--On Monday, August 30, 2010 08:46 -0700 Paul Hoffman <paul.hoffman@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > At 5:50 PM -0700 8/27/10, Randall Gellens wrote: >> I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that it depends on >> the primary purpose of the visit. > > ...even though the first answer on the FAQ on the IETF site > says otherwise? > > <http://www.ietf.org/meeting/79/faq.html> Paul, As has already been pointed out, there is some history of different consulates giving out different advice on this subject and, perhaps independently, of nationals of different countries being given different advice about requirements in practice. Those differences may be the result of different people asking at different times and getting different snapshots of evolving policies or they may be substantive and contemporary -- I have no way tell. All I am sure of if that one follows the advice of the IETF Secretariat or host on an IETF website and consular and/or immigration officials disagree, the positions of the latter are going to prevail and that protesting that one followed IETF's advice is unlikely to be helpful. FWIW, I don't believe that continued circling around on the issue and more reporting of anecdotal experience is helpful (especially when the anecdotal experience is that of nationals of countries whom the Chinese clearly treat differently from US citizen applications). YMMD, as always. Perhaps just as a corollary of that, I continue to believe that the _only_ sound advice is for people to get the application process started as early as feasible, put any questions directly to the relevant visa agency or consulate, and, preferably and if possible, explain to them exactly how time will be spent in China and let the consulate make the decision about visa types. john _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf