The migrants pass along a chain of countries chosen because of easy visa requirements, according to interviews with more than a dozen families and their agents in three states in western India. In each place, agents provide the migrants with their next plane ticket as they move closer and closer to Latin America or Canada. From there, depending on how much they pay, they walk or are transported to the U.S. border.
You can certainly try. I am going to Great Britain and then Iceland in a few months. All I need is my passport. No special visa necessary. Once there, I could just try to stay and blend in.
Of course, that is breaking the law and doing things like getting a job or a bank account or renting a room or buying a home or getting medical care and whatnot become very difficult. I am also stuck there. If I ever try to leave the country (or fly anywhere) to go somewhere else they will catch me.
Also, I am not sure what countries require a visa to enter the US as a tourist. Many countries, like the UK or Canada, only require a passport. Nothing more needed. Visitors from other countries may need to apply for a tourist visa. Doubtless there is a list of them at the State Department website (that I am too lazy to look up).
ETA: Ok…I looked it up. They did not give a list of countries that require a visa to enter but, rather, gave a list of countries that do NOT require a visa to enter the US as a tourist. If your country is not on that list then you need to apply for a visitor visa (usually pretty easy I think). I do not see India on the list so they would need a visa.
US visitors fail into one of three groups - Visa Waiver Program, Visa required, and Canadians. VWP passport holders still need to apply for an ESTA which is good for 2 years and is essentially a pre-approval to travel to the US. If you have been charged with a crime, travelled to a banned country (Cuba, Syria, etc) or have ever overstayed you are NOT eligible for an ESTA and must go the visa route. VWP travel is also limited to 90 days.
If you need a visa, it’s more expensive and takes longer with a required interview at a consulate. You would need to satisfy the official that you can afford to travel and have sufficient ties outside of the US that you will leave.
Canadians can travel without either, but do need to satisfy Customs and Border Protection that we will not work in the US or overstay.
I think you’ve just implied the answer to your own question: if a particular class of visitor from a particular country tends to “disappear” after arriving in the US on a tourist visa… maybe those people don’t get tourist visas so easily (because the US gets to control who it gives visas to, and the federal government specifically gets to discriminate on the basis of nationality and alienage when it comes to noncitizens)?
Here’s an article on the difficulty of getting a US tourist visa for Indian citizens. Basically, if your country is not on the Visa Waiver Program list linked above, it’s difficult to get a US Visa.
These kinds of fees are becoming quite common now. Canada, the US, and Australia all have similar programs for people who are visa exempt, Schengen has been trying to launch theirs for the last 5 years and it will probably come into effect in 2025.
Not just middle class, but even people well above that SES-wise from “wrong” countries have a difficult time getting tourist visas. Three people I know who got rejected for tourist visas:
Doctor, Professor and head of department at a University Research Hospital in Pakistan. Rejected several times before being granted after age 50.
Managing Director (equivalent of CEO) of a large investment bank in Pakistan. Got a Canada visa to bring his daughter to a prestigious university in Canada. But couldn’t get a US visa to hop over the border to visit NYC. Had gotten a business visa in the past based on invitations from US banks.
Commercial Director of a multinational company’s (you’ve all heard of it) China operations. Actually he got a visa, but his wife and young child were refused. He and his wife had made many business trips to Europe (Germany, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland). His wife was a mid level manager at the Chinese subsidiary of another multinational (also one that you’ve absolutely, positively all heard of)
I wonder if it’s laziness on the part of the people who issue visas, to not bother to check basic stuff that would suggest a person is highly likely to return home other their vacation.
As a German citizen, I visited the US numerous times on VWP, so I never needed a tourist visa. I also visited it once on government business, which I needed an A-2 visa for; getting it was not tedious (in particular, I didn’t need to show up in person at a consulate), and it allowed me to use the diplomatic queue at the airport, which was cool.
From the reverse perspective, however, I can say that visa applications are not always checked as thoroughly as they should. In a previous career step I was once looking into a case of a rejected application for a Schengen visa. The reason for the rejection was a previous overstay by the applicant. The assessor had evidently overlooked the fact that the applicant had, during the previous stay in the Schengen area, applied for an extension, and that application for extension allowed them to stay there while the case was pending. So it was not an overstay after all. The gist of this story: It’s perfectly possible that a relevant part of the story is overlooked. Visa assessors are only human, after all.
