Very true - for most of these with the exception of refugee visas (which we have stopped processing except for Afrikaaners), there is a requirement for financial sponsorship: someone the IRS can bill/garnish in a meaningful manner if you receive any government benefit within ten years of your arrival in the US.
Mt St Helens erupted in 1980. The landslide alone was 3.3 billion cubic yards, that traveled 15mi at speeds of up to 155mph, and buried 23 square miles to an average depth of 150ft, and up to 600ft, within 10 minutes.
The blast flattened 230 sq mi of forest in minutes.
540 million tons of ash fell in 9 hours, affecting 22,000 sq mi.
The mudflow (lahar) was this debris mixing with 170 million cubic yards of glacial ice and snow, moving at 80 mph.
People liked to make smart ass comments about people who took photos "and would soon be dead" - "they were miles away, they could have left". For a lot of them? No.
The sheer magnitude of these events is truly unimaginable, even if you "were there" (nearby).
And MSH was barely a 5 on the VEI 0-8 (roughly) logarithmic scale, though you can't map to death toll easily.
Pinatubo in 1991 was a high 6. Krakatoa too. Tambora is the largest we know, in 1815, VEI 7, and is estimated at eighty times more output than MSH, and triggered the "Year Without a Summer" globally (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer) that pulled down average -global- temperatures by a full degree over the course of a year. It completely disrupted the monsoon season throughout Asia, leading to flash flooding events like this becoming a very regular occurrence.
I think some of these types of stats are the closest terrestrial things we have at the limits of human comprehensibility (probably only eclipsed by "interstellar distances").
Which makes zero sense, because this has always been the case. When I moved here twenty years ago on a K-1 visa, my partner had to sign an affidavit of support saying that regardless of any contributions I made (paying taxes, social security, etc.), that any "public charge" would be directly billable to her through the IRS. -And- she had to demonstrate ability to be able to meet that obligation. That financial sponsorship applies for the first ten years of the immigrant's residency.
Whatever updated guidance and training is needed here is one of two things, 1) something that could be handled in a matter of days or weeks, or 2) "We have no idea how long this could take so we're suspending it indefinitely" (which is what they're doing), and the "updated guidance and training" is a smokescreen for Steven Miller's agenda of becoming a closed nation.
And refugees - unless you are Afrikaaner. The US has processed a sum total of 153 refugee visas in the last 12 months for the entire planet that were not Afrikaaner (of which they have processed 10,105, because they are adjudicated to have refugee status by default).
Similar even with LPR (Legal Permanent Resident) status. Your green card is valid for ten years. When the card expires it must be renewed, but your status does not expire. But you would need a current, valid card, to re-enter if you left (or have extenuating circumstances which you'd -reallllly- want to have worked through with a consulate prior to attempting.
Oftentimes it's not necessarily that they don't know, but unless two international banks have a direct relationship, they have to use intermediary banks. Even my parent's large bank in Australia, when wiring me a gift towards my home purchase, had to go via an intermediary bank who could then forward-on to my bank.
> By logic, a Driscoll or Taylor Farms set of rules needs to sit beyond the regulatory minimum (their lawyers would hate them putting a violation of the regulation in writing).
Why? For years, Tyson Chicken gave written instructions to its undocumented employees on how to stay under the radar for employment, insurance, immigration, tax and healthcare.
> That doesn't really work as a strategy unless UHI cornered the insurance market within a given region, otherwise they'd lose business to competing hospitals.
Welcome to the Certificate of Need. A legal requirement in most states for creating a new healthcare facility. Ostensibly to make sure that the population in that area has adequate healthcare options. But lobbied for by healthcare facility and hospital owners, it actually surveys other providers (your competitors) in the area and asks if their revenue would be adversely affected by you opening up. Too much of this (i.e. "we're worried that a hospital might reduce coverage or shutdown if there's too much risk to their profit"), and no CoN for you.
And this is to say nothing of Pharma Benefits Management. Steering you towards their own more expensive pharmacy (which isn't profit-capped). Mine does it by saying "you want a more convenient >30 day prescription? Only through our wholly owned mail-order subsidiary". 30 day scripts at your local pharmacy. 90 day for the same med? Denied.
>which might be true, but if that were the case, you'd expect them to raise prices anyways. They're profit maximizing companies after all, not operating out of altruism.
Consular staff are trained on this as-is. It is hard to imagine a re-training on process that could take any more than two days.
And yet we have an entirely open-ended "We have nooooo idea how long this will take!"
Garbage. This is the same administration that paused all immigration from Africa except for "Caucasian South Africans" who were classified as refugees by default, regardless of their motivation on immigration.
This is just Stephen Miller doing exactly what he said he intended to do, and exactly what Project 2025 said the government should do (meanwhile, Trump, "What's that? Never heard of it").
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