US Visa Applications Must Be Submitted from Country of Residence or Nationality

[viceconsole]

I was a US diplomat in India for 2 years and processed tens of thousands of visas. While this change will cause some inconvenience for, e.g., current H-1B visa holders from India who can no longer travel to Canada or Mexio to apply for new visas, in general it makes a lot of sense. I worked at the number one H-1B processing post worldwide. Our post had the expertise to quickly evaluate applications and approve the clearly legitimate ones while scrutinizing the potentially fraudulent ones. We tracked fraud patterns and kept tabs on known-bad petitioners. We could visit petitioner locations on the ground in India. This expertise doesn't exist in Canada or Mexico. Staff at those embassies and consulates would have to consult with us in India, or simply make uninformed decisions. Note also that bona fide residents of a country can still apply in their country of residence.

For a few weeks in India, we had a string of third-country nationals (I won't say which, but it's not hard to find) apply for foreign medical graduate visas. We weren't familiar with the context in country they were coming from. They seemed to be generally good quality applicants and many were approved. It turned out that there was a cheating scandal in that third country, an entire batch of test results had been invalidated, and the embassy located there was refusing their visas, so a few applied in India and were approved, then word got out and more came. We eventually wised up. However, there was really no good reason for these applicants to be travelling from their home country to India for a visa appointment even under normal circumstances (India isn't exactly known for having short visa wait times).

[blindfolded_go]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Good to get some real-world data in this thread as opposed to the emotional condemnations of this rule change.

[maxerickson]

Why not disconnect the reviewer from the submission location then?

[ashray]

This was already the case for almost every other country. Most embassies required you to be resident or a national of the country you are applying in.

So oddly, the US was far more permissive than other locales in this one aspect. All this change does is bring it in line with security practices that other nations already had in place.

Honestly am quite surprised that the US didn’t already have this restriction considering overall it’s one of the toughest countries to get a visa for or even enter with a valid visa.

The US visa vetting procedure is known to be so strict even for tourists that many nations give visa free access to nationals who would otherwise require a visa - just because they hold a valid (or sometimes even expired!) US visa. It’s a highly regarded sticker if you can get one in your passport and seriously ups the power of your passport if it’s a weaker one to start with.

[Simulacra]

Many countries do things radically different than America does in terms of immigration, but it is quite clear over the past 20 years that one major political party in America favors more open immigration than the other. Where it seems most Americans prefer something right in the middle. Legal, but flexible.

[foogazi]

> This was already the case for almost every other country.

The US started of as a “zero to one” - a “sui-generis” state - unlike any other

Over time the people that gave in to the temptation to copy others, to be imperialistic, to be a colonizer, to be a slaver, to be expansionist all managed to damage the soul of the country- and still they keep trying

Why the insistence of being like almost every other country ?

> Most embassies required you to be resident or a national of the country you are applying in.

Were not like other countries

> So oddly, the US was far more permissive than other locales in this one aspect. All this change does is bring it in line with security practices that other nations already had in place.

We won two world wars and put a man on the moon - and you want to bring the US in line ?

The greatest experiment in state-building and you want to make it average?

[abxyz]

Really? Do you have any examples? I’ve had visas around the world (and encountered numerous weird requirements) but never have I been required to apply for a visa from my country of nationality. Even China, which is very restrictive, allows for non-national applications.

(And in fact, in my experience, it is getting easier with online applications becoming more common.)

[ozozozd]

If the VISA issuing officer will actually verify anything, it’s a reasonable expectation (dare I say, obvious) that the applicant must be a resident of the country where the embassy is.

You can’t expect a person living in country X to validate the documents from Y country. It’s quite unreasonable to expect that they will even understand the language the document is in.

If the claim is the VISA issuing officer already doesn’t verify anything and therefore familiarity with the language and system of country Y isn’t necessary, that’s a different discussion.

The thing to fix here is requiring that someone already in US has to go to a consulate to renew/change their VISA. For someone who went to college in US for 4 years, and then did OPT for ~2 years, it’s meaningless for them to go to their home country to apply for an H1B, because all the documents they will bring will be from the US and the home country consulate personnel may not even be fit to check the validity of those documents.

[andsoitis]

Similar to Europe: for Schengen visas, you must apply to the consulate responsible for your country of legal residence.

https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen/visa-pol...

[bapak]

Thailand has similar restrictions for certain visas.

[nathan11]

I believe your link says you must apply at the country you're visiting, or the country you're visiting first. And you must apply at the consulate for the country you are a resident of. So if I was applying to visit France, I could do so from the US embassy in France.

This seems to differ from the new US rule where you must also apply in the country you're a resident of.

