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Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

arunraghavan.net

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Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#21

Post by pydry »

magicalhippo wrote: post #19

A friend was doing a stint in Ghana as part of their degree, and was the same there. Had to get a visa, but no embassy in Norway, so had to use the one in Denmark. IIRC they had to send an email to apply then had to mail passport and money, so had to go to the bank to get danish currency. The whole process took a couple of months. I knew about visa being a thing, but hadn't traveled outside EU and US, so was a bit of…

I applied for a visa to Ghana last year. They had a broken website. When I asked tech support what the issue was they invented a reason of "you applied too far in advance" which wasn't true. The level to which they just didn't give a damn was palpable.

I can't remember exactly what the issue was - something like a button or a drop down not working - but I managed to work around it in the end but it was very stressful. I had a whole bunch of flights, other visas, etc. hinging on this stupid broken website.

It's a whole different world to when I travel to Europe/US/Asia but it's not all that different to how my spouse experiences traveling (with an unfortunate passport). The websites in the west tend to work a bit better but they do all sorts of things like require a visa appointment at a visa center, throttle the number of slots, make you come two weeks from now on Tuesday at 11:24am exactly and then keep you waiting until 5pm to talk to somebody who doesn't even understand the rules of the visa you're applying for.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#22

Post by ghaff »

Something else to be aware of--which I've heard second hand--is saying anything that implies you'll be in the country to work. This can potentially include an honorarium, travel expenses covered, etc. Just something to watch.

(As a US passport holder) attending conferences in most countries, much less answering some emails, without a specific business visa has never been an issue for me personally, but it can be an issue for some. (And business visas with letters of introduction etc. are required last time I got one from e.g. China.)

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#23

Post by [deleted] »

ggm wrote: post #17

If you're an American university with a teaching or research Reactor, make sure your conference organisers know attendees from China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria may be required not to be within a statutory minimum distance. It's hugely confronting and embarrassing for invited speakers, paper authors to arrive and then get excluded and escorted off campus.

[deleted]

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#24

Post by progbits »

ggm wrote: post #17

If you're an American university with a teaching or research Reactor, make sure your conference organisers know attendees from China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria may be required not to be within a statutory minimum distance. It's hugely confronting and embarrassing for invited speakers, paper authors to arrive and then get excluded and escorted off campus.

That's a ridiculous security theater.

But I'm curious, what is the distance?

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#25

Post by i_no_can_eat »

There is another side to this. Whenever I have organized conferences, I end up receiving lots of requests for invitation letters, typically from researchers in India, for Visa purposes. I absolutely understand this, and I have always done my best to accommodate these requests. But this is time-consuming, and it is very annoying when those researchers (who are sometimes also scheduled to speak) never show up, and never bother giving advance notification.

I have since been told that this is a scheme that some people use just to get a VISA for Europe, and then use the time for vacation once they have all paperwork in order. This creates a bias against researchers from these countries (I have been told by colleagues not to accept requests to speak at conferences from researchers in India because they will "never show up"). Annoyingly, my own experience does somewhat confirm this "advice", and it is extremely unfair for the people that genuinely are interested in traveling to attend conferences.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#26

Post by niea_11 »

> in the US, whether you are permitted to enter and how long you may stay are determined by the person at the border

I don't believe this is specific to the US. The agent at the border always has the last decision on whether you can enter the country even if you have a valid visa and travel documents.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#28

Post by [deleted] »

mongol wrote: post #15
sampo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Side note: EU is planning to retaliate, and just as US is requiring ESTA from EU citizens traveling to US, in 2024 EU will start to require a similar application caller ETIAS, from US citizens traveling to EU. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Travel_Information_an...

Should it be seen as retaliation, or just rational decision to prevent illegal or unwanted migration?

[deleted]

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#29

Post by blueflow »

lynx23 wrote: post #20

Or, even better, don't accept invites from U.S. based conferences, and you will never have any unexpected issues. Best not to cross their borders at all.

Or don't go to conferences at all, less costs for traveling, less flying (climate etc), less potential for COVID infection.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#30

Post by ggm »

progbits wrote: post #24
ggm wrote: post #17

If you're an American university with a teaching or research Reactor, make sure your conference organisers know attendees from China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria may be required not to be within a statutory minimum distance. It's hugely confronting and embarrassing for invited speakers, paper authors to arrive and then get excluded and escorted off campus.

That's a ridiculous security theater. But I'm curious, what is the distance?

I'm unsure. It's something beyond "don't be on campus" I also can't find any documentation about it. Happened to a client of my partner who was an ESL academic proofreader.

The most likely situation is an over cautious interpretation of https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-inf...

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