4 ms·

For those confused: Unfortunately, the US focuses on your origin (where you were born) rather than your nationality. alisahik is an Australian citizen, but was

For those confused: Unfortunately, the US focuses on your origin (where you were born) rather than your nationality. alisahik is an Australian citizen, but was not born there. My guess is he was born in India, which has an absurdly long queue in the US immigration process. Really sucks.

alephnerd 3y ago
Or China. But yea. That is what probably happened.
- BeetleB 3y ago
  China's wait times are nowhere near as long as the OPs.
  - alephnerd 3y ago
    Wow. I didn't realize China's backlog fell to 2 years. Then again, I guess it makes sense. Both the US and China have made it much harder to leave China and enter the US now. That is not great if we are in a talent Cold War with a near peer.
    - mkii 3y ago
      > Both the US and China have made it much harder to leave China and enter the US now. Which policies do you think create this? It could be entirely probable the Chinese just don't find it attractive to live and work in the US after getting their college degrees here.
      - alephnerd 3y ago
        On the US side, we're still enforcing EO 10043 [0] which prevents Chinese nationals who studied at any Chinese university part of the Chinese Civil-Military Fusion strategy from getting F- and J- visas, and requires enhanced background checks on other visa categories. Turns out, just about every Chinese STEM program will get a military grant, the same way just about every American STEM program will get a DoD grant. On the Chinese side, they put a cap of $50,000 on money or assets you can bring outside of China each year [1]. Tuition is included in that cap. That means most American universities are out of reach for Chinese students, and immigrating from China to the US with your entire family is a pain (you need some money to land on your feet). Also, during 2019-2022 there was this small policy called Zero COVID that severely restricted ingress and egress. Also, US Consulates and Embassies paused visa processing for almost 2 years during the pandemic. [0] - https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/04/2020-12217/suspension-of-entry-as-nonimmigrants-of-certain-students-and-researchers-from-the-peoples-republic https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/04/2020-12... [1] - https://www.safe.gov.cn/en/2017/1230/1391.html https://www.safe.gov.cn/en/2017/1230/1391.html
fallingknife 3y ago
What an idiotic system! Any sane policy would just put a max number of annual visas or total active visa holders and choose the best value applicants based on a scoring system, but no we can't have nice things.
- mkii 3y ago
  You describe the current system, just that country of origin is a factor in the "scoring system."
- dudul 3y ago
  Ensuring diversity of immigration sounds like an important criteria to keep in mind.
  - aiisahik 3y ago
    Really? 1. Is that why they give special virtually uncapped visa classes to Australia, Singapore, Canada and Chile while everyone else has to deal with h1B? 2. Do you think there are country based limits when admitting people through the southern border or granting refugee status?
    - dudul 3y ago
      I have no idea what these have to do with the matter being discussed here. We're talking about legal immigration and cap applied to visa/green card. What is "virtually uncapped"? Do you have a source explaining how Australia, Singapore, Canada and Chile are treated differently? And as an FYI, I see no problem with Canada having a special regime.
      - aiisahik 3y ago
        https://www.jackson-hertogs.com/us-immigration/temporary-work-authorization/h-1b1-singapore-chile-free-trade-agreement/ https://www.jackson-hertogs.com/us-immigration/temporary-wor... BTW Mexico gets the same special regime as Canada under NAFTA.
mkii 3y ago
That's a feature, not a bug. Otherwise you could find X country that is loose with citizenship requirements and get around the US' per-country limit.
- aiisahik 3y ago
  Only a feature if you believe in the per country limit. The alternative is to just score everyone based on point based system and admit the highest scorers regardless of national origin.
  - mkii 3y ago
    > point based system Today if you're an illegal migrant and claim asylum, you get +inf points. If you're born in certain countries with long wait time, you get -inf points. Clearly the system today is working within your definition.
    - filoleg 3y ago
      > If you're born in certain countries with long wait time, you get -inf points. Re-read the parent comment again. They say "point-based system [...] regardless of national origin", which implies that the origin country wouldn't have any effect aka point-value (neither negative nor positive) attached to it. > if you're an illegal migrant and claim asylum, you get +inf points Bringing up the asylum visa category makes zero sense, because it was obvious from the context (both the parent comment and the entire thread) that the conversation was about a point system in the context of employment-based visas. Having a point-based system go cross-category or even used at all in most categories doesn't make sense. So no, the system you described isn't working with their definition at all.
      - mkii 3y ago
        Ok, so you want to make a system that does not include some otherwise very popular criteria to the citizens of the host nation? Because... it benefits you?

alephnerd 3y ago

Or China. But yea. That is what probably happened.

