Thread by @melisulug

Dear friends and colleagues,
This is a call for international conference organizers to think twice before organizing any conference in Western Europe/North America, where many academics from the Global South (GS) need a visa to enter. (1)

Before ISPP (one of my favorite conferences) convenes in Greece in 10 days, I would like to draw attention to some of the structural barriers many academics from GS face. (2)

When people have passport privileges, they usually don't know how difficult, costly, and emotionally draining the visa process is. Here’s our story, which has a relatively happy ending compared to the experiences of many of our other colleagues from GS. (3)

My husband and I are lecturers in the UK. This summer, we decided to attend SeSaMO and ISPP conferences in Italy and Greece, respectively. As part of a long-term research project, we would also visit our colleague in Messina often, so we applied for a 1-year visa from Italy. (4)

As early as April, there was no visa appointment slot available on the VFS website. All fully booked in London, Manchester, and Edinburgh. There was only one available slot for June 17 for the Greek visa, and I booked it just in case. (5)

My husband (@ardabilgen) explained the situation to the Consulate General of Italy, and they were kind enough to manually arrange an appointment for us for May 27. We started collecting all the required documents:
(6)

I also submitted some supporting documents including an official letter from the head of my school saying that I would go to Italy a few times in the 2022-23 academic year for grant writing, academic talks, etc. (7)

We printed 104 pages of documents. 52 per person. More than 15 million people apply for a Schengen each year, so think about the environmental impact of printing of this scale. (8)

Visa fees are also high & unfair. Whether it is a 3-day single-entry or 1-year multiple-entry visa, you still have to pay £112.81, including VFS, courier & SMS services. Transportation costs can be very high, considering there are only three application centers in the UK. (9)

On June 14, after three weeks of waiting, our "visa application has been deemed inadmissible." Even though our port of entry was Italy, and we were planning to stay in Italy way longer than in Greece, they advised us to re-apply from the Consulate of Greece. (10)

Imagine, the conference in Italy starts on June 22 and you are told to (re-)apply for a visa on June 14. Of course it was impossible to book a new appointment to apply for a Greek visa on such short notice. At least I had a backup slot, but my husband didn’t. (11)

We immediately sent a series of emails to VFS Global and the Consulate of Italy to explain why this decision did not make any sense in our situation. Our colleague in Messina & the conference organizers also emailed the Consulate to reverse their decision. (12)

No one responded for two days. Our passports were already dispatched to us. All this was happening when we were attending another conference in Newcastle, so I had to cut my trip short and go back to Brighton to at least make it to my appointment on June 17. (13)

When I received our passports & all the documents we submitted earlier, I realized that there was a red circle on all of our documents except our cover letters. Apparently, the person who evaluated our applications checked everything EXCEPT our cover letters. (14)

When I contacted the Consulate about it, they said: “the cover letter cannot be taken into account as travel arrangements ... the jurisdiction was of the Greek’s authorities” [sic]. Why are you asking us to write a cover letter then if you won’t even bother reading it? (15)

Anyway, I decided not to attend the SeSaMO conference. If granted a visa from Greece, I could at least attend ISPP. I spent my whole Thursday to (re-)prepare an application package and went to London again on Friday for my appointment with the Consulate of Greece. (16)

My husband didn't give up and managed to book an appointment with VFS with the help of the Consulate. His appointment was on June 20, his flight was on June 21. “We are not able to guarantee you that we will receive the entry clearance by the 21st,” they said in their email. (17)

Guess what? This time VFS & the Consulate worked so hard to help him and granted him a visa in less than 12 hours. Even though he applied for a 5-day single-entry visa, he was granted a 3-week multiple-entry visa. I couldn’t make it, but at least he was off to Naples. (18)

The Consulate of Greece issued my visa last week. 11 days, single-entry. I wonder: How many academics from the Global North have ever had to worry about visa issues? How many have had to pay tons of money, spend countless hours, and feel humiliated just to enter a country? (19)

How many have ever had to choose which conference to attend based on the visa requirements of the country where the conference takes place? How many were denied entry due to their citizenship? How many did choose not to go due to not being able to afford the visa fees? (20)

Before ranting about how online or hybrid conferences do not give a “real conference feeling,” please think about how many scholars from GS cannot attend conferences due to visa problems every year. (21)

International conferences are gradually becoming venues where scholars from the Global North lecture each other about GS, and we are talking about diversity, inclusion, and equity. Seriously? (22)

Either we (GS scholars & our allies) should boycott international conferences usually taking place in Western Europe/North America OR conference organizers should start thinking about these structural problems before they choose their next conference destination. (23)

If you are an academic from the Global North and reading this, please be aware of the additional hurdles that non-global North academics face both within and outside their institutions. (24)

Where we are born shouldn’t determine our academic trajectory. Therefore, for a more diverse, equal, and inclusive academia, please support our call and help us break down the barriers that limit academic freedom and mobility. Thank you for your support! (25)