’t know why I am getting downvoted but I have been asked to submit my CV even when applying for B1 tourist visa. So they do care about skills.
lopmotr 7y ago
Most other countries don't have such a monopoly on being the best place to go to. For an engineer or scientist at least, America is often where your career can go the furthest. It seems a bit non-straightforward that the right of a private club to choose members seems like an important freedom, but that that only applies when there are numerous competitive alternative clubs. For countries, that's usually the case but America is number one in many ways and sometimes by such a wide margin that applicants don't really have a choice that isn't much worse. So maybe it has more responsibility to be fair in order to avoid being tyrannical to the rest of the world.

izacus 7y ago

> Of course they care about your background, skills and likelihood of naturalization. How is all that relevant when you're on a week long business trip or visiting as a tourist? Vast majority of visitors in USA are not staying.

nraynaud 7y ago
Or F1 student.
gamedori 7y ago
Afaik, for nonimmigrant visas they don't care about skills, but they do care about any ideological background (preventing terrorism) and they care a lot about the probability of overstaying the visa: they want to see evdence of connections and plans to return from the US.
- vinni2 7y ago
  > Afaik, for nonimmigrant visas they don't care about skills, I am afraid they actually do. I know someone’s visitor visa was rejected because the consular officer thought he works on AI. I have no idea why working on AI is grounds for rejection.
  - vinni2 7y ago
    I don’t know why I am getting downvoted but I have been asked to submit my CV even when applying for B1 tourist visa. So they do care about skills.

lopmotr 7y ago

Most other countries don't have such a monopoly on being the best place to go to. For an engineer or scientist at least, America is often where your career can go the furthest. It seems a bit non-straightforward that the right of a private club to choose members seems like an important freedom, but that that only applies when there are numerous competitive alternative clubs. For countries, that's usually the case but America is number one in many ways and sometimes by such a wide margin that applicants don't really have a choice that isn't much worse. So maybe it has more responsibility to be fair in order to avoid being tyrannical to the rest of the world.