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2020 In November, in the middle of Covid, I finally got a US visa.[1] [1] https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2020/11/09/a-us-visa-in-937-days/ https://daniel.haxx.se

2020 In November, in the middle of Covid, I finally got a US visa.[1] [1] https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2020/11/09/a-us-visa-in-937-days/ https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2020/11/09/a-us-visa-in-937-days... Edit: formating

jraph 4y ago
937 days to get a visa, that's quite timely. International conference organizers ought to plan a bit in advance if they want to schedule things in the US. … or just don't organize stuff in the US.
- mort96 4y ago
  It's not so bad for most people. If you're in one of the countries the US likes, you can apply for an ESTA which lets you stay in the country for up to 3 months or something; way longer than you need for a conference. It was very painless when I travelled to the US from Norway for a holiday some years back. Of course, it's not as easy if you're not from one of the 40 countries eligible for the Visa Waiver Program. But from what I can see, Daniel is in and from Sweden, which is one of those countries.
  - Moru 4y ago
    > when I was refused to board the flight due to unspecified "problems with my ESTA". As my employer at the time, Mozilla engaged some people on both the American as well as the Swedish side to try to figure out what was wrong and what we could do to correct the situation. Unfortunately, no one would offer any clues or information about why I was denied It's apparently not that easy when the US decides it's not enough.
    - oblio 4y ago
      My guess? His site name being haxx and curl frequently being used for exploits. It's not like bureaucrats actually understand what curl does, but they have heard about "hacks".
  - oblio 4y ago
    > It's not so bad for most people. There are a ton more people for whom it is very bad. ESTA only includes maybe 600-700 million people. There are probably 7 billion people for which it is hard to very hard to get any US visa.
    - mort96 4y ago
      Sorry, you're absolutely correct. What I meant to express is, for a lot of people, particularly likely English-speaking programming language conference attendees, it's not that bad. My parent comment sort of made it sound like the only way for anyone to get to the US is through a years-long VISA application process. But I should not have said "most people". And now knowing the context of Daniel's situation, my comment was probably unnecessary in general.
      - jraph 4y ago
        > My parent comment sort of made it sound like the only way for anyone to get to the US is through a years-long VISA application process That was not really my intent. My comment was quite snarky, this was the intent. I got a visa myself quite easily, but a lot of people actually argue for not organizing conferences there because of visa issues. A former colleague of mine wanted to present a paper and got his visa issued after the conference, most likely because his passport is a Lebanese one. He's been living in France for years. His PhD supervisor had to present for him instead. This colleague wont best paper awards but no, he is not going to present them in the US. My (more) serious argument is yes, it is this bad, and good enough for a lot of people is not satisfactory. We need places that don't arbitrarily exclude people so much. The US needs to fix this visa issue and until then, it would be best if events were organized elsewhere. Not all interesting people doing research or involved in programming are American or EU citizen. This happens everywhere, including from countries if you happen to leave have set foot in or lived, you are practically banned from going to the US. If I ever go to Iran, I can say goodbye to ESTA for the rest of my life. Even if it's because of a plane issue and the plane needs to do an emergency landing. The US are too unreliable.
        4y ago

jraph 4y ago

937 days to get a visa, that's quite timely. International conference organizers ought to plan a bit in advance if they want to schedule things in the US. … or just don't organize stuff in the US.

mort96 4y ago
It's not so bad for most people. If you're in one of the countries the US likes, you can apply for an ESTA which lets you stay in the country for up to 3 months or something; way longer than you need for a conference. It was very painless when I travelled to the US from Norway for a holiday some years back. Of course, it's not as easy if you're not from one of the 40 countries eligible for the Visa Waiver Program. But from what I can see, Daniel is in and from Sweden, which is one of those countries.
- Moru 4y ago
  > when I was refused to board the flight due to unspecified "problems with my ESTA". As my employer at the time, Mozilla engaged some people on both the American as well as the Swedish side to try to figure out what was wrong and what we could do to correct the situation. Unfortunately, no one would offer any clues or information about why I was denied It's apparently not that easy when the US decides it's not enough.
  - oblio 4y ago
    My guess? His site name being haxx and curl frequently being used for exploits. It's not like bureaucrats actually understand what curl does, but they have heard about "hacks".
- oblio 4y ago
  > It's not so bad for most people. There are a ton more people for whom it is very bad. ESTA only includes maybe 600-700 million people. There are probably 7 billion people for which it is hard to very hard to get any US visa.
  - mort96 4y ago
    Sorry, you're absolutely correct. What I meant to express is, for a lot of people, particularly likely English-speaking programming language conference attendees, it's not that bad. My parent comment sort of made it sound like the only way for anyone to get to the US is through a years-long VISA application process. But I should not have said "most people". And now knowing the context of Daniel's situation, my comment was probably unnecessary in general.
    - jraph 4y ago
      > My parent comment sort of made it sound like the only way for anyone to get to the US is through a years-long VISA application process That was not really my intent. My comment was quite snarky, this was the intent. I got a visa myself quite easily, but a lot of people actually argue for not organizing conferences there because of visa issues. A former colleague of mine wanted to present a paper and got his visa issued after the conference, most likely because his passport is a Lebanese one. He's been living in France for years. His PhD supervisor had to present for him instead. This colleague wont best paper awards but no, he is not going to present them in the US. My (more) serious argument is yes, it is this bad, and good enough for a lot of people is not satisfactory. We need places that don't arbitrarily exclude people so much. The US needs to fix this visa issue and until then, it would be best if events were organized elsewhere. Not all interesting people doing research or involved in programming are American or EU citizen. This happens everywhere, including from countries if you happen to leave have set foot in or lived, you are practically banned from going to the US. If I ever go to Iran, I can say goodbye to ESTA for the rest of my life. Even if it's because of a plane issue and the plane needs to do an emergency landing. The US are too unreliable.
      - 4y ago