<story><title>Adi Shamir Prevented from Attending Crypto and Cryptology Conferences</title><url>http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/27.54.html#subj1</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>buro9</author><text>My visa takes a long while.&lt;p&gt;Not quite as long as it took Adi Shamir, but long.&lt;p&gt;On average it takes about 14 weeks to get a visa, but on occasion it has taken many many months.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve done the calculations, the worst-case scenario for the full process is 32 weeks. It&amp;#x27;s never actually taken that long, but it&amp;#x27;s not been far off.&lt;p&gt;I remember having to explain to Microsoft that they needed to write a sponsor&amp;#x2F;supporting letter (for the US embassy) more than half a year in advance of any potential visit to Redmond that I&amp;#x27;d be working at. As this was for DAC (Developer Advisory Council) meetings that Microsoft only scheduled a month in advance they found themselves in a dilemma over this. Thankfully they agreed, and their legal department would author letters that a meeting would likely occur requiring my attendance, but it was always a slog of a process.&lt;p&gt;For those wondering, I was shortly married to a US citizen and I speculate that this triggers some flag or signal that makes them think I want to stay there (I don&amp;#x27;t). I also have an interesting past, having been homeless for a while. Who knows though, the system doesn&amp;#x27;t supply answers. It&amp;#x27;s a black box process.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a nightmare process that doesn&amp;#x27;t end when you have a visa. On arrival I experience the joys of &amp;quot;secondary&amp;quot;, and being sat in a waiting room for many hours before a 10-second interview in which they let me go my way.&lt;p&gt;Every part of the experience is a miserable one, always with the threat of an axe over the visit.&lt;p&gt;The vast majority of the time I have been invited, or had opportunities to visit, I just do not choose to visit the USA.</text></comment>
<story><title>Adi Shamir Prevented from Attending Crypto and Cryptology Conferences</title><url>http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/27.54.html#subj1</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>anon1385</author><text>This was also submitted yesterday but didn&amp;#x27;t get much interest for some reason: &lt;a href=&quot;https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6560355&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=6560355&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similar recent story: &lt;a href=&quot;https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6499744&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=6499744&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#x27;US scientists boycott Nasa conference over China ban&amp;#x27;</text></comment>