Hello again,

I'm back here - I'm happy to be here after gaining 10 plus years of work experience after graduating from an upscale university in New York State and being promoted to more senior level role. I feel almost ready to return to USA for my final 30 years of my career. I've been considering about turning pro as an actress after doing a rousing successful amateur dramatics performance as one of its directors, actors and scriptwriters in community theatre. Anyway, I'm eager to make my own mark in the USA having relatives there and uncovering around 150 DNA relatives via 23andMe in states from Texas to New York state, ranging from second cousins once removed to around 3rd to 5th cousins. Plus lifelong USA university alumni friends as well as new ones gained - they are very encouraging me to come back too.

Now - as US presidential elections looms with early voting already started in some US states such as Virginia, I wonder if foreign policy's immigration and visa policy can be streamlined and improved? Admittedly, I don't trust either US party - the Democrats or the Republicans - regarding immigration and visa policie. Both seem not to value talents and skills of anyone from any developed country, i.e. the Western world, not even UK an small island with its limited scope for talented and gifted people outside regular job. So what do you reckon - which US political party support US immigration, investment and self-employment/business and employment visas for those from Western world countries? Any feedback or comments welcomed.

Blessings, techygirl.

I don't think it'll make any difference, other than possibly the orange buffoon kicking as many legal immigrants out as he can. Immigration reform has been talked about for years and neither side has done anything really, so can't see why that will suddenly change.

FWIW, I think the US is actually far more welcoming to those with 'talent and skills' than most other countries. It's not welcoming to those with 'normal' jobs i.e. trades, etc. But there are a heck of a lot of visa options for those who have experience and skills in demand.

As christmasoompa says - legislation change for immigration is basically impossible regardless of the president. So the basic rules are static.

If Kamala wins, we'll probably the same as we have now under Biden - with perhaps some tweaks on ICE and illegal enforcement.

If Trump wins, more uncertainty. Things that aren't grounded in the legislation like H-4 EADs are probably going to go away. Also, funding will most likely be cut for DoL (PERM) and USCIS meaning even slower processing times than now. More RFEs, NOID etc. for things like L1/O1 extensions. It's also possible that things like H1B reform may actually happen. He may also remove stuff like interview waivers at consulates abroad. In general a more hostile environment than we've seen under Biden. He may also try other kinds of 'travel bans' - with the benefit of experience to make them less likely to be challenged in court. He'll be able to hit the ground running than last tine.

While illegal immigration is/appears to one of the big issues for either party, legal immigration is very much a side issue. The vast majority of Americans really have no understanding of how legal immigration works, less yet have an opinion on whether it works or needs changing. The H-1B temporary worker visa had its profile raised a few years back due to US workers in Disney training and then being displaced by people on these visas. Long story short, neither care that much to change the current legislation. The last 'major' change occured 34 years ago, and even that changed very little.

The last time Trump was in power he did everything he could to gum up the legal immigration system - wait times went up massively, they introduced mandatory interviews for AOS, they made un-friendly policy changes like denying AP/EAD applications for L-1 and H-1B visa holders if you left the country (that got challenged and reversed I think)...

In 2019 we went on a Panama Canal cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and we encountered 2 folks with very similar stories. One was a guy we talked to at the little coffee and breakfast bar on board one morning. He told us he had his elderly mother with him because his wife’s green card renewal had been denied. This was the 4th time she was renewing it but for the first time ever it had been rejected, and her appeal had been denied so the case was now with an immigration lawyer at great expense. - they had been married for over 20 years and it was all very stressful.

The other case was one my wife heard about in the knitting group she went to each day on the cruise. One of the group was saying that her friend’s green card renewal had been rejected so she was traveling alone instead of with her friend. That case was still in appeal.

Naturalisation cases typically took 3-6 months in my closest agency before Trump took over, but went up to 18 months under him before covid even hit. He knew that new immigrants typically vote Democrat so his administration cut the department as much as possible to reduce new votes against him.