[Air-l] AoIR conference venues

[Panayiotis Zaphiris]

I am an EU citizen and i still need a visa to visit USA.  I need to inform the
USA embassy at least a week in advance, visit the embassy in person and be
asked  lots of screaning/profiling questions.

the process (ofcourse an inovations of the Bush administration) is time
consuming.

personal preference: i prefer the conference to be in europe.

Panayiotis


Quoting Maria Garrido <migarrid at u.washington.edu>:

> Good night to everybody,
> 
> I think that the visa policy that Wu Mei is referring to has the following 
> "democratic" components:
> 1.- For people traveling from the middle east and other Muslim countries it 
> is basically impossible to obtain a tourist visa from a US Embassy or 
> Consulate
> 2.- For nationals of countries like China, Russia etc., you may get a visa 
> but they give you hell in the airport.
> 3.- For nationals of some countries in Latin America (I can speak for 
> Mexico) it takes an entire day to get the visa, you need to schedule your 
> appointment some times with 4 months in advance, pay 135 USD, and even being
> 
> a NAFTA national, doesn't protect you against "special" security checks at 
> the airports.
> 4.- Last but not least, EVERY international visitor to the US is 
> finger-printed and photographed which some people find humiliating.
> 
> It is unfortanate that immigration policies of this sort deter/limit the 
> chances for people to participate in academic conferences. We are missing a 
> truly valuable exchange of knowledge in the name of national security.
> 
> Maria Garrido
> PhD Candidate
> Department of Communication
> University of Washington
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> Air-l-aoir.org at listserv.aoir.org
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
> 


-- 
Dr. Panayiotis Zaphiris
Senior Lecturer
Center for Human-Computer Interaction Design
City University
London, EC1V 0HB
Tel: +44-(0)-20-7040-8168
Fax: +44-(0)-20-7040-8859  
zaphiri at soi.city.ac.uk
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~zaphiri

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