Free Republic

A new deal dramatically extending the length of visas for individuals traveling between the U.S. and China will be a “game-changer” for relations between Washington and Beijing, the White House said Monday. The U.S. and China will now issue short-term tourist and business visas that are valid for up to 10 years. Students traveling between the two countries will now be granted visas lasting five years. Previously, all three types had been valid only for a single year. “In terms of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, this is a game-changer,” said National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs Evan Medeiros....

Canada has joined Australia in suspending entry visas for people from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa in an attempt to keep out the disease. […] Australia’s similar move was slammed Thursday by Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, who said closing borders will not stop spread of the Ebola virus. …

The Democrat-controlled Senate Select Committee on Ethics said that it never received a complaint pertaining to Democratic Sen. Harry Reid and the Obama administration’s efforts to approve visas for certain investors, according to a government watchdog group, despite previously confirming that it received the complaint — and saying that it opened an investigation. **SNIP** And when The Washington Times wanted comment for a Jan. 21, 2014 report on the complaint, a “spokesman for the ethics committee and Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, California Democrat, said they couldn’t comment on the details of any investigation.”

SYDNEY - Australia issued a blanket ban on visas from West African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak Tuesday, making it the first rich nation to shut its doors to the region and earning criticism from health experts and rights groups. Australia has not recorded a case of Ebola despite a number of scares, and conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott has so far resisted repeated requests to send medical personnel to help battle the outbreak on the ground. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told parliament Monday that all non-permanent or temporary visas from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia were being cancelled...

Newser) – Three teenage girls from Denver flew overseas in a bid to join ISIS in Syria before being stopped, reports the Denver Post. The girls, ages 15 and 16, apparently were lured by a "slick" online campaign to join militants with the Islamic State, an FBI official tells ABC News. They made it as far as Frankfurt, Germany, before being detained, and all three have been returned to their families in Denver. It's unclear whether they will face charges. The Voice of America first reported the incident, saying that two of the girls are of Somali origin, while the...

In August, Duncan's visa was approved. He and Troh had rekindled their relationship, and she helped pay for his plane ticket. He packed a backpack and a suitcase, and told neighbors he was going to America and would not be back for two years. When he returned, he said, he planned to build a house for his family.

BLOCK VISAS BEING GRANTED TO PEOPLE IN WEST AFRICAN NATIONS. WE DON'T WANT TO EVEN BE EXPOSED TO THE EBOLA VIRUS... It occurs to be from reading various articles and posts on Freerepublic.com that some people including political 'leaders' think it is okay to have Government policies that have caused American citizens to be exposed to Ebola by a foreign national who was allow to enter the U.S. coming from a known Ebola Hot Spot - because they claim that an Ebola outbreak would not occur and/or if it did it could easily be contained. I find this attitude totally...

Ebola has reached our shores from Africa. Dozens of children are reportedly suffering paralysis from a deadly virus with unknown origins. Medical providers across the country have warned of a looming public-health crisis as communicable diseases spread unmonitored and uncontrolled. Other countries are cracking down. But America is stuck on open-borders stupid. The Diversity Visa (DV) program, to take just one glaring example of government insanity, is still going. On October 1, the State Department opened the annual DV random lottery to applicants from around the world. Yes, it’s completely random, like a Powerball drawing. Up to 55,000 lucky winners...

Ebola has reached our shores from Africa. Dozens of children are reportedly suffering paralysis from a deadly virus with unknown origins. Medical providers across the country have warned of a looming public health crisis as communicable diseases spread unmonitored and uncontrolled. Other countries are cracking down. But America is stuck on open-borders stupid.The Diversity Visa (DV) program, to take just one glaring example of government insanity, is still going.On October 1, the State Department opened the annual DV random lottery to applicants from around the world. Yes, it's completely random like a Powerball drawing. Up to 55,000 lucky winners will...

For the first time since its creation in 1990, the “investor immigrant” visa program looks on track to have its annual 10,000 allotment fully used up this year. This milestone for the program is due to the increasing number of wealthy applicants from mainland China, a country that now boasts almost 2.5 million millionaires. The “EB-5 visa”, which gives expedited citizenship to applicants who invest $500,000 in a jobs-generating business for 2 years, is not only confusing and poorly designed but it’s been rife with investor fraud since it started. Nevertheless, because of the access a green card provides to...

