And with Trump-aligned people running it, of course, not like the purged USDS. One of the perks is "networking" after all.

You're right – close-minded is immediately blacklisting. Thoughtful is:

"What did you do at $PLACE_CURRENT_ADMIN_LIKES, and what, in retrospect, did it actually accomplish that made people and society freer, more empowered, and their lives richer?"

At which point you can say "I made an interface to let anyone with access scrape ALPRs around the nation, and I genuinely didn't think about what people would do with it", and then that speaks for itself.

Don't forget to work in "dominance" and "lethality"! It really, truly, is all about criticizing and tearing the old thing down, and belatedly stepping it up again with neoconservative vibes.

One of the things I do to slow things down, is to plan with brutal honesty around how much a human can say, clearly, in a minute. And then assume that I’ll need 150% of that time. Have 20 minutes for a slideshow? Keep it at 4 slides - five minutes each - at 100 wpm, that’s 500 words each - but I’ll need to add more pauses in, so that’s 400 words each.

I try to do this already, and I just finish my slides in half the time sometimes. It isn't that I'm stuffing too much content - I just speak fast so it rushes through.

> But now I realize that "ideal" device for me just reaches back to my contextual memory of state of the art devices of the time.

I think as well about that… as well as the work I do that pays my bills, and how efficiently I need to do it to keep my job.

I get nostalgic after Psions. Small clamshell designs are great - I can do work on the go without lugging a fragile laptop!

Well, no, actually - I need to do things in R, _quickly_, at a speed and efficiency that wasn’t possible back in the 90s. And by the time I’m done I don’t have any patience for the virtues of “distraction free computing”!

Edge to edge high resolution screens that can simultaneously show graphics and an terminal and a ChatGPT session. The ability to constantly pipe large datasets into memory to and from disk, while holding up to R’s profligate use of memory.

I’m just not meaningfully productive otherwise. So: I would love this, but it would be a toy that I’m sure I’ll use for a bit while I wax nostalgic about the mythical days people did everything on a VT-100.

SSH with Mosh it's your friend.

No study is perfect – research is and has always been expensive, and playing devil's advocate while seeing the arc of promising research is one of the fundamental skills of reading and doing research.

Playing a devils advocate in topics you're not versed in or know the context just makes you a timewasting arsehole most of the time.

A fun "do-it-yourself" question for people who've always wanted to learn about the baroque architecture of the PowerPC Mac and the classic Mac OS: where is hardware support for specific models implemented?

In concentrically encrusted layers

Case in point: public charge and political rhetoric that (at the very least) wildly stretches the truth about immigrants applying for benefits.

> if you overstay a visa you should expect detention

Again, though, there's a catch-22. Wait times until you're even notified about your interview appointment date are long and unpredictable.

The article strongly misrepresents this, and they were almost certainly not detained for over-staying, but likely for fraudulent entry. See my other comment.

I don't think fraudulent entry makes sense, because that would have to be the case at the time of entry.

Read my other comment. It’s fraudulent based on intent, which they don’t know until you apply for change of status.

I read your other comment; it just doesn't stand muster.

Fraudulent entry can only happen on entry. If they had no intent to be married on entry, then there's no fraud on entry, and therefore it doesn't apply.

"You let me in at the time, therefore you can never deem the past entry fraudulent" is not how the law works. It was fraudulent at the time of entry, but the government doesn't know that until true intent is revealed when the foreigner applies for a change of status.

The timeline is:

1. Foreigner is married to or intends to marry a US citizen and live in the US (they know this; the government doesn't). 2. Foreigner enters the US with the assertion they have no intent to immigrate (they know this is false; US doesn't). 3. Couple applies for change of status to immigrate → This reveals the foreigner's original intent to immigrate even at the time of entry (the US now knows the entry was fraudulent)

I'm not defending the law; I believe it's haphazard and inhumane. Why do you get to apply while together inside the US only if you decided to marry and immigrate after entering the US, but if the foreigner is outside the US at the time you make the decision, you're now locked out for years? But that is what it is, and these people are getting burned trying to skirt the law.