BeetleB 3y ago
China's wait times are nowhere near as long as the OPs.
- alephnerd 3y ago
  Wow. I didn't realize China's backlog fell to 2 years. Then again, I guess it makes sense. Both the US and China have made it much harder to leave China and enter the US now. That is not great if we are in a talent Cold War with a near peer.
  - mkii 3y ago
    > Both the US and China have made it much harder to leave China and enter the US now. Which policies do you think create this? It could be entirely probable the Chinese just don't find it attractive to live and work in the US after getting their college degrees here.
    - alephnerd 3y ago
      On the US side, we're still enforcing EO 10043 [0] which prevents Chinese nationals who studied at any Chinese university part of the Chinese Civil-Military Fusion strategy from getting F- and J- visas, and requires enhanced background checks on other visa categories. Turns out, just about every Chinese STEM program will get a military grant, the same way just about every American STEM program will get a DoD grant. On the Chinese side, they put a cap of $50,000 on money or assets you can bring outside of China each year [1]. Tuition is included in that cap. That means most American universities are out of reach for Chinese students, and immigrating from China to the US with your entire family is a pain (you need some money to land on your feet). Also, during 2019-2022 there was this small policy called Zero COVID that severely restricted ingress and egress. Also, US Consulates and Embassies paused visa processing for almost 2 years during the pandemic. [0] - https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/04/2020-12217/suspension-of-entry-as-nonimmigrants-of-certain-students-and-researchers-from-the-peoples-republic https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/06/04/2020-12... [1] - https://www.safe.gov.cn/en/2017/1230/1391.html https://www.safe.gov.cn/en/2017/1230/1391.html

fallingknife 3y ago

What an idiotic system! Any sane policy would just put a max number of annual visas or total active visa holders and choose the best value applicants based on a scoring system, but no we can't have nice things.

mkii 3y ago
You describe the current system, just that country of origin is a factor in the "scoring system."
dudul 3y ago
Ensuring diversity of immigration sounds like an important criteria to keep in mind.
- aiisahik 3y ago
  Really? 1. Is that why they give special virtually uncapped visa classes to Australia, Singapore, Canada and Chile while everyone else has to deal with h1B? 2. Do you think there are country based limits when admitting people through the southern border or granting refugee status?
  - dudul 3y ago
    I have no idea what these have to do with the matter being discussed here. We're talking about legal immigration and cap applied to visa/green card. What is "virtually uncapped"? Do you have a source explaining how Australia, Singapore, Canada and Chile are treated differently? And as an FYI, I see no problem with Canada having a special regime.
    - aiisahik 3y ago
      https://www.jackson-hertogs.com/us-immigration/temporary-work-authorization/h-1b1-singapore-chile-free-trade-agreement/ https://www.jackson-hertogs.com/us-immigration/temporary-wor... BTW Mexico gets the same special regime as Canada under NAFTA.

mkii 3y ago

That's a feature, not a bug. Otherwise you could find X country that is loose with citizenship requirements and get around the US' per-country limit.

aiisahik 3y ago
Only a feature if you believe in the per country limit. The alternative is to just score everyone based on point based system and admit the highest scorers regardless of national origin.
- mkii 3y ago
  > point based system Today if you're an illegal migrant and claim asylum, you get +inf points. If you're born in certain countries with long wait time, you get -inf points. Clearly the system today is working within your definition.
  - filoleg 3y ago
    > If you're born in certain countries with long wait time, you get -inf points. Re-read the parent comment again. They say "point-based system [...] regardless of national origin", which implies that the origin country wouldn't have any effect aka point-value (neither negative nor positive) attached to it. > if you're an illegal migrant and claim asylum, you get +inf points Bringing up the asylum visa category makes zero sense, because it was obvious from the context (both the parent comment and the entire thread) that the conversation was about a point system in the context of employment-based visas. Having a point-based system go cross-category or even used at all in most categories doesn't make sense. So no, the system you described isn't working with their definition at all.
    - mkii 3y ago
      Ok, so you want to make a system that does not include some otherwise very popular criteria to the citizens of the host nation? Because... it benefits you?