There are about 200,000 Africans from countries hosting the deadly Ebola virus who hold temporary visas to visit the United States, greatly raising the stakes it could spread to America, according to a group following the immigration issue. “Based on State Department nonimmigrant visa issuance statistics, I estimate that there are about 5,000 people in Guinea, 5,000 people in Sierra Leone, and 3,500 people in Liberia who possess visas to come to the United States today,” said Jessica M. Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. Add to that “more than 195,000 Nigerians” with visas to...

There are about 200,000 Africans from countries hosting the deadly Ebola virus who hold temporary visas to visit the United States, greatly raising the stakes it could spread to America, according to a group following the immigration issue. “Based on State Department nonimmigrant visa issuance statistics, I estimate that there are about 5,000 people in Guinea, 5,000 people in Sierra Leone, and 3,500 people in Liberia who possess visas to come to the United States today,” said Jessica M. Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. Add to that “more than 195,000 Nigerians” with visas to...

Companies that have recently laid off workers are scheming to get President Barack Obama to give them more guest-worker visas by executive action. After the New York Times reported that Obama is working on crafting executive actions behind closed doors after having met with representatives from "Oracle, Cisco, Fwd.US, Microsoft, Accenture, Compete America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce," which Politico detailed, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) blasted the White House for "actively working against the interests of the American worker." Sessions mentioned that American politics is at "a crisis point," as companies that "are laying off current employees in droves,"...

Whether you’re a skilled technology worker or a poor laborer, it’s getting harder to become a U.S. citizen. But for those with $500,000 to buy their way in, it’s a different matter. That’s just the beginning of the problem. On Nov. 15, 2012, about 100 people gathered in a parking lot near O’Hare Airport in Chicago for a ceremonial occasion: the demolition of a fleabag motel to make way for what was intended to be a world-changing construction project. Next door to a Hooters restaurant, just off the Kennedy Expressway, was to rise a commercial and environmental wonder—the “World’s First...

Hi, Norm Matloff here. I’m a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis, and formerly was a statistics professor at that university, but I also write about social issues. As the saying goes, “My life is an open book”–you can read the details of my background in my online bio. I’ve written op-eds for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Bloomberg View, CNN and so on. Bloomberg gathers together its op-eds grouped by author; click here to see mine, and thus get an idea of my interests and views. (SNIP) In this blog, my topics will...

Silverio Lopez and his son Antonio run their Tequila Cabresto brand out of their house in Southwest Detroit. They say about 60 restaurants in and around the city carry their brand of small batch, craft tequila. They also own a rim and tire shop just down the street. In total, they employ close to ten people. Silverio emigrated from Mexico in the early ‘80s. He says there were many reasons for settling down and starting a business in Detroit. “The properties were cheap, the rent was cheaper, plus we had family here already,” he said through Antonio, who translated from...

The House Committee on Oversight and Government reform has compiled a scathing report on the Department of Justice's “Operation Choke Point” program that critics believe is aimed at “targeting industries deemed objectionable” by the Obama administration. The report, released Thursday by panel chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., accuses the Justice Department of abusing its authority by going after the payday lending industry and other merchants and working to put them out of business. According to the report, the Justice Department “secretly” discouraged banks from conducting business with groups deemed to be “high risk,” for triggering a federal investigation. Sign Up for...

The State Duma on Friday passed a law tightening requirements on embattled foreign payment systems Visa and MasterCard and giving them new competition in the form of a national payment system. The law passed on Friday will require payment systems to ensure uninterrupted service, and obliges them to pay a security deposit to the Central Bank equivalent to the value of two days of transactions processed in Russia. Visa and MasterCard together will together be obliged to relinquish about $3.8 billion to the Central Bank. Operators will also have to immediately inform the Central Bank about any stoppages of service...

Sagar Chikane receives visa with 'Emigration Check Required' as part of his name after new Indian passport confuses typist‘Sagar Ramachandra Emigration Check Required Chikane’ – is a very long name for anyone to have. Even if the man in question hails from the South of India where a person’s name includes his father’s name and the family name, apart from his own moniker. However, for this welder from Tamil Nadu in India, who still has to travel to the UAE - before June 2014 - according to his visa, his emigration status has been ‘officially’ incorporated into his name. Not...

The federal government has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign students who came to the U.S. to study and then took jobs, often in violation of the terms of their visas, according to a new internal audit. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t even consistently collect information or have the tools to monitor all of the foreign students who take part in the optional practical training (OPT) program, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report released late Friday. “The problems with OPT are extensive and serious. The report not only calls into question the department’s oversight...