Daily commute (Detroit-Windsor) (H1b and Canada PR)

[scylla]

Alas, that sounds about right for the current admin down there. Especially the late Friday announcement and Saturday cleanup...


This makes sense. I'm assuming that the legal teams were advising the affected staff, who then turned around and posted this anonymously on the website. (As I can't quite see large companies paying for their legal teams to give free advice on spez's site.) Which means this needs advice would need to be taken with extra care, as it's always possible there's some company specific situation implied in the advice that wouldn't apply to the general population at large.


Well, perhaps so, but it's worth noting that no bad advice related to the Friday night announcement is to be found on other forums that cater to immigration (e.g. forums.immigration.com or visajourney.com or immihelp.com/forum/ ) so I wouldn't be quite willing to say that the website in question is problem free yet. Rather, this continues to fit my personal observations of dedicated forums (this one included) generally being better in terms of quality.

That's not to say that it's totally impossible to find useful info on the other website, but in general it's harder to sort out truth from rumors over there.

Yes, it was reddit users posting emails from their company and university legal teams with instructions. Many large companies and universities sent out broadcast emails from their legal teams to h1b staff with their iterpretation of the Friday announcement. Reddit users were sharing them.

Speaking very frankly, forums.immigration.com was completely useless in this scenario for any sort of advice for people potentially impacted. There was a post with the government announcement but no comments / advice on what this meant. I have a colleague in the US who was trying to figure out impact to him and his family and the only useful place was reddit where people were sharing legal advice emails from their companies and actually trying to interpret the announcement. I gave him forums.immigration.com and a few other US forums to check and he found nothing there. Reddit was also very quick in posting the update information / corrections from the US government yesterday, while forums.immigration.com still hasn't been updated with this additional info. It has no bad advice because it simply had no advice to start with. Also, the reddit advice wasn't bad. It was legal interpretation of the Friday announcement. That interpretation was consistent across independent legal teams of many different companies. The only thing that was bad / poorly done was the government announcement itself.

I agree that reddit has a lot of crap on it. But in this case it was leaps and bounds above the US immigration forums in sharing information and legal advice actively as the situation changed.

 

[abff08f4813c]

Yes, it was reddit users posting emails from their company and university legal teams with instructions. Many large companies and universities sent out broadcast emails from their legal teams to h1b staff with their iterpretation of the Friday announcement. Reddit users were sharing them.

the only useful place was reddit where people were sharing legal advice emails from their companies and actually trying to interpret the announcement.

Also, the reddit advice wasn't bad. It was legal interpretation of the Friday announcement. That interpretation was consistent across independent legal teams of many different companies.

Actually, yes, this would be the way to do it. This addresses my earlier point in my previous post - any company-specific stuff would presumably not show up in the advice from another company's legal team, so by comparing the answers one could reasonably gleam what an affected member of the general population should do.

The only thing that was bad / poorly done was the government announcement itself.

I'd certainly agree that the gov't announcement was bad / poorly done. If done well there should have been things like a period of advance notice, time for lawyers to examine the implications during normal business hours, etc.

Speaking very frankly, forums.immigration.com was completely useless in this scenario for any sort of advice for people potentially impacted. There was a post with the government announcement but no comments / advice on what this meant. I have a colleague in the US who was trying to figure out impact to him and his family

I gave him forums.immigration.com and a few other US forums to check and he found nothing there.

forums.immigration.com still hasn't been updated with this additional info. It has no bad advice because it simply had no advice to start with.

I guess you mean this post, https://forums.immigration.com/threads/new-application-fee-for-h1b-visas.353718/ ?

I agree. Though I'd be willing to give the forums a free pass here - this happened outside of business hours and we're still in the weekend even as of right this moment. So possibly they'll catch up given enough time to digest what's happening...

I agree that reddit has a lot of crap on it. But in this case it was leaps and bounds above the US immigration forums in sharing information and legal advice actively as the situation changed.

Well, one change. The US gov't made an announcement that practically took effect right away (at the end of the same day more or less) and then walked significant parts of it back very shortly.

So, in a way, this makes sense. Forums are an older technology (we even had them back in the 90's) while nowdays spez's site is considered a form of social media, which reacts and responds much quicker.

Threads exist on Bluesky (an alternative form of social media) discussing both the original announcement:

https://bsky.app/profile/rivertam.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lzbgopvsos2g

And the later clarification:

https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lzcc6q3rws2h

I confess to being a bit perturbed by one thing in all this - that namely, there was no alternative and there was only one place, one public website, to freely (as in beer) obtain vital information of this nature. (Well, the current US admin in general perturbs me a whole lot more, but most of that is likely off-topic to this forum.)

 

[huiqin]

how's everyone's border crossing experience after 21 Sep?

 

[scylla]

Actually, yes, this would be the way to do it. This addresses my earlier point in my previous post - any company-specific stuff would presumably not show up in the advice from another company's legal team, so by comparing the answers one could reasonably gleam what an affected member of the general population should do.


