Over the last couple of years I had a lot of exposure to the world's immigration bureaucracy. First, I went through the relocation process myself. Next, I had to go through it again for my wife and kids but via the family reunion path. In addition, most of our team members are working remotely, but it is frequent that we need some of our developers in Zurich and for that we have to organize a business visa. And, of course, people around are constantly traveling and sharing their stories about their experience. So, with time I noticed a lot of interesting details which all together indicate that the system at its current state just can't handle the task anymore.
For example, a couple of months ago we wanted to bring two of our developers into Switzerland, so they could actually use the product they build, meet some of the team members they have never seen and discuss our next moves in person. We submitted our case to the embassy of Switzerland in Belgrade. After a few weeks we got the result for the first one - denied. Why? Well, there is a doubt that the reference letter from the company is real. Nobody ever contacted us regarding the topic. No attempts to call us, send us an e-mail or even a formal inquiry in the form of a letter. Anyway, we contacted the embassy ourselves to prove that the reference letter is indeed real and we very much would like to invite our developer to the country. What do you think was an answer? Well, thank you very much for contacting us. But what about the case? Still rejected. A bit kafkaesque, is it not? But the best part is not even this. Do you remember that we submitted an application for two developers? We never got any decision for the second case. It just ran out of time because of the date of flight, so there was no point anymore to process it.
Recently, I wanted to visit Canada to attend "Rails World 2024" in Toronto. I submitted my case very well in advance, paid all the fees and went through the process of biometric identification a few weeks later. Result? Denied. Why? There is not enough evidence that I'm going to leave the country and that I have enough funds to stay for the period desired, which was like one week. My ticket to the conference is USD 559 - paid. My flight is CHF 477 - paid. My flat is CHF 1440 - paid. And, of course, I shared my bank account statement with I’m sure enough money to stay in Canada for at least half of the year. Moreover, I live and work in Zürich. My kids attend a school here. Why would I suddenly go to Toronto to stay there? Nope. Doesn't work. Denied.
Both of those cases had financial consequences. Some plans were ruined. Some meetings didn't happen. Some money spent needlessly. In both cases it is absolutely clear that the decision is either biased or random. And there will be no retribution from immigration departments in both cases because they can never be wrong and they will never do the back tracking. You see, there is a notion about rules being present to manage and control immigration processes. Tons and tons of people generating lines and lines of texts packed into stacks and stacks of paper. In reality, though, one can easily see how the existing bureaucratic mechanism struggles to handle refugees and immigrants from around the world. People bend rules in all possible ways or just ignore them. They are drumming the door until it opens. Otherwise, they jump over the fence - and that's it. But if you obey the rules chances of winning are close to those you have in a roulette.
Theoretically, things are easy to solve. For business trips it would be easy to build a separate tool for the company to invite people. Using this tool, work contracts could be shared to resolve all the questions and doubts. Plus, with time the company could be scored and this score could be shared with the company itself. Higher the score - better the chances. For private trips the situation seems harder. But it is not, really. Everything was solved a long time ago by the private sector. If you doubt I will leave the country or that I have enough money to stay there or that I may have any other intentions you won’t like, well then do what any car rental company around the world would do in this case for ages already! Just hold some money on my credit card and withdraw the amount if any damage was caused or I couldn’t fulfill the promise. Make it expensive to cheat!
Why then are those problems not solved? Well, when saying "no" requires only a phantom excuse, why say "yes" at all? When solving a problem brings no value, shouldn't you ignore the problem? Every single incentive of the system nudges it towards the most useless behavior, when no risks are taken and no actions are performed. Just resources spent purposelessly. That is a painful image to observe. But that is a reality we live in.