422. How do you get a visa?

Immigration laws to countries sometimes come across as very arbitrary.

Every so often you’ll meet someone who has migrated overseas and they don’t appear to have any unique or high demand skills but they were able to get the required documentation. Then you meet other people who are highly qualified in fields of demand and yet the really struggle.

Don’t get me wrong, I am far from anti-immigration. I myself am a result of immigration. I’m just confused about how the system works.

Maybe in some countries it’s more straightforward, but my experience of meeting expats/migrant workers and wannabe expats/migrant workers in/to the US and the UK has highlighted how random it sometimes appears to be.

For example I’ve met young guys who migrated to the US to study and received their green card even though they are yet to graduate and their jobs are driving for Uber. At the same time I’ve know of high ranking civil servants from Malaysia who were denied a tourist/business visa even though they were meant to travel as part of an official government delegation.

Maybe it’s kept a bit random on purpose to prevent people from “gaming” the system?