[HeavenFox]

This is a significant problem for Chinese H1B holders, because the visa sticker for Chinese passport is only valid for one year. You can stay for longer, but cannot come back if you leave the U.S. Historically folks have been getting their visa renewed in Canada or Mexico, and this is already a huge annoyance - not only do you have to make a pointless trip, but also appointments in these countries are very hard to get as a Third Country National (TCN).

Sure, most other countries don't allow TCNs to apply for visa, but they also don't require their long term residents to leave the country to renew their visa.

So, the correct solution to this is Domestic Visa Renewal. A pilot program was run last year, but it was limited to Indian H1B holders. Without this program in place, disallowing TCNs is simply cruel.

[em-bee]

not having Domestic Visa Renewal sounds like the most ridiculous oversight. i get making your first application from home, but renewal should always be in your target country. it's absurd to demand that people travel home once a year to renew their visa.

[anvuong]

This is good. Canada consulate has been swamped with TCN visa appointments for a very long time. And this is the norm for many countries, including the EU.

[Anonyneko]

Fun for people hailing from the countries where the US embassy is unable to issue visas for various interesting political reasons.

[mgh2]

Why is this flagged?

[mgh2]

TNs: https://ogletree.com/insights-resources/blog-posts/uscis-iss...

[neeeeees]

I think so but it doesn’t really matter. It’s far faster to apply at the border anyway.

[burnermore]

This feel like bad for countries like India initially. But will help make better homegrown solutions. This is good for the world.

[wheelerwj]

Anything to make it more difficult.

[fblp]

Also. "Effective immediately". Too bad for the tens of thousands of people who would be in legitimate process for a visa outside their country home country right now. This administrations arrogance and urgency is more important.

[NoImmatureAdHom]

It explicitly doesn't affect people who already have appointments / who are in process. Read the link.

[jrochkind1]

The idea that someone from Haiti could get to Nassau for a visa interview is not serious.

[thegjp210]

As a progressive - importing indentured servants to displace the American working and middle class is awful and revolting to watch.

[blindfolded_go]

This seems like an emotional reaction, not a rational one. The US getting similar visa conditions to the EU Schengen area is not the "organized and intentional destruction" of the USA.

[efitz]

This comment is bizarre. Literally nothing about this policy change destroys the US or any principle outlined in the Constitution.

It removes a convenience that was sometimes abused (see the top post) and makes it harder to bypass US law to get a visa.

[redwood]

Indeed. Sad that people are willing to burn down the engine just to make a point that they're frustrated by things like pronouns. Enoughs enoughs. Wake up silent majority

[vicnov]

How does it destroy the country? I genuinely do not understand your logic? Is it because you assume less talent will move to the states?

[tupac_speedrap]

That's a little dramatic, many countries have this rule for visa applications.

[anvuong]

What a stupid take. This TCN business is just dumb. Because of this, US consulates in Canada have been swamped with visa appointments from H1B holders, making everything harder for casual visitors.

[eterpstra]

Can anyone explain a rational political motivation behind this? I realize "less immigrants" is the hand-wavy explanation, but how does this benefit those in charge?

[linotype]

> Can anyone explain a rational political motivation behind this? I realize "less immigrants" is the hand-wavy explanation, but how does this benefit those in charge?

I recommend you read the link, which in the first few words outlines “non-immigrants” and my summary.

> Adjudicating Nonimmigrant Visa Applicants in Their Country of Residence

[mnky9800n]

Immigrants don’t apply for non immigrant visas

[wheelerwj]

This might also be tied to the incident with the South Korean nationals in Georgia.

[chillingeffect]

It validates xenophobia. In a xenophobic population. This keeps them in charge. That is all. This administration is all about cutting off their nose to spite thir face.

[jeffbee]

It aligns with their effort to ruin the economic situation of American universities.

[digitaltrees]

So a Canadian that wants to visit on a tourist visa has to apply at an embassy?????!!!! Instead of on the airplane right before landing?

Insane. This is going to destroy the tourism industry and collapse business travel.

[IncRnd]

Canadians don't need a visa to visit the United States for tourism or temporary business travel purposes.

[jmclnx]

Do Canadians need to get Visas to visit the US ?

Last time I went to Canada all I needed was a Passport. I do not even remember showing it to the Custom Official. I drove up said hi and they let me through.

As far as I know it was/is the same for Canadians visiting the US. Except the US border people tended to be d**ks, even to US Citizens.

Did that change?

[LadyCailin]

Canadians do not need a visa to enter the US. And many countries are covered under the Visa Waiver Program, such as many European countries. So no, this does not affect Canadians.

[mk12]

Canadians don’t need a visa to visit the US, they are visa-exempt.

[anonexpat]

This doesn't affect nationals eligible for visa-on-arrival.

[NoImmatureAdHom]

Canadians don't need tourist visas