> "You let me in at the time, therefore you can never deem the past entry fraudulent" is not how the law works. It was fraudulent at the time of entry, but the government doesn't know that until true intent is revealed when the foreigner applies for a change of status.

That's not my argument. My argument is that there are cases where the intent literally changes. There was no intent to immigrate when entering, but that intent did change after entry.

> Foreigner is married to

We're talking right now about people met who their spouse after entry.

> or intends to marry a US citizen and live in the US (they know this; the government doesn't).

This requires mens rea and is next to impossible to prove without some documentation.

> 2. Foreigner enters the US with the assertion they have no intent to immigrate (they know this is false; US doesn't).

Or foreigner intends to enter with no intent to immigrate, but that intent changes after entry when they decide to get married to whoever they're dating. This intent change happens after entry.

> 3. Couple applies for change of status to immigrate → This reveals the foreigner's original intent to immigrate even at the time of entry (the US now knows the entry was fraudulent)

The mere change of status request here proves nothing about any intent at entry.

> I'm not defending the law; I believe it's haphazard and inhumane. Why do you get to apply while together inside the US only if you decided to marry and immigrate after entering the US, but if the foreigner is outside the US at the time you make the decision, you're now locked out for years? But that is what it is, and these people are getting burned trying to skirt the law.

It sounds like this is the part that you're salty about.

In many cases regarding immigration, any single agent can act as judge, jury, and (deportation) executioner. Again something I learned many years ago and have kept top of mind for my own family.

If you are already married, then you enter the country with an assertion that you have no intent to immigrate, then you soon after apply to immigrate, chances you were not lying are vanishingly slim.

Yes, if you meet after you enter the country, then that doesn't apply to you. That's exactly when it is appropriate to apply from inside the country and stay while your application is pending. That's not what these couples are doing.

A note that it's easy to "overstay" a visa when waiting for a green card interview - the wait times are often in the 6-16 month range, and if you leave the country you'll be considered to have abandoned your "petition to adjust status". It's a catch-22, and it looks like the only recourse is for an immigration lawyer to file a habeas corpus petition in federal court.

It's also worth pointing out that the nature of the green card interview is largely up to how the interviewer feels about you. It's a terrifyingly subjective experience.

There was an error in my wife's green card application that many people (including myself and our lawyer) should have caught. Our lawyer promised us that during the final interview this could be trivially corrected on the spot. Despite many smiles and laughs during the interview it's clear the interviewer didn't approve of how my current wife and I met (it involved a divorce) and so he decided that he couldn't possibly correct the error during the interview, and that while we passed, we would need to wait nearly a year for the correction.

While this was frustrating the interviewer could have just as easily decided, at his discretion, that our marriage was not "real" (despite the fact that the reason for his objection was ample evidence that it was quite real), so it was a pain we had to suffer. I've spent enough time working with petty bureaucrats to know it's better to accept whatever means they try to prove their own power than to fight it.

Is it possible your lawyer was just wrong when he told you that?

Like the interpretation of the situation seems to hinge on that, because if we didn’t know that it was usually fixed on the spot, then it could very well just be protocol to go through a correction process that takes awhile (for other dumb reasons but not because someone was wronging you personally).

Errors happens on immigration forms all the time. Many of them aren't a big deal and can be corrected but there's a right and wrong way to do it. Fixable errors include things like failing to mention all your employers that you worked unauthorized or your name having a different spelling in certain cases. Since unauthorized work is forgiven if marrying a US citizen, the omission of employment is a correctable error.

The right way to fix this is to type out the questions you want to correct into a document (called an errata sheet) with the corrected answers and to hand that to the visa officer with your ID at the start of the interview. The reason you want to do this is you want a paper record that you volunteered this information. Anything verbal can be argued that you only revealed such information when confronted and that's a problem.

So I don't know what your issue was. Errors with a divorce could be as serious as you weren't free to marry because at the time you got married your divorce wasn't finalized and that invalidates your entire petition and there's no correcting that.

