> 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

> 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.