Trump to temporarily suspend all immigration into the US | Hacker News Reader

Trump to temporarily suspend all immigration into the US

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Travel from Europe, East Asia, Canada and Mexico are virtually dead. So how is this presidential order help? What is its practical impact? Is this just political showmanship for the 2020 election?

It’s not a travel ban, it’s a ban on all immigration like his previous “travel” ban towards select countries. It means people like me who married a non-citizen cannot have their partner live in the US.

I am so sorry for you. I immigrated to the U.S. when I was a boy, but certainly, remember all the challenges of having my parents and a brother still overseas. And this is your spouse. But again, how does this help us fight the pandemic? It doesn't.

The existing travel ban has waivers available for spouses of US citizens, although the process is ridiculous and chaotic, and they are not approving many.

Yeah, ~6% have been given waivers [1] for unknown reasons. There is no official waiver process, and no form for one. They are awarded at the full discretion of USCIS after applying for residency, according to unknown criteria. When I called my embassy about this, they said my only option was to apply and spend years waiting and hope to get lucky.

So I could apply, spend thousands of dollars, wait years, and only have a 1/20 chance of being awarded a waiver.

[0]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-visas-exc...

I really hope the State Department continues issuing extensions and renewals.

I left the US in December 2019. Had I stayed, my non-immigrant visa would have expired in June 2020. In order to continue living in the US I would have had to apply for an extension to that visa or for an entirely new visa. Based on the reporting around this it seems possible that neither of those applications would have been approved and I would have been forced to leave the US in June 2020 at the latest.

If you know someone currently on a non-immigrant visa[0] you may want to reach out and make sure they're OK. I personally know a few people who set up their lives in the US with little consideration for what would happen if they lost their visas. I feel for them right now.

[0] That is: not a Green Card.

I'm okay, for now, still 2+ years on my work visa, but I have to say that my stress levels are already super high and this is not helping :( I'm in the middle of a green card process and I guess that's down the toilet for the foreseeable future as well. Oh well...

same here. 6 years in the us. j1/h1 working on netsec research. i really want to quit and go back home to europe just to look at the sky or the walls a bit in order to relax. all this stress isn't worth it.

Just FYI -- it's USCIS not State that handles extension filings within the country. And it's the I-94 that controls the time you can stay in the US, not the visa.

And your I-94 is automatically extended with your visa extensions. Its your visa extension date that has the precedence.

What exactly does it mean?

Right now, US embassies world wide halted visa services. So, they can't process immigrant and non-immigrant visas.

USCIS has stopped any in-person interviews at local field offices. That will keep in limbo those who have filed for change of status while being in the States.

Are USCIS service centers processing any applications for visa petitions?

Trump has made it really difficult in the last three years just by using delay tactics. USCIS field offices are just sitting on applications, not calling for interviews; when they call for interviews, they don't decide on time.

Now another Executive Order?

> What exactly does it mean?

As usual when he announces policy over Twitter, nobody knows except him - possibly not even him. We'll find out when he gets around to having someone write up an actual document for him.

It's basically just extending the consular closures indefinitely. Before this they were taking appointments from May/June for many of them so there was hope. But now, there's no way he will resume before the elections.

Service Centers -- much less clear he can stop these. These immigration benefits arise out of statutes so they would need Congress to stop. But he can use COVID as an excuse to mandate they close to ensure safety.

Just found out that service centers/lockboxes are accepting applications. If these apps don't have any previous biometrics, they may not get any EAD/AP, since ASCs are closed. However, if USCIS has previous biometrics, they will issue EAD/AP cards.

It is true that Trump can't stop immigration benefits. He has successfully delayed processing many adjustment of status applications. What can Congress do here? Nothing but IG report.

possible dupe of:

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22931179 (earlier, twitter)

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22931230 (earlier, nbcnews)

This is cruel to international families. My wife and I cannot live in the US (I am a citizen) because Trump banned immigration from her country in his previous ban, so she cannot obtain a residency visa. Luckily her country isn’t cruel towards families and allows me to live here.

The US also doesn’t allow residence for in-laws (only blood relatives of citizens). Meaning we would have to leave my wife’s mother alone for 5 years until she could become a citizen and finish the application - if we were allowed to move to the US.

This will be a terrible economic loss for US universities come this fall.

Wouldn't that just mean allowing more Americans to attend university? I though most people agreed the inflated tuitions were unnecessary for actual learning.

EDIT: Wow, the largest ever tuition increase happened this year, a 3.4% average increase.

https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing/fig...

Here's the kicker:

>Part-time faculty and teaching assistants now account for half of instructional staffs at colleges and universities, up from one-third in 1987, the figures show.

>During the same period, the number of administrators and professional staff has more than doubled. That’s a rate of increase more than twice as fast as the growth in the number of students.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_4738584

That's the funny thing. All those administrators? Americans. All the funding for them? International students. Masters degrees for international students are a drug that American universities got really hooked on. Now they're going to have withdrawal.

I hope so. They are basically selling spots to the highest bidder.

My sympathies are with the American students who dont get in to the school they are most qualified for because there's always a foreign student who can pay full fare. Administrators doing this are in the wrong.

Instead those universities will have to charge more to US citizens or cut back their programs and fewer citizens will be able to get a degree.

Not many American students want to get graduate degrees compared to international students and most people who apply get into the programs. They're not free for Americans. They pay in state if they're residents at state schools or pay the same as international students if at a private school or if theyre out of state.

Do you realize how much money international students inject into the US education and just general US economy as well?

It's all fueled by debt, and that debt bubble is popping.

Debt to who

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OFaZcC0lRU&t=937s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGR8VmW6p8c

When you can find text articles let me know.

Some unofficial details on NYT: "...A formal order temporarily barring the provision of new green cards and work visas could come as early as the next few days, according to several people familiar with the plan... Under such an executive order, the Trump administration would no longer approve any applications from foreigners to live and work in the United States for an undetermined period of time, effectively shutting down the legal immigration system..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/us/politics/trump-immigra...

What about student visas?

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