Returning home upgraded migrant visa status and enabled repeated travel

Evidence

Salim made his first visit to New York in the 1980s. He booked his trip through a travel agency run by a family member that helped him obtain a tourist visa. He stayed in the U.S. for seven years, waiting tables and driving a delivery truck. When he returned to Pakistan, he used the money he had saved to start an import–export business. Although he continued to use his family travel agent, he explained, his status changed when he returned to Pakistan, and he was eligible for a business visa. Throughout the 1990s, he was able to travel back and forth between the U.S. and Pakistan, largely because he could prove that intended ultimately to return to Pakistan and because he arranged for di√erent business partners in the U.S. to sponsor his visits. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 706

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to how visa regimes reward the appearance of temporary intent — parallels patterns of documentation and surveillance in the security state theme.