Dear all,
I think issues of visa will continue to be in the front burner of challenges of holding face 2 face meetings and while I do not think it's necessary to remind ourselves that every country reserves the right to grant or reject a visa application neither will it be helpful to give a general term to a country's decision, but it is absolutely fine for us to develop an individual opinion which will be based on our individual experience and these are normally not the same in this context.
That said, it's up to Atlarge/ICANN to consider whether the meetings are truly open to all if certain country border requirements and processes can be so exhausting. While I have read through various experience sharing of those who got denied and got granted visa after trying again, none of them suggest that it happened due to any action of the meeting organisers/local host. However in certain previous ICANN meetings the intervention of local host was quite evident.
As one who went through the Visa application process, I will say that issue of getting granted or denied visa is just one aspect, the time it takes to even get a decision is another major issue. IMO those who may not physically attend the meeting will be affected more by the latter and this is not because they applied late, it is just how complicated the application review process of Canada can be. It is in such situation that interventions of local host makes a difference and it is not entirely clear to me how much impact the local host played on this particular one as it's not evident [1].
I hope that this will be read in a positive sense of things as my intention is not to blame the local host as they may have indeed done their best (within their limit) but this is to serve as a feedback on the importance of considering the type of host and her commitment thereof when determining where next to take the most important of the 3 annual ICANN meetings.
I wish everyone attending the event a safe journey and yes I hope some of us originally scheduled to attend will try to make good use of remote participation. Do have a wonderful meeting experience as usual.
Regards
1. This is a personal opinion based on my experience.
Sent from my mobile
Kindly excuse brevity and typos