On 11/10/2014 11:46 PM, John C Klensin wrote:
IIRC, in most cases, what they require is an
itinerary/reservation rather than a ticket.
If a reservation is required, it can be almost equivalent to
requiring a ticket, since many airlines won't hold a reservation
for a cheap/ refundable ticket for very long without buying the
ticket.
Agree. My point was that, strictly speaking, you do not need to buy a
ticket to apply for the visa.
All the above sad, I should say that, as far as
central/south-americans are concerned, e.g. Europe tends to be
way more friendly than North America: I can travel anywhere in
Europe (except Russia, I think) without a visa... but need a
visa for US and Canada.
Unfortunately, generalizing from any given country or regional
experience is not helpful. As an example, a few central/south
american countries reciprocate US and/or Canada visa
requirements and procedures, not only requiring visas, but
pulling the same "we will not formally turn you down, but may
keep your application in a 'processing' state until the time of
the meeting or other event, or at least the plausible airfare
window, has passed". I speak from experience, having had
Brazilian and Chinese visa applications timed out despite
allowing lots of application time.
I'm aware about the "reciprocity" thing (for instance, Argentina charges
a reciprocity fee to australians, canadians, and usa-ians).
But what I meant is that there are places that are known to be more
painful to travel to than others. And that of "Europe is generally
eaiser to travel to (for central/shouth-americans) than USA or Canada",
is still true. IIRC, citizens from any south american country are
required a visa for US and canada, while quite a few of us
(south/central american countries) can travel to europe without any visa.
Also note that there are country pairs in which the destination
country may be very relaxed about tourist visas (or waivers for
tourists) but may require formal visas for business or meeting
attendance.
Agreed. An example is India: travel visas are easy (and free!). business
visas are painful (and cost money!).
Michael's conclusions are, IMO, the correct ones. I would
restate them as:
(1) Do not experiment with November meetings. Pick places where
we at least know what we are getting into.
Sorry, I missed the discussion: what's so special about November?
Thanks,
--
Fernando Gont
e-mail: fernando(_at_)gont(_dot_)com(_dot_)ar ||
fgont(_at_)si6networks(_dot_)com
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