Travel from Europe, East Asia, Canada and Mexico are virtually dead. So how is this presidential order help? What is its practical impact? Is this just political showmanship for the 2020 election?

I really hope the State Department continues issuing extensions and renewals.

I left the US in December 2019. Had I stayed, my non-immigrant visa would have expired in June 2020. In order to continue living in the US I would have had to apply for an extension to that visa or for an entirely new visa. Based on the reporting around this it seems possible that neither of those applications would have been approved and I would have been forced to leave the US in June 2020 at the latest.

If you know someone currently on a non-immigrant visa[0] you may want to reach out and make sure they're OK. I personally know a few people who set up their lives in the US with little consideration for what would happen if they lost their visas. I feel for them right now.

[0] That is: not a Green Card.

What exactly does it mean?

Right now, US embassies world wide halted visa services. So, they can't process immigrant and non-immigrant visas.

USCIS has stopped any in-person interviews at local field offices. That will keep in limbo those who have filed for change of status while being in the States.

Are USCIS service centers processing any applications for visa petitions?

Trump has made it really difficult in the last three years just by using delay tactics. USCIS field offices are just sitting on applications, not calling for interviews; when they call for interviews, they don't decide on time.

Now another Executive Order?

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possible dupe of:

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22931179 (earlier, twitter)

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22931230 (earlier, nbcnews)

This is cruel to international families. My wife and I cannot live in the US (I am a citizen) because Trump banned immigration from her country in his previous ban, so she cannot obtain a residency visa. Luckily her country isn’t cruel towards families and allows me to live here.

The US also doesn’t allow residence for in-laws (only blood relatives of citizens). Meaning we would have to leave my wife’s mother alone for 5 years until she could become a citizen and finish the application - if we were allowed to move to the US.

This will be a terrible economic loss for US universities come this fall.

Some unofficial details on NYT: "...A formal order temporarily barring the provision of new green cards and work visas could come as early as the next few days, according to several people familiar with the plan... Under such an executive order, the Trump administration would no longer approve any applications from foreigners to live and work in the United States for an undetermined period of time, effectively shutting down the legal immigration system..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/us/politics/trump-immigra...

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The US has folded. This will be the last straw.

Chinese companies will have all the bright staff to constantly produce 24/7 new tech and maintain old tech while American companies suffer the abrupt loss of skilled workers, American hospitals lose skilled doctors, American Universities lose academics and American crops go unharvested.

China has won and all it took was 4 years of incompetence who played the destruction playbook like a miracle.