That's what involvement in our government has become in America - a bunch of people shouting into an endless void, and the people in power doing more or less whatever fits their needs most at that particular moment.
While this is certainly true and billionaires have far more sway than a random citizen, I don't think it's quite as dire as you say. I've heard from multiple people who work in politics that letters like these are tracked by the staff and the tallies considered by the representative. Which all makes some sense because for every person motivated to write a letter there are likely hundreds or thousands who feel the same but didn't bother to write.
I wouldn't spend a bunch of time writing a finely crafted letter, but a short personal note sent to a Congressperson is very quick process and has some chance of mattering. I've done this a handful of times and there's usually a form on their website that makes it all quite easy.
Citizen letters aren't going to counteract major lobbyists, but a lot of issues that Congress handles don't really have entrenched financial interests on either side. It's in an elected reps self interest to keep their constituents happy and scoring some easy wins in response to citizen complaints is well within their wheelhouse.
Obviously that's no guarantee that the problem will be resolved, but at least there are efforts to try to resolve this problem. I hope this breaks the logjam.
> Our office has submitted an inquiry on your behalf to the US Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden which included a letter of support on behalf of Mr. Stenberg. As soon as we receive a response I will update you accordingly.
Obviously by itself that does not resolve the problem, but at least it will trigger some additional review.
As I noted before, I'm sure my congressman did not directly see any of this, but that isn't the point. This is just the usual way in the US federal government to deal with broken processes.
I'm hoping that this will eventually fix the problem. We will see.
Every US Congressman has staff who get letters like this everyday. They send them to the appropriate agency, and track them. It's the standard process in the US to deal with the bureaucracy when it gets stuck, it is somewhat like the ombudsman role in other systems. There is no guarantee, but there is a chance.
And a visa/ESTA isn’t required for most Europeans arriving at a land Port of Entry, so who knows what would happen then. But they do ask more questions when you don’t have an ESTA.
I guess if the USA wanted to arrest him, they would’ve been very fast at granting a visa.
I'm reading Daniel's page and it seems to me that a number of commenters here are confusing his intent, which is "visiting", not "immigration". I've noticed that in the US, people tend to use the word "immigrate" for anyone trying to get into the country, whereas the word immigrate has a much more specific meaning. Technically, to "immigrate" means to apply for permanent residency -- i.e. to stay in a country indefinitely, and to live and work here. That is decidedly NOT what he's trying to do.
(I guess it's fair since most people don't have actual experience with immigration, so the term is a little fuzzy.)
Daniel is trying to "visit" the US temporarily and leave after. The long and the short of it seems to be:
1) Daniel is citizen of Sweden.
2) Under US law, citizens of Sweden qualify for the Visa-Waiver-Program (VWP), which means they do not require a visa to visit the U.S. for tourism, business or transit.
3) A few years ago, the US (and other countries, including Canada) introduced an additional requirement as a security measure: electronic pre-authorization or ESTA in case of the US [1] (which incidentally is NOT a visa). This means citizens of countries (in the VWP) who could previously enter the US with nothing but a passport, now had to apply for an ESTA online (which takes anywhere between 3 seconds to 3 days to get approved). Again the ESTA is not a visa -- only a pre-auth. Citizens of these countries still do not require a visa to enter the U.S.
4) Daniel has applied for ESTAs many times, and was approved many times before, but the last time he applied, he was denied.
5) When a VWP citizen is denied an ESTA and still wishes to visit the US, they have the option of applying for a regular visitor visa the old-fashioned way, at a US consulate/embassy. This is a lengthier and more bureaucratic process -- which presumably involves more thorough vetting.
6) Daniel still hasn't received his visitor visa.
(Side note: the only 2 countries whose citizens have "visa-free" access to the U.S. are Canada and Bermuda [2]. Citizens of these countries do not require ESTAs).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_System_for_Travel_A...
[2] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/tourism-...
I mean, I guess their office could push the gov't for an actual decision, but I can't see them fighting for approval.
Again it's not like my congressman is talking to me, but I was not expecting that. For Congressional staff this is just part of the job.
Not sure if doing things on someone else's behalf can be as effective, but it almost certainly won't hurt to ask.
But a foreigner whose visa is denied? Not sure why the Congressman would bother unless it somehow impacted the US.
I live near DC, so I guess I assume others know more about the US system than is common knowledge. My apologies. Please let me explain.
Of course the congressman will not actually read the letter. That's not the point. The point is that every congressman has a mechanism for accepting requests from constituents, routing them to the correct agency, and tracking them to make sure they are resolved. You fill in a web form, prove that you are a constituent, and then the information gets routed to their staff. My daughter was did this job a few years ago, there are small armies that do it. It's just part of the US system.
There's absolutely no guarantee that this will be resolved the way I want, but this is the standard US mechanism for dealing with stuck bureaucracies.
Other US citizens could do the same. It might be a good idea, because with multiple complaints, then the US state department would get the clue that this is important and needs to get worked on.
I definitely know it works for people stuck in the immigration system, but this particular example (a visa for a temporary trip to the US) doesn’t seem like it would rank all that high on a Congressman’s priorities.
My guess is they’ll look into and tell you there isn’t anything they could do. Might speed up the rejection though.
I already got a phone call back from the Congressman's office from a staffer. She explained that she needed a few additional pieces of info. I've already contacted Daniel Stenberg as well. So we will see!