|
| quote: | Originally posted by Spacey Orange
the requirements are few (a couple of forms), |
As someone who has just completed the process of acquiring a visa for the US I would say that you don't know what you are talking about. I needed to get a visa for participating in a research group in NYC for 6-9 months, with my salary and expenses paid for by my danish employer. That is, I didn't even need a work permit. Here is what I had to do:
* Get a DS-2019 form - which is a form that is issued in the US based on information that they get from you. A lot of emailing back and forth over the course of some weeks.
* Fill out forms DS-156, DS-157, and DS-158. They include parts where you should list your address in the US (hard when you haven't decided on one), phone numbers and addresses of close family, and a few non-family persons who can back up everything you have written. In addition you must list your last jobs, the countries you have visited the last 10 years (including the actual years you visited them), any "special skills", and any organisation you have been a member of or have contributed to. This information is *really* hard to remmeber/get - yet alone to find two non-family members who can verify it.
* Obtain a photograph with exact measures 5cm times 5 cm, on a white background, facing the camera, with certain limits on the ratio of head/background in the picture frame.
* Pay ~$150 to get an appointment at the US embassy.
* Pay a sevis fee ($100).
* Attend an interview at the embassy (took less than 5 minutes). Cost me ~$200 in travelling, and took an entire day, beginning at 4 in the morning to get their before it closed for interviews (10 a.m.).
* Bring your own $10 stamped SAE.
* Bring bank statements, debt documentation, working contracts, and other financial documents.
This is just of the top of my head, as I try to remember the detail. In addition to that, Denmark is even part of the visa-waver agreement.
What seems totally absurd to me, is that you can enter the US as a tourist with no fuzz at all, but once you actually need to do something there you need to go through quite a security clearance. I mean, why should the odds be higher that you are a terrorist if you are not a tourist?
I don't know if it's the same deal with foreigners coming to Europe, but as I haven't heard any of those I talk with complain, I guess not.
|