Obviously, governments and borders are outdated. I lived in 5 different countries (Russia, Switzerland, Italy, US, Denmark), and I couldn't help but wonder — why, why all this paperwork?
AFTER EDIT: I am sincerely interested, and I think "hell" may be a bit of an exaggeration, so I'm not sure what's objectionable about this question. But let me know if you have an objection, okay?
I am waiting 8 months to renew my Swiss residence permit (I have to do it every year), despite that I live in Switzerland for 9 years already.
Canadians can enter the country for 6 months without a visa. This makes it is easy to work illegally for people who are willing to take that risk.
There is the TN visa, which is easy to obtain. But it's only for 8 specific professions. I for one worked as a Computer Systems Analyst. A job title I never heard before that. Once you have this visa it's bound to your employment, when you loose your job, you have to leave the country in 10 days. This is a temporary visa and you can not apply for a green card.
Then there is H1B. This visa allows you to apply for a green card, but you can only apply for it on one specific date per year, if you can get it depends on a lottery (!), which decides if you can work 6 month later. Also it requires a mountain of paperwork, which however the companies lawyer will normally take care of. From there it takes 2-3 year to get a green card.
I guess you'd need limitations on health care and an awareness campaign about it (so that confused people didn't travel in an attempt to save money), but other than that, I think the only stopper is the slightly higher level of paranoia the U.S. shows towards foreign visitors.
For the TN program you simply present yourself to the immigration officer when you enter the country (this part is something that even a citizen will have to do), show them your documentation, pay $50, and you're done. You don't even have to fill out a form.
Try explaining to them why you have a degree in Electrical Engineering but work as a Data Scientist. My friend tried, and it would be funny if it didn't almost cost him his job. He literally got in due to a shred of mercy caused by his girlfriend's tears at the possibility of a refused visa.
The USA sometimes feels like a dystopian nightmare, mainly populated with idiotic yes-men and ruled by Machiavellian bureaucrats. There are a few niche ecosystems that are impressive, but they are by far the minority.
You can theoretically only do the border visa part once.
Also remember to have the documentation when you cross the border, in case some border guard forgot to stamp your passport with your renewal number, which has happened to me.
Their computer systems are so bad (or they are so untrained) that they can't just look it up by passport number. It's supposedly a pretty complicated process on their end at the secondary screening office.