What's the meaning of Visiting Researcher / Ass. Professor? I want to know how actually (and on the basis of what) visiting researcher (for PhD students) or visiting Ass. Professor (for lecturers) opportunities are offered worldwide (especially for USA/Canada) ?
Thanks !
For the European countries I've seen the answer would be similar:
Visiting researcher is not really a type of (funded) position, but a status. PhD students might do a research visit as part of their doctoral studies while still being paid by their home institution, sometimes supported by a travel grant to cover travel and housing costs. There are also post-doc grants providing 1- or 2-year funding that are implemented by having the involved institution host the postdoc as a visiting researcher. Finally, a professor on a sabbatical might visit another institution for a couple of months and in the course of that take on the visiting researcher status.
Fixed-term lecturer or teacher positions are created by the department as a regular type of position  (the term &quot;visiting assistant professor&quot; is usually not used). They usually have to be publicly announced and advertised, although the effort for advertisement is usually smaller than for a tenure-track or tenured position.