Another big one is USCIS not believing your divorce is real. this happens if you get divorced in certain countries (eg Ghana, Nigeria) where apparently fradulent divorce decrees are a real problem.

It had nothing whatsoever to do with the divorce itself, I'm a US citizen and was (legally) divorced for several years before the interview (and my marriage). The error was a typo that the interviewer was informed about well in advance of our interview, and could have been corrected by changing a value in a field which our lawyer informed us had been done many times in the past for other couples.

Nah surely this guy on HN knows more than you and you lawyer, right?

It's required to overstay, and for the case of student visas, you must abandon the visa when petitioning to adjust status. The terms of the student visa are that you cannot have immigration intentions.

When this happens, you're present without a visa, but it's not illegal. You're on a "stay authorized by the attorney general".

I'm not sure if that has changed, but the " authorized stay" thing is the defense to being present without a visa.

It does make a lot of paperwork more difficult, like getting a drivers license, when as you can't prove status.

This is false.

If you get married as an F1 student, it's completely fine (and encouraged) to continue your studies under your F1 visa while your I130 and I485 are pending.

There are differences here if you're marrying a US citizen vs a green card holder. If you marry a green card holder, you must maintain your status until you adjust status with your I485. If you marry a US citizen, being out of status is forgiven.

If you discontinue your studies, USCIS (particularly under this administration) might try and argue you obtained your student visa fraudulently to deny your marriage petition. The best thing you can do is complete your studies and then, if applicable, obtain OPT to further maintain status.

Any marriage where the immigrant spouse is out of status will be treated with more scrutiny by USCIS.

> If you discontinue your studies, USCIS (particularly under this administration) might try and argue you obtained your student visa fraudulently to deny your marriage petition. The best thing you can do is complete your studies and then, if applicable, obtain OPT to further maintain status.

There are two things that I'm not sure about:

– Is the distinction between studying (regardless of status), vs. being in status vs. having a visa? Because the three are different: you can enter as a student and study, and have your F-1 expire, and still maintain status per SEVIS.

– IANAL, but you get an EAD upon petitioning for an AOS – does that prevent you from applying for OPT?

You can have two (or more) separate petitions with USCIS.

For example, if you get sponsored by an employer for a green card and you marry a US citizen, you might ask which green card should you pursue? The answer is both. This is fine and encouraged.

This also comes up with people who apply for asylum. This can take years to adjudicate. What if they get married to a US citizen in the meantime? Generally, the advice is to maintain your asylum application AND apply for your marriage-based green card.

This doesn't just apply to green cards either. If you work on an H1B, it's completely fine to apply for a green card (through employment and/or marriage) at the same time. Some will point out that the H1B is a so-called dual intent visa that doesn't preclude immigrant intent but that's not really what that means because you can adjust status to a green card on a non-immigrant intent visa too.

"Immigrant intent" here really means if a consulate will issue you the visa overseas and if CBP will let you into the country if you've shown immigrant intent (which usually means filing an I130 or similar). Once someone files an I130 for you, you'll not be granted a student or visitor's visa from outside the US and if you have either, you might be denied entry at the border. Because those aren't dual intent visas.

A red flag for USCIS for visa fraud is applying for an F1 visa, coming to the US, stopping studying and getting married. To them it looks like you committed immigration fraud just to come to the US.

That's why I say you should continue your studies (and also not get married in the first few months upon entering the US on a student visa).

So there's really no studying out of status per se. If you continue your studies, your F1 is still valid. When you get your EAD or green card, you can study with that and terminate your F1 status.

If you fall out of status on an F1 for a certain period of time it might be difficult or even impossible to resume student status to study at the same or another institution. I'm honestly not familiar with the rules around this.

But you're just not really going to be studying in the US without any status.

Just for the record I went through this process this year with my spouse and a lawyer. My spouse did continue studying and had their i-130, i-485, and i-131, however the immigration office told our lawyer and said their F1 was no longer valid and that my spouse was under “authorized stay” not a visa any longer, especially for i-131.

I see what you mean now – thanks for clarifying for me.

