On 11/11/2014 10:27 AM, Ted Lemon wrote: > It appears to be the case that visa applications were being handled fairly quickly from China for a couple of years, and people got used to it, so got in the habit of applying later. And then there was an unexpected increase in processing in time that coincided with this IETF. There are two basic issues in the above. The first is an assertion about a pattern. The second is about a change in that pattern. To generalize this, we'd need to include it as an on-going part of venue selection. I believe the IETF does not generally consider established patterns of visa handling, when choosing a venue. Other than this being the specific reason for exlcuding Malaysia, while I was on the IAOC, I don't recall any serious analysis of visa issues over the last 4 years within the IAOC's meetings committee. We worry about violence and price and facilities and geography and other tidbits, but I don't recall visas being a factor. I'm not finding a comparison service online, that analyzes these patterns, but it could/should be worth finding one. We need to be careful to be pragmatic about this, which means neither ignoring it nor demanding perfection... d/ -- Dave Crocker Brandenburg InternetWorking bbiw.net