
Canada refuses visas to over a dozen African AI researchers - bevinahally
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50426774
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LeftHandPath
This is incredibly disappointing.

> Visa woes are common for academics trying to attend conferences in the US,
> Canada and the UK.

Sounds like there's a real market gap. Maybe someplace like Singapore could
afford the risks (and handle the crowds). Australia would be a nice choice but
they're pretty strict about letting people in these days (at least when I
looked at both work and student visas a year or two ago).

Then again, they don't discuss or give evidence for any of the visa denials
they suggest are given by the U.S. (and in fact, the primary subject of the
article is currently based in the U.S.). It's definitely not what I expected,
but judging by the issues they list, it looks like it's harder to get into
Canada or the UK than it is to get into the US-of-A.

Maybe they should look south of the border next year.

~~~
pnako
I found this index of "welcoming" countries, ranking them by number of source
countries accepted visa-free or with visa on arrival:
[https://www.passportindex.org/byWelcomingRank.php](https://www.passportindex.org/byWelcomingRank.php)

Singapore indeed does rank high, it has all the infrastructure for holding
conferences, and it's an international hub. They speak English which is also a
plus.

