<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 22 Oct 2016, at 12:17 PM, Edward Morris <<a href="mailto:egmorris1@toast.net" class="">egmorris1@toast.net</a>> wrote:</div><div class=""><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',Sans-Serif; font-size: 14px" class=""><div class=""><p dir="ltr" class=""><br class="">
<em class="">At least Hyderabad meeting made all of us equals with regard to visa hurdles and difficulties, something some of us have to handle for every ICANN meeting.</em></p><div class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p dir="ltr" class=""><span style="font-size:14px;" class=""><span style="font-family:lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif;" class="">Which is why we should be pressuring ICANN to arrange and pay for visa services firms to assist our covered travellers who need visas. We talked about this on Council three meetings ago: Council Chair James Bladell talked about the difference it made when his company, GoDaddy, hired such a firm for it's employees. It is something out SG and C leadership should pursue with ICANN. It really is not a Council issue per se.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" class=""><span style="font-size:14px;" class=""><span style="font-family:lucida sans unicode,lucida grande,sans-serif;" class="">Iceland is a member of the Schengen visa zone so visa hurdles would be the same as for any European country that is a member.</span></span></p><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div></div></span></div></blockquote></div> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Plucking this specific issue out of the discussion - this does seem to be having an effect, though its hard to tell whether its as a result of council etc discussion or just an emergency response to Indian visa problems. I was told that as a supported traveller I could use ICANNs visa service CIBT and be reimbursed. </div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Agree that we should follow up on this option. </div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And i am in agreement with Ed that a country in the Schengen zone is a reasonable option as far as visas go - but I think Rafik has a point that for some of our members, any trip that requires a visa offers some difficulty, and the effort of a visa for a separate short meeting is sometimes hard to justify. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>David</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>