This happened to someone I know. He was working on a TN visa, had his green card approved, and was waiting for an interview. He was not allowed to leave the country, but he lost his job, and had to leave the country because of the 60 days grace period of the visa. Because he left, he lost his green card application.

You both:

1. Can't leave the country because of immigration laws.

2. Have to leave the country because of immigration laws.

A TN visa is explicitly a "non-immigrant visa", there isn't supposed to be a pathway to permanent residency.

It's still possible to through an adjustment of status but the hoops around not leaving the country are much more awkward.

Because permanent immigration is not the intent of a TN visa, it's a loophole.

So there are three paths to getting a marriage-based green card:

1. You do what's called consular processing out of the country;

2. You adjust status in the country; and

3. A fiance visa (K1). I'm going to ignore this.

For (1), your US citizen or green card holder spouse will wil an I130 visa petition to show that you're legally married. USCIS will confirm that you are legally married (including both of you being free to marry) and then it gets sent to NVC (National Visa Center) and you get documentarily qualified. This whole thing can take 6-9 months. It can take substantially longer if there are certain risk factors as far as USCIS is concerned for fraud. Large age gap, certain countries of origins (particularly the Phillipines), etc.

Once you are documentarily qualified, the foreign spouse will apply for an interview at a foreign consulate. This used to be anywhere but as per a recent rule change by this administration, now has to be the country of origin, meaning if you're Canadian you have to do it in Canada not the UK or Italy or whatever.

This may not seem like a big deal but the wait in some countries can be years long, just for the interview.

While this is all pending, you likely will be unable to visit the US because you've shown immigreant intent so you'll be denied ESTA or a visitor's visa most likely. Or, if you have a visitor's visa, you may be denied entry at the border.

For a standard case, this whole thing will take about 2 years. There are a whole bunch of steps like biometrics, police checks, etc and there are cases where you may need waivers of inadmissibility (eg if you have a 3 year bar or have a felony conviction). Those waivers can add years.

For (2), the process differs if you're marrying a green card holder or a US citizen.

If you have a marry a green card holder, they file an I130 petition and you'll get a priority date. There is a quota for these green cards. When your priority date becomes current, you the file an I485 for your spouse. Your immigrant spouse must've remained in status for this entire time up to and including when the I485 is approved. Because of the quota, this can take years and people will often become US citizens before the process is complete.

There is no quota for immediate relatives of US citizens (including spouses, parents and children under 18). If you marry a US citizen, you generally file the I130 and I485 concurrently. You can optionally also apply for advance parole, which will allow you to travel (more on that below), and an EAD, which will allow you to work until you get your green card. At this time people often get their green cards before their EADs so many don't even apply for them currently.

So, traveling. If you have a pending I485 and you leave the US you have in the eyes of USCIS abandoned that I485. You are now out of the country and most likely will be barred from re-entering the US, forcing you to consular process. You might be able to return if you have an immigrant intent visa like an H1B but it's generally recommended not to travel at all while you have a pending I485 application if you can possibly avoid it.

If you marry a US citizen, being out of status and working without authorization are both forgiven. This isn't the case for a marriage to a green card holder I believe. But if you marry a green card holder and while your application is pending they become a US citizen (as often happens), then the US citizen rules apply anyway.

So, if you are on a TN visa and have a pending I130 and I485, you have two choices:

1. You can leave the country and go back to Canada. This will abandon your I485 (but not the I130) and will force you to consular process. You'll be gone for 1-2 years most likely and likely unable to visit. This is the safest option however but obviously most people don't want to be separate from their spouse for so long, understanbly; or

2. You accept that you will be out of status and you stay. Any overstay of less than 6 months generally isn't an issue although working unauthorized is if, for some reason, your marriage petition is withdrawn or denied. If you overstay 6-12 months, you have an automatic 3 year bar on returning should you leave. If you overstay more than 1 year, it's a 10 year bar.

In the current administration, I think there are zero marriage petitions that should be done yourself. You should have a lawyer. Any decent lawyer who will be able to lay out the options as I've described.

