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.

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foogazi 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> 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?

	▲	kaycey2022 a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		China won the last one though. They aren’t number 1 for no reason .
	▲	hulitu 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> We won two world wars and put a man on the moon - and you want to bring the US in line ? Citation needed /s

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Simulacra 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

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FridayoLeary 2 days ago | parent [-]

Europes permissive immigration policies (basically anarchy from my perspective in the UK) are creating an entirely avoidable crisis. I expect a far more closed border policy in the future. International travel will become more complicated as western countries will increasingly try to control who is allowed in. Trumps administration is just 2 to 5 years ahead of everyone else.

	▲	hulitu 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		> Europes permissive immigration policies (basically anarchy from my perspective in the UK) are creating an entirely avoidable crisis The crisis was not created by the immigration policies, but by the wars waged by US and Europe. You see, when you bomb people, some will stay there to die and some will live. It is _that_ simple.

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abxyz 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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.)

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viceconsole 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

It's common for countries to require you to apply from your country of nationality or residence, and to prove lawful residence if you're not a national of the country you're applying in. I'm in the middle of a French visa application for my daughter right now, and she must apply in the U.S. where she's a citizen.

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daft_pink 2 days ago | parent [-]

I’m not an expert at this, but is it true that the US is very unique in requiring interviews for all tourist visas and for almost every visa?

I’m American and every visa I’ve had to apply for did not require my physical presence at the embassy and I used a third-party processing service to get everything done.

Therefore, while I would need to apply to these countries from their US embassy because my physical presence was not required, I would generally not need to return to the United States to obtain their visa?

And this aspect of a US visa does make it significantly harder even though the application policy is similar to other countries?

	▲	viceconsole 18 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not aware of any other country besides the US that has a blanket policy of requiring at least one interview in almost all cases. That said, back in the 2000s I had to apply in person at the French embassy for a student visa, in in the 2010s I had to apply in person at a Chilean consulate for a special visa. Many countries have outsourced the bulk of their processing to contractors like VFS or TLS these days. But also, our experience as Americans is not representative as we generally have fewer visas we need to bother obtaining, and face less scrutiny when doing so. I'm not sure if the US interview requirement makes it "harder" to get a US visa - it may be that getting a US visa is just harder than getting another country's visa, which might still be true even if we didn't interview people. The big thing that makes getting non-immigrant visas to the US difficult for many people is that, unless shown otherwise, US immigration law assumes you are an immigrant.

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ashray 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I have several examples and lots of personal experience. I’ve been asked to go back from Mexico, Brazil, and Chile while traveling there and applying for a visa to Peru. Finally the Peruvian embassy in Chile gave me a visa to visit Peru because I accidentally bumped into the assistant consul.

https://bkpk.me/peru-visa-for-indians/

The San Francisco consulate of India refused to process my spouse’s Indian visa because she was not resident in the US.

https://bkpk.me/how-we-finally-got-zaras-visa-to-india/

Several more examples but in this day and age you can just ask chat gpt to summarize for you. But if you check visa application requirements for many embassies, they will often say: proof of residence if not a national of the country of application. So that’s the requirement often.

I will add though that I’ve always maintained that this is a soft policy and they will make exceptions in some cases. It is mostly consulates wanting to do as little work as humanly possible. So there can be ways to get around it if you can talk to someone in charge. But usually that’s very difficult with consulates.

I’m pretty sure though in the US’ case now it’s a hard no. So there will be no working around it.

	▲	abxyz 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Expanding on my previous comment with an example: I obtained a long term residency visa a few months ago. I was in the country at the time and didn’t want to fly 15 hours back to my home country, and the embassy in the neighbouring country only accepts applications from residents, so I flew to another nearby country which does accept non-residents. The country that I have a visa for doesn’t care where the visa is issued, it’s the individual embassies that set their own rules about who they will process applications for. You just have to look through each embassy to find one that accepts you (which will be documented on their website). Except now for the U.S. which is instituting this rule.
	▲	abxyz 2 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I think we are talking about different things. I’m talking about a country’s requirements whereas you’re talking about a specific embassy. An embassy will often have its own requirements based on the locality, whereas the visa requirements are uniform. The Indian embassy in San Francisco might refuse to process non-resident applications but that doesn’t mean you can only get an Indian visa by going to an embassy in your country of nationality.
	▲	abxyz 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[flagged]

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throw-the-towel 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Schengen works exactly like this. Also Japan I think.

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abxyz 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I don’t know about Schengen but that’s not correct for Japan. You can get a visa to visit Japan from an embassy in a country you’re not a resident or national of, there’s no requirement for the visa to be issued in your country of nationality (although some embassies may choose not to accept applications from non-residents or non-nationals).

	▲	returningfory2 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		The Japanese embassy and consulates in the US only accept applications from residents of the US. E.g. the NYC consulate: https://www.ny.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/visa00.html > You may apply for a visa at this Consulate if you are currently residing within the area covered by this Consulate.

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the_mitsuhiko 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Schengen does not work like that. While you are supposed to apply from the country you are a resident in, if you have valid reasons you can apply from any other country. This is also frequently necessary (eg: traveller without fixed residence).

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throw-the-towel 2 days ago | parent [-]

Well, just happening to be in a different country is not a "valid reason". Maybe for someone from the West it would be accepted, but not for the rest of us.

Also, "a traveler without a fixed residence" can get a non-immigrant visa for Schengen? I'm sorry but this just is not true if you're not a Westerner.

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the_mitsuhiko 2 days ago | parent [-]

> Also, "a traveler without a fixed residence" can get a non-immigrant visa for Schengen? I'm sorry but this just is not true if you're not a Westerner.

If there is no doubt that you will leave and you can sustain yourself: sure.

	▲	throw-the-towel 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Being abroad is already a huge challenge to proving you're going to leave. You're showing you don't have much tethering you to your country of origin.