- Individuals traveling to Korean to attend the IETF meeting
do not need a visa, as they are traveling to attend a
non-profit conference. They can stay in Korea up to 30
day for such purpose and for tourism.
Ah, okay, this makes sense now, because there was a slight language
issue with the person I spoke with (I hesitate to mention it since I am
a typical American and am only monolingual, but it's relevant here).
The individual I spoke with said several times that if you "paid them
money" (referring to the organization) you needed a visa, but I think
based on the context he really meant "non-profit". So this agrees
with Sam's information and what you found out.
- If you travel to Korea for business purposes, such as
meeting customers or other business purposes, then a
visa is needed.
Right, there was no confusion on this issue, but this one clearly
doesn't apply.
- This applies only to private U.S. citizens. Government
employees and citizens of other countries need to contact
their local Korean embassy for a determination in their
case. Ken, in your case, if you are a government employee,
you will need a visa.
Luckily, I'm not, so that doesn't apply here.
- Another consideration concerning visa. People attend
IETF meetings as individuals, not directly representing
their company -- and clearly a private individual traveling
to attend a nonprofit technical meeting clearly does not
need a visa.
Well ... this really depends on what you mean by "representing", I think.
Certainly the _theory_ at the IETF is that people are supposed to be
attending the meetings as individuals. I've certainly seen a number of
cases where an individual was clearly representing a company rather
than theirself. But I think it's a fuzzy line if your employer pays
for your trip and your salary while you're at IETF. Sure, in the IETF
context, they may be just their as theirself. But it sure would look
like they were representing their company to a third party (say, the
South Korean government).
--Ken