
Screw it – Travelling and not arriving - davidw
http://diotalevi.com/2010/11/26/screw-it/
======
meelash
I've been thinking about this consequence of government ineptness for a while
now. The problem is that politicians think (rightly) that they have gamed the
feedback loop that is public opinion successfully. What they haven't
recognized is that there is a much more serious and devastating long-term
feedback loop, that will not just remove the politicians but thrash the whole
country. The global brain drain that benefitted the US following WWII was not
accidental or inherently one-way.

The only thing we're not seeing (or at least I'm not) is any country
advertising themselves and sticking their neck out as a refuge. If there was,
you could see the drain start swirling pretty quickly.

~~~
CWuestefeld
_What they haven't recognized is that there is a much more serious and
devastating long-term feedback loop, that will not just remove the politicians
but thrash the whole country._

How do you expect that this will cause the politicians to be removed? My
observation has been that, thanks to poor-to-nonexistent economics education,
politicians are able to turn this backwards, getting people fired up for
mercantalist, protectionist policies. Those intuitively sound good, although
completely discredit by economists, and wind up worsening the problem -- all
with the blessing of the people.

------
apl
_They work in 9-10 hour shifts, 24/7, with hundreds of people to check (often
people who doesn’t know any English word) during peek times._

Quite frankly, the expression "peek time" in this context is nothing short of
hilarious. Well played.

~~~
lkozma
"people who doesn't know" is funny also, I wonder if it is intentional.

~~~
fdiotalevi
Sorry, I'm not a native english speaker. I fixed the typos in my blog post.

~~~
lkozma
No worries, me neither..

------
davidw
Somehow, this sort of thing pisses me off way more than the TSA crap. Also,
it's much more directly related to startups and their future in the US and
elsewhere. I don't know what they do with the comments from the web, but I did
take the time to contact my congressunits.

...

Unfortunately, the article seems to have had a virtual stone hung 'round its
neck. Hrmph.

~~~
patio11
FYI, paper > phone > fax > email > web form at at least one Congressional
office. If you want to make an impression, buy a stamp. (If you want to make a
bigger impression, you can hack the system a bit: send a certified letter with
return receipt requested to your Congresscritter care of a committee they
serve on. A staffer will open it, quickly discover it isn't committee
business, and send it to the Constituent Services staff at the politician's
office in one of the committee's envelopes. You think they ever forget to open
physical mail from the Ways and Means Committee?)

------
lisper
> And I was going (ingenuously, naively, stupidly certainly) under a touristic
> visa because it was simply the only option (more on that later) to go there.
> > > Refused entrance because I was going to do unauthorised work in the US

I can't think of any way that the customs officials could have known that he
was going to do work unless he told them. It seems to me then that the naive
stupid thing was not trying to enter on a tourist visa, but telling the
officials that he wasn't really a tourist. When dealing with government
officials, a little discretion can go a long way.

~~~
nkurz
Some people believe that lies to immigration officials are acceptable, others
feel that one should answer honestly or not at all. To the extent that "naive
stupid" means the same thing as "honest and principled", you are correct.
Perhaps he should have sought legal advice before entering, but I would
presume that the author made this choice consciously based on his personal
values. I wouldn't insult him by calling him naive and stupid unless you are
certain your personal values are better than his.

~~~
fdiotalevi
Hi, I'm the OP of the blog post.

Just to clarify (as I did in the comments section of my blog). You can say
whatever you want when you go through customs: that's just a summary
screening.

But when you go to the secondary check, you have to give a sworn statement;
and they do some clever tricks to "warn" you and suggest you to tell the
truth.

------
yoak
Again and again we see people migrating from closed to open technologies,
often despite initial strong advantages of the closed platform.

I wonder if the same thing could happen with innovative startup markets.

~~~
tomjen3
A country with a completely open emigration process which does not have too
much corruption and reasonable internet access might be able to capitalize on
this.

~~~
maxklein
I believe Singapore is trying this.

~~~
jaysonelliot
From everything I can find on Singapore's official immigration site, they have
similar requirements to any other nation:
[http://www.ica.gov.sg/page.aspx?pageid=151&secid=150](http://www.ica.gov.sg/page.aspx?pageid=151&secid=150)

What are you referring to? I'd be interested to find out.

------
tzs
What do big international companies do when they want to send someone from a
non-US office to work on a short term project in a US office?

~~~
shrikant
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-1_visa>:

 _It is a non-immigrant visa, and is valid for a short amount of time,
generally three years. L-1 visas are available to employees of an
international company with offices in both a home country and the United
States, or which intend to open a new office in the United States while
maintaining their home country interests. The visa allows such foreign workers
to relocate to the corporation's US office after having worked abroad for the
company for at least one year prior to being granted L-1 status. The US office
must be a parent company, child company, or sister company to the foreign
company._

~~~
tibbon
This seems to be a perfect fit for the author, does it now?

~~~
shrikant
I don't suppose so - the L-1 only seems to apply to the situation posited by
GP, i.e. someone going from a non-US office to a US office.

In author's case, it doesn't seem like he was going from one office of the
company to another. Seems like the H1 (as mentioned by Vivtek) would better
suited for him.

 _Edit_ : Disclaimer: I am not an immigration expert :)

------
fizx
Perhaps this is a case where the phrase "Tis easier to ask forgiveness than
permission" applies?

~~~
jaysonelliot
Except that, in the case of the USCIS, "forgiveness" isn't in their procedure
manuals.

~~~
jorgem
Yeah. Once you're busted, it's hard(er) to ever get a real visa again.
Unfortunately, that's the "illegal" part of of "illegal immigration." In AZ,
you might even spend some time in jail...

