Subject: Re: [ericas] Stuck getting visas for IETF meetings

From: Fernando Gont <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 May 2013 09:02:35 -0300

On 04/30/2013 06:28 AM, Carsten Bormann wrote:
> 
> There is not much we can do about the visa complexity at the IETF level.
> 
> But we can do two things:
> 
> -- collect information about relative levels of complexities exhibited
>    by different venues.  Right now I would guess (but don't know) that
>    it is easier for many to go to Canada than to the US.  

That's mostly a myth, I would say. In the same way that quite a few
times the folks at the Canadian border have been much less polite (if
you know what I mean) than at the US border.

Another related topic that might be of interest:
When granted a US visa, the US immigration office does not care about
the expiration date of your passport: hence you may be granted a 10-year
visa for 5-year passport (once the passport has expired, you just bring
the old passport (with the visa) with the new passport, and that's it).

However, at least in the Canadian Embassy in Buenos Aires, they will not
grant you a Canadian visa for longer than your passport's expiration
date. Which means that if your passport expires in, say, one year, your
Canadian visa will have to expire at the same time.
i.e., it is not possible to "bring the old passport with the visa,
together with the new passport". This means that you will have to renew
your visa much more frequently.

Cheers,
-- 
Fernando Gont
SI6 Networks
e-mail: [email-masked]
PGP Fingerprint: 6666 31C6 D484 63B2 8FB1 E3C4 AE25 0D55 1D4E 7492

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From: Nicolas Ruiz <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 May 2013 09:02:14 -0500

> you know what I mean) than at the US border.

I don't think is a myth. In my experience it's more difficult to be 
granted a visa to visit the US than western Europe.

nicolas

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From: Fernando Gont <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 May 2013 11:15:06 -0300

> granted a visa to visit the US than western Europe.

Wasn't the discussion about "US vs Canada"?

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From: Nicolas Ruiz <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 May 2013 09:23:12 -0500

> Wasn't the discussion about "US vs Canada"?
I understand that the question is in regard to different venues, and 
pose the issue of Canada vs USA visa as an example. But even if the 
issue is strictly Canada vs USA, I think the perception that obtaining a 
visa to the USA is more difficult that a visa to Canada is accurate.

nicolas

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From: Joe Abley <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 2 May 2013 10:25:37 -0400

> Wasn't the discussion about "US vs Canada"?

I think the discussion was about "lowering barriers to attend meetings from developing regions".

I don't think in general there's a useful answer here. Whether or not visas are necessary, expensive or difficult to get for particular destinations depends wildly on the nationalities and travel histories of individuals. Everybody is different. Attendance at particular meetings varies for reasons other than visa/travel challenges. I doubt there is a good general solution, IETF-wide.

(For example, I hold three passports. I rarely need visas for anywhere, but when I do it's visas to African countries that take the most time. The only place I've been declined is Nigeria, and they were happy to accept me when I reapplied. I would have preferred them to just double the application fee rather than make me apply twice, but their visa, their rules. Travel to or through the US is more painful for me than Canada, but then again one of my passports is Canadian and hence my opinion there is not useful.)

It does seem possible that we could shift the balance of pain away from potential participants in developing regions and onto those from developed regions; perhaps a balance could be found where the pain subsidy could be judged to be appropriate and worthwhile if it promotes more diverse (there, I said it) attendance. I don't know how we'd do this in practice, though.

Joe

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From: Melinda Shore <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 May 2013 09:00:41 -0800

> granted a visa to visit the US than western Europe.

I believe the situation is that it's easier to get a visa to get
into Canada than into the US, but the customs and immigration
people at the border are more diligent.  The latter can be
annoying but it's really the former that impacts meetings the
most.

Melinda

-- 
Melinda Shore
No Mountain Software
[email-masked]

"Software longa, hardware brevis."