[802SEC] VISA requirements for Singapore for 802 participants who are not US citizens

[Geoff Thompson <gthompso@nortelnetworks.com>]

Colleagues-

Apparently there is a problem, or at a minimum a complication, for folks
who wish to attend the wireless meetings in Singapore. A "Letter of
Introduction" (LOI) and a "form V52" is required by
Singapore along with the visa application. According to the web site,
these must be completed by a sponsoring person or corporation from within
Singapore.

This affects citizens from a number of countries whose membership is
represented within 802 (e.g. India, Pakistan, PRC, Hong Kong, Egypt).
Further, to my mind, it significantly inhibits our ability to have
meetings that are "open" to new participants.

I have no idea who should be approached to satisfy these requirements.
The existence of the requirement and the procedure/contact to satisfy it
should be included with the meeting notice on the web site(s).

Please fix this and send an announcement to the reflectors when updated
information is available.

We will need to have a discussion at the next plenary on guidelines for
appropriate meeting locations.

Thank you.

Geoff Thompson, Vice Chair, IEEE 802


At 12:57 PM 3/27/2003 -0500, Mark Klerer wrote:

> Geoff,
>
> I have gone to the Singapore website - here is the info about the
> "Letter of Introduction" (LOI). Indian nationals are included
> in the ones that require Visa's. Many US and Canada based companies have
> Indian Nationals in their employee.  Other countries impacted are
> China and Russia. 
>
> (b) To apply for an entry visa, the
> applicant should
> complete
> Form
> 14 as well as furnish a copy of
> Form
> V39A (Letter of
> Introduction- LOI) issued by a Local Contact in Singapore. The
> local contact can be a Singapore citizen, Singapore Permanent Resident or
> a Singapore registered corporation. In the case of business visits, the
> local contact must be a Singapore registered corporation. If you are not
> able to furnish a LOI from a local contact, you may approach your Embassy
> or Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue a LOI to support your visa
> application. 
>
> The web site is at 
> http://www.mfa.gov.sg/consular/visa/visa_reqforeign.htm
> So unless we can get the govt to issue some blanket "number" that identifies us - we ought to get such a letter to evryone attending that needs one.
>
> Mark Klerer
> (From the ITU-R Meeting in Brazil)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Geoff Thompson [mailto:gthompso@nortelnetworks.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 8:34 PM
> To: Jim Lansford
> Cc: Geoff Thompson; bheile@ieee.org; stuart.kerry@philips.com; marks@boulder.nist.gov; M.Klerer@flarion.com; carlstevenson@agere.com; thompson@ieee.org; p.nikolich@ieee.org; mjsherman@research.att.com
> Subject: RE: News updates from Singapore
>
> Jim-
>
> See attached below.
>
> Is a "letter" really necessary? Can you ask whoever our government contact is?
> I have trouble with this, a copy of a meeting notice (and perhaps a copy of an IEEE membership card) should be sufficient in all cases (US and Canada too.) 
>
> Or am I being naive?
>
> Geoff
>
> At 05:58 PM 3/25/2003 -0600, Jim Lansford wrote:
>
> Geoff,

(Material deleted, was on another topic, GOT)

> Best regards,
> Jim
>
> Jim Lansford, Ph.D.
> VP, Business Development
> Mobilian Corporation
> Chair, IEEE 802.19 Coexistence TAG
> www.ieee802.org/19
> jim.lansford@ieee.org
> Phone: +1 405 377 6170
> Fax: +1 425 671 6099
> Mobile: +1 405 714 0074
>
> ========================================================
> From: "Tetlow, Sherry S [GMG]" <sherry.s.tetlow@mail.sprint.com>
> To: "'Thompson@ieee.org'" <Thompson@ieee.org>
> Cc: "Sheikh, Khurram P [GMG]" <khurram.p.sheikh@mail.sprint.com>
> Subject: 802.20 Conference in Singapore
> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 14:08:56 -0600
>
> Mr. Thompson;
>
> Khurram Sheikh Chief Technical Advisor for Sprint, would like to attend the
> 802.20 conference in Singapore from May 11th to the 15th.  Is it possible
> for you to fax a letter of invitation to Khurram for his visa?  The letter
> must be on letterhead and include the address in Singapore for the
> conference and a  signature.  Please fax it to me at 913-762-0523.  Feel
> free to call me if you have any questions at 913-762-1581.  We would like to
> get the letter as soon as possible since it takes several weeks to obtain
> the visa.
> Thank you in advance for your consideration regarding this matter.
> Sincerely,
> Sherry Tetlow
>
> Sherry Tetlow
> Exec. Admin. I,
> to Khurram Sheikh,
> Chief Technical Advisor, SBD Network Organization
> 913-762-1581
> 816-885-9904 PCS
> sherry.s.tetlow@mail.sprint.com