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Comment by philipallstar

1 day ago

This is pretty normal for most countries' visa processes. You often have to leave to renew a visa.

A green card is NOT a visa my friend. Getting a green card is a very involved process.

So why would you need to leave the country, if you couldn't figure out why you don't want to issue one in the year+ it takes to jump through the hoops

Just a fun fact, getting a green card means signing up for ten YEARS of tax liabilities in the US. And those 10 years start, AFTER you relinquished it...

The equivalent of greencard in most countries (permanent residency) usually requires that you're in the country, not outside, and the process is heavily reliant on you being present in country and able to show history of legal (temporary) residence.

  • The majority of people granted greencards are family/relative sponsored who apply outside the US. Only in the past 15 years have employee sponsored greencards surged, most of whom have temporary visas.

I think the biggest question the US needs to ask itself is do we want to be normal like most countries or better?

  • USA has been far better for over 100 years. But that had to end at some point. So now we're seeing it end.

    • 100 years?

      In the 1920s and 1930s the US had:

      - Forced labor

      - Peonage

      - Debt servitude

      - Jim crow laws

      The 19th amendment was ratified in 1920, so that barely missed the cutoff.

      The US has not been some beacon of moral righteousness for the majority of its existence.

      1 reply →

    • Nah, there was just more economic activity to draw people in. By every other measure it’s been more hostile than average.

      But you are right that it is ending, just wrong about what: it’s the high economic activity that attracted people which is disappearing thanks to the same people that hate migrants.

      4 replies →

This is how it has been in the US too. You have to go to an embassy abroad to get a new visa, renew, change status etc. (There are exceptions)

As I recall, we had to drive to the US border and turn around to "enter Canada" to process our landed immigrant letters. That was a while ago, so it's possible that there is more involved now... Was curious as they asked about our stuff and car(s), and we pointed out "at home, in Canada" which got a smile.

  • Canada requires you to (re)enter under your newly granted status in some circumstances, but that is entirely different from requiring you to leave the country before you can apply for a change of status, and to remain outside of the country while the application is processed. I was free to come and go from Canada as a temporary visitor while I waited to get my PR, and I had the option of applying from within the country as a non resident as well, with some caveats.

    • Think my European buddy had to go back home to renew his work permit. Could not do that within Canada.

Indeed, but there are counterexamples as well. In the UAE you enter as a tourist and get a resident visa while you're there. They take away your passport for at least a couple of weeks so you can't leave either.

is that normal? in UK you can extend a visa or apply for ILR without leaving the country.

Sorry but this is just patently untrue. Are you American? Because in my experience, most Americans just don't realize how arbitrary and capricious the US immigration system is.

Pick any other developed country and the process is generally fairly simple. With some you can just apply for a temporary work visa (possibly without a job) or just apply to immigrate. If you stay in many places long enough on a temporary visa you pretty much get residency and ultimately citizenship.

Beyond what's possible, the time frames for doing anything with US immigration is ridiculously long. Like if you, as a US citizen marry someone overseas it can take upwards of 4 years to get a green card for your spouse and they won't be able to visit the US at all in that time. Why? Because filing a marriage petition means you've shown "immigrant intent" so you'll never get a visit visa (B1/B2) again. Also, the president may well just ban your country from getting any visa. 75 countries are currently on that list.

It's also incredibly easy to make a mistake at some point in the process and that may end up getting an approvable case denied or, worse, you end up with an improvidently granted benefit that cannot be repaired, even if it was an honest mistake.

  • Sweden is portrayed as beacon of human rights, let's use them as an example.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/sweden-tighten-citizenship-rul...

    The rules now are tougher than US rules for citizenship. Sweden (like e.g., Norway) has a 8 year wait vs US's 5 year wait.

    Sweden has minimum income requirements, none in the US.

    • Sweden is a white hegemony, the US is not and has never been. It's not a fair comparison when the US has literally always been composed of immigrants.

      If you want a white hegemony, move to goddamn Sweden and leave us alone. That's not the US and to suggest otherwise is anti-American and ahistorical. If you clearly hate what this country stands for, then please do yourself and everyone else a favor and leave. Jesus Christ.