[wil421]

>2.5 years ago: I needed to provide both my renting agreement and my full employment contract to get a T-Mobile $80/m subscription for two, in the mid of Silicon Valley. The US is definitely making it harder than is should be :)

Thats horrible! You could go buy a pre paid phone with out having all of the overhead from T-Mobile.

The difference is that it was probably a T-Mobile policy, not a law or mandate by the government (like in Costa Rica).

>the US see them as numbers.

Exactly. I wish we were like Singapore but its much easier for a smaller Country. They see a person as an investvent in the future, the US sees you as a number and wants your taxes.

[syntern]

It has nothing to do with the size of the country. The US sees immigration as a privilege offered to a lower being [note], while Singapore sees (qualified) immigration as a way forward.

[note]: This may have been true for a long time in the history. People were going to the US mainland because their conditions were bad enough, and anything would have been better elsewhere. I can understand that point of view, although e.g. my situation is on equal terms in the US vs my home country. However, I don't think it'll serve the US interest in the long run.