I'd certainly agree that the gov't announcement was bad / poorly done. If done well there should have been things like a period of advance notice, time for lawyers to examine the implications during normal business hours, etc.


I guess you mean this post, https://forums.immigration.com/threads/new-application-fee-for-h1b-visas.353718/ ?

I agree. Though I'd be willing to give the forums a free pass here - this happened outside of business hours and we're still in the weekend even as of right this moment. So possibly they'll catch up given enough time to digest what's happening...


Well, one change. The US gov't made an announcement that practically took effect right away (at the end of the same day more or less) and then walked significant parts of it back very shortly.

So, in a way, this makes sense. Forums are an older technology (we even had them back in the 90's) while nowdays spez's site is considered a form of social media, which reacts and responds much quicker.

Threads exist on Bluesky (an alternative form of social media) discussing both the original announcement:

https://bsky.app/profile/rivertam.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lzbgopvsos2g

And the later clarification:

https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lzcc6q3rws2h

I confess to being a bit perturbed by one thing in all this - that namely, there was no alternative and there was only one place, one public website, to freely (as in beer) obtain vital information of this nature. (Well, the current US admin in general perturbs me a whole lot more, but most of that is likely off-topic to this forum.)

I don't understand. The forums don't get any sort of free pass at all. People can post there just like they do on Reddit or Twitter or Bluesky or mastodon or wherever. It has nothing to do with whether it's the weekend or not. It's all about what people actually chose and use to share information. I know about Bluesky (it's been around for a long time now). Reddit was far more useful in this situation than Bluesky because it better supports dialogue / threads.

I think the US forums are simply a lot less relevant than they used to be. People are opting for other platforms.

Agreed with your comments on the current administration. They suck.

 

[abff08f4813c]

Agreed with your comments on the current administration. They suck.

Seems like we agree on most parts, and certainly on all the important things!

I know about Bluesky (it's been around for a long time now).

So this might be the only thing where we seriously disagree. You don't define long, but Bluesky's only been open to the public for the past year and a half roughly. Even if you count the invitation-only era, that's still not even three years. (Source: https://web.archive.org/web/2024040.../2024/02/06/bluesky-launch-public-jay-graber/ )

(Granted, Bluesky as a concept was first announced in 2019, so the name itself might have been recognized for some years, but the actual usable service did not exist until Feb 2023 or shortly before, and it wasn't fully public until 2024.)

I know about Bluesky (it's been around for a long time now). ... was far more useful in this situation than Bluesky because it better supports dialogue / threads.

Agreed. Earlier I could have wrote,

> I ... there was no alternative ... obtain vital information of this nature. Fortunately, that's not true, since, well Bluesky.

Except, I couldn't, since Bluesky actually isn't an alternative - specifically for the reasons you state.

I could have just as easily mentioned something something fediverse - but in truth I didn't find anything helpful in any corner of the fediverse that I'm familiar with, outside of the Bluesky posts. Actually, in general, I find the fediverse to not really have anything at all in terms of communities able to give supporting advice for immigration.

I don't understand. The forums don't get any sort of free pass at all. It has nothing to do with whether it's the weekend or not. It's all about what people actually chose and use to share information.

Many of these forums are hosted by legal firms. So I was ready to argue that some of the folks able to post on the forums might be lawyers (or even well informed paralegals) who only have time to help out during regular business hours. And then argue for a whole lot more on other points.

But it's been a few days and the sole immigration.com thread on it still has no replies. So, even if we had both agreed on this originally, the pass is now long expired. Consider my mind changed on this point.

I think the US forums are simply a lot less relevant than they used to be.

It doesn't have to be this way though. Consider Canada. Look at how much better these forums are compared to that other place. And we also have other unrelated forums like movnorth.com


So actually there's a visajourney forum thread that I missed earlier that actually does have replies, https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/833663-100000-fee-to-file-a-new-h1-b-case/

Maybe there's still some hope.

It's all about what people actually chose and use to share information.

People are opting for other platforms.

So, this is the problem. It's why I'm so perturbed. More clearly, it's not mere picking of a different preferred platform that's the problem, it's that the specific choice here in this case entails supporting enshittification

Those who seek help with Canadian immigration have lots of good places to choose from, including this forum and movnorth (and in the event that one of the forums turned bad (say because the owners were bought out), folks could simply join the other).

So it's quite disheartening to realize that those who need help with US immigration have no community to turn to outside of a platform thats owned by a company that has already shown a callous attitude to its own users.


(In case it was not obvious, I want to make clear that this is not at all a criticism of you or your friend or folks in similar situations - considering what was at stake and the urgent need, that was totally justifiable. For similar reasons, subs like r/SuicideWatch were given free passes to not join the blackout back in 2023. It's just that I really dislike the idea of a cold-hearted corporation having so much power over a vulnerable community of undoubtably good folks, as seems to have been the case here.)