Assuming your case is fairly straightforward and you've already filed the I130 and I485, I'd generally suggest people just accept the overstay and adjust in the US although I can certainly understand the "cleaner" (but longer) approach of choosing consular processing instead, particularly if you are still in status and don't have any automatic bar due to a 6+ month overstay.

> It's a catch-22

What do immigration attorneys recommend in this scenario?

I don’t get the catch-22, time’s up & you leave

Happens to H1Bs all the time

Your immigration attorney will advise that you overstay. If you do not, your application will be abandoned.

The "overstay" was scare quotes – you're allowed to stay.

But TFA says that it was people exactly in this situation who were apprehended by ICE and then set for deportation proceedings. According to the current administration you are NOT allowed to stay, and that's where the Catch-22 is.

The whole thing just further exemplifies the "cruelty is the point" ideal.

Do you know what the “overstay” status is called ?

I remember reading that depending on which country you’re from, the waiting time can be years or even decades. Is that true? If so that’s crazy and cruel.

Country of birth does determine the "priority date" waiting list. Specifically for Philippines, Mexico, India and China. Due to demand. Everyone else is in the rest of the world bucket.

For those countries (especially India) the wait can be more than a decade.

Moving to a points based immigration system without country of birth consideration may one day happen.

Depending on what contributes to points it would encourage better English language abilities and skill sets from immigrants (eg winners being China and India, losers being Mexico)

> Moving to a points based immigration system without country of birth consideration may one day happen.

Anything, honestly, to end the need for informal lawyering that even immigrants with straightforward situations still have to do.

Even if the system is simple enough to not need a lawyer, you should always use one.

Depends on the visa category. Family preference visas for siblings can have waiting lists in the decades. But family preference visas for spouses of citizens have no wait list. It's just the system is slow. We went through some of it long ago, her time here threw us into proximity, proximity turned to love. That meant an adjustment of status, her old visa became invalid when we applied, but you have permission to stay while such an application is being processed. A hair under 6 months from application to first interview, a hair under two years before she got conditional permanent residency. (And I think that timing was not a coincidence, they stretched it out to just below the point it wouldn't have been conditional.) I would be terrified to do that under the current administration.

This really depends on your relationship with the other person and your status (e.g. US citizen, permanent resident, etc). Long story short, if you are the spouse or immediate family of an US citizen, there isn't any queue to get permanent resident status aside from whatever time it takes the US government to process the various forms. That time can be substantial, e.g. 2-3 years but it's nothing like the multi-year wait that a spouse of a permanent resident needs to go through just to apply for permanent resident status.

Only if you think it is crazy and cruel to disallow someone from another country to become a legal resident and then eventually a citizen of the US.

In many circumstances - including when that person is married to a US citizen, or when they'll likely be killed on return to their country of birth - it is indeed crazy and cruel.

(In more ordinary circumstances it's merely arbitrary and unjust.)

I wanted to be a citizen of Singapore and was never approved.

I agree it was arbitrary and unjust. I deserved to be a citizen.

Yes, this is by no means only a U.S. problem. Some countries are worse, even where birth rate trends seem like they should make it more obviously self-destructive. A tendency towards xenophobia seems to be an unfortunate human universal, although one we can sometimes overcome.

When they're married to an American? When they have kids that are American? It's not crazy nor cruel, to you, to separate a mother from her infant?

You are demanding that their American spouse either divorce them or spend the rest of their life in another country. Of course it’s crazy and cruel.

The issue is spousal visas. I did not seek to marry a foreigner, our relationship was proximity turning into a whole lot more. We consider it cruel to tear apart couples.

This is a misrepresentation. Some of these people entered on the K1 which REQUIRES marriage within 3 months. They get married 18 months later and wonder why they're getting deported for a giant visa overstay. It's fraudulent, you enter on a visa, explicitly promise to marry quickly, do not do so and expect no repercussions.

> it's easy to "overstay" a visa

Many laws are easy to break.

Slavery was legal as well. I'm glad there were people with enough common sense to see for what it is.