I would sooner expect the issue is quotas that are set with no regard to the demand. And with no differentiation as to “quality” of the would-be visitor or their need.
So (made up example), the US gives out 10,000 tourist visas to Indian citizens per year. The application window opens on Jan 1, and by Jan 15th, they’re used up for the year. Discover in March that your daughter got engaged to an American and you want to attend her wedding planned for later that year? Tough. Try again next January.
I think @Chefguy worked in an embassy; maybe he can add to the discussion.
Most embassies have only a modest staff and consular officers have other duties besides checking on the bona fides of tourist visas, such as assisting American citizens. Then there is the question of determining whether evidence presented by the petitioner is valid. Are bank statements, employment letters, et cetera real documents or phony ? It’s not an easy job.
So, it’s a lot more than laziness.
In response to the OP, yes, it is difficult for a middle class citizen from lower income countries to get a tourist visa, but not impossible.
In other countries (as an American) you have to present your ID, usually your passport, when checking into a hotel and for flights, and possibly for other activities. I assume the authorities there can determine if you’ve overstayed their visitor limits. In the US you present your ID (DL) for similar things and more, so even if soneone tried to overstay their tourist visa, wouldn’t they be found eventually? Unless disappearing or “blending in” means living off the grid somehow.
I had to apply for a tourist visa to go to the US approximately ten years ago as a South African citizen. (Actually it was for a conference but the type of visa is the same, a B1/B2 visa.)
The process was tedious in that I had to fill in a complicated form online, pay quite a large sum of money, and then wait two hours at the consulate to be interviewed. My interview was perfunctory. I had (on advice) prepared a pack of documents to prove that I had a job and a house in this country that I would be returning to. In the event, all that the consular officer looked at was my invite to the conference and he approved a ten-year visa.
The interviews were conducted in an open area with essentially no privacy, so, having little else to do while waiting I listened to other people being interviewed. (It was that or watch the Fox News on the TV - you aren’t even allowed to bring in your phone!) In general, the interviews did not seem particularly strict - if you could explain plausibly why you were going to the US and how you would pay for it, the visa was approved. Of course that experience may vary from country to country - apparently South Africans have quite a low overstay rate so they may be less strict here than in, e.g., India.
I did, but I was support staff so never had to work the visa line like junior officers normally do. I know it’s a grind, and the people working the line are usually punching a ticket for a couple of years so they can move on to more substantive work. That doesn’t mean that they’re doing half-assed work, but they are usually overwhelmed by the number of people trying to go to the US. Embassies are normally in capital cities and have a separate consular facility to handle the load, while other major cities will have just a consulate, sometimes very large ones like in Frankfurt am Main.
I think most people would be surprised at how little time is spent assisting American citizens or ex-pats. They can help you if your passport is stolen, and most have a small slush fund to help you get a ticket home, but if you’re a non-diplomatic citizen and you’re arrested, you have no status in that country. The embassy will do welfare checks, but really can’t do much else for you. The sole reason for the existence of the embassy is to conduct foreign policy at the direction of the President and SecState. That’s it.
Yes. That’s what we assume. Because for example, the Admin Assistant of one of these and her husband, an HVAC technician, had no trouble getting a visa several times. There does not seem to be much consistency.
Depends on exactly what you mean by “living off the grid”. I’ve known multiple people who came to the US as tourists and overstayed. Prior to Real ID you (usually) didn’t need to prove that you were here legally to get a driver’s license or ID and in some states, you can still get a license or ID that doesn’t require proof that you are legally in the US. People work under other people’s SS numbers or just work off the books in food service or construction and similar jobs. But there’s also the fact that they are white and English speaking - the people I’ve known who came to the US legally and overstayed are mostly Irish.
There are only two things you typically need an id for, working and staying in a hotel. I have often put up friends and family and never once asked a house guest for id. And I’ve hired plumbers and electricians and house cleaners and the only time we ever asked for an id was the full-time babysitter, who was an employee (not a contractor). I kinda assumed my house cleaner was here illegally until she took a day off to have her citizenship interview.
So i think there are a lot of people who have someone they can stay with, and a lot of jobs one can do without much in the way of id.
You also need ID for banking (with all the Know Your Customer/anti-money laundering/anti-terrorism/tax issues). Although it might be possible just to use apps like Cash App (citing one example of a company which doesn’t seem very particular). But of course quite a few people live in the cash economy.
