On Oct 4, 2004, at 11:42 PM, Sarah Stewart wrote:
Hello
If I want to visit the USA, I have to make a trip (which involves an air flight, and at least one day away from home/work) and get my visa organised face-to-face - I cant just send off a form. That adds considerable time and expense to a planned trip to the USA
Are you a New Zealander? If so then can't you arrive under the visa waiver process and avoid getting a visa at all? http://travel.state.gov/visa/tempvisitors_novisa_waiver.html#2 The visa-waiver program is quite specific about attending conferences being an acceptable activity (scroll down that page a bit). If not a new zealander then forgive me for assuming from your address ;) I thought it might add a little breadth to the discussion. Of course this waiver program is not much help to many around the world that would make valuable contributions ... And without trying to take away from the valuable feedback about how hard and expensive it is to just get a visa to get to conferences in the states I will just mention that the photograph and fingerprinting process is all electronic (no ink etc) and, in my experience as an ex-pat Australian on a student visa, pretty quick, if a little odd at first. -- James Howison PhD Student School of Information Studies Syracuse University +1 315 395 4056 VCard: http://freelancepropaganda.com/jameshowison.vcf