Ycombinator founder Paul Graham expressed his anger on Monday in a tweet about the silent crisis growing in US diplomatic posts throughout the world due to months and years of visa-processing delays.
He retweeted a WSJ opinion piece that highlighted the difficulties of visiting and working in the United States, which is causing the country to lose talent, inflicting needless hassles on its citizens, and encouraging firms to relocate operations elsewhere.
Inefficiency of this magnitude makes America look incompetent. Because it is incompetent; this is banana republic level performance. https://t.co/aV32M3lYun
— Paul Graham (@paulg) October 10, 2022
According to the original report, an appointment for a nonimmigrant guest visa in New Delhi takes more than 800 calendar days, or over three years, whereas an appointment for a student visa takes about 450 days.
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As per the report by the Cato Institute, more than half of US embassies and consulates across the world have a waiting period of more than six months for a tourist or business visa appointment, up from 1 percent before the pandemic. More than one in every four people must wait a year or more.
"The pandemic worsened but did not cause this malfunction. There are innumerable persons living and working in the United States who have been in immigration purgatory for years, unable to leave or re-enter the country until they obtain authorization. Everyone is affected, from Iranian asylum seekers to British Silicon Valley CEOs," the article said.
"Americans generally support high-skilled immigration and a fair visa system. It's become a running gag in Silicon Valley that large Canadian towns like Toronto and Vancouver are now "waiting rooms" for high-skilled foreigners who got unfortunate in the US immigration system," it added.
The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 was passed by Congress in March to simplify the immigrant visa process for foreign investors who commit considerable resources to the United States.
According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, 80 percent of cases (excluding Chinese nationals, who take significantly longer to process) are settled within 52 months, or approximately 4½ years.
The dysfunction is becoming personally intolerable for many American Indians, one of the US' largest immigrant populations. Even permanent US residents with family in India may contemplate working in the United States if relatives must wait years for a brief visit, the article said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken blamed the delays on financial difficulties (visa processing is funded by fees) and social distancing in embassies. In any event, genuine leadership is required in this scenario.
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