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by idiopathic 5501 days ago
What you are describing is not American vs UK attitudes, it is the joys of being a foreigner encountering government bureaucracy designed to remind you that you are a foreigner.

I had the same treatment you are describing when getting my H1B visa in the USA from the UK. And things got even worst when my employer started to apply for greencard, and so I just left the USA.

From a private sector perspective, I had more things paperless available to me in 2003 - when I moved to the USA - in the UK than I did in the USA. And during my time in the USA, I was able to run all of my UK business and government transactions online.

2 comments

No, that's just government.

Australia is the same. If you want any sort of Security Clearance (i.e. you want to work for the government), you need papers proving where you have lived for 10 years. If you've lived in a couple of share houses and thrown out all your old bills, this can be almost impossible. (Yes, you can sign a Stat Dec, but it's frowned upon).

It took me nearly four hours to shred all my h1b documentation and I still have30% left just in case.