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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

#31

Post by xiaomayi »

i_no_can_eat wrote: post #25

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 neve…

Happened three times with some researchers that tried to use conference as the main vacation (and they wanted to get paid!!!). They never show up. I tend to delete all the requests for invitation letters from people that are not referred by anyone.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#32

Post by dale_glass »

ghaff wrote: post #22

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 i…

Yup. Visas have multiple types, and unless it's specifically for that, you're forbidden from doing anything that looks like work.

They also want to be quite sure you'll be returning after you're done, so a part of the application process is that there's something that ties you to your home country, like a job, house, etc. You're also expected to have enough savings to pay for anything you might need without working.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#33

Post by ghaff »

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.

Hardly unique to the US. As a US citizen, I've had to cancel on business speaking invitations because I couldn't fit the visa paperwork around my travel schedule.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#34

Post by duxup »

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.

> may be required not to be within a statutory minimum distance

Of the entire university?

What universities have this policy?

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#35

Post by empeyot »

i_no_can_eat wrote: post #25

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 neve…

Would be interesting to know how many of these visa applications eventually get rejected. Also, maybe some sort of deposit to be returned when participant shows up would discourage abuse.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#36

Post by ggm »

duxup wrote: post #34
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.

> may be required not to be within a statutory minimum distance Of the entire university? What universities have this policy?

Can't find any documentation. Was an iranian engineer whose paper was accepted and they were then escorted off campus. Maybe it was some point of confusion or during heightened tensions US-Iran because I can't find any confirming documents online.

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

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#37

Post by xiaomayi »

This post might be a little biased since the author holds an Indian passport. He tend to blame the conference organizers to help Indian people to organize the transfer (VISA talking) to their conference. The thing I'd like to suggest to conference organizers is to set up an online mirror that might be used for people that, temporarily, can't get a VISA.

If you blame conference organizers for some stupid rules about VISA, I think it's a little bit too much.. But maybe my opinion is biased too.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#38

Post by yarpen_z »

This problem of late announcements also applies to travelers that don't need visa. Recently, a major CS conference announced accepted papers two months before the conference date. Since it was a large federated conference located in a tourist destination in Florida, in the middle of the season, traveling from Europe was particularly expensive when buying tickets on a short notice.

And there's the additional downside that it was too late to apply to workshops and posters at co-located conferences. Many major conferences take place in the US, which means that traveling just for a workshop paper might not be feasible for researchers based outside of the US due to university policies and budget constraints. Thus, it's a good opportunity to participate and publish additional results while you are already there.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#39

Post by yarpen_z »

ghaff wrote: post #22

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 i…

I travel on a B1/B2 visa for conferences. When asked for the purpose of my visit, a common follow-up question is if I am going to receive any remuneration for my talk.

It's a tricky question since sometimes speakers receive a reimbursement for travel costs. I imagine that answering "yes" might cause you a lot of headache.

Re: Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

#40

Post by ghaff »

dale_glass wrote: post #12

Yup. I was once invited to an US conference that was going to happen two weeks from my invitation. Even getting an appointment with the embassy within that timeline was impossible. Later I went for a different reason and if I recall the time to actually getting a visa was around 2 months.

Honestly, unless it's some critical customer/business thing (which I have had), anyone who wants me to speak at an international conference with two weeks notice is going to get told "My schedule is packed."
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