There are a ton more people for whom it is very bad. ESTA only includes maybe 600-700 million people. There are probably 7 billion people for which it is hard to very hard to get any US visa.
Sorry, you're absolutely correct. What I meant to express is, for a lot of people, particularly likely English-speaking programming language conference attendees, it's not that bad. My parent comment sort of made it sound like the only way for anyone to get to the US is through a years-long VISA application process.
But I should not have said "most people". And now knowing the context of Daniel's situation, my comment was probably unnecessary in general.
> My parent comment sort of made it sound like the only way for anyone to get to the US is through a years-long VISA application process
That was not really my intent.
My comment was quite snarky, this was the intent. I got a visa myself quite easily, but a lot of people actually argue for not organizing conferences there because of visa issues.
A former colleague of mine wanted to present a paper and got his visa issued after the conference, most likely because his passport is a Lebanese one. He's been living in France for years. His PhD supervisor had to present for him instead. This colleague wont best paper awards but no, he is not going to present them in the US.
My (more) serious argument is yes, it is this bad, and good enough for a lot of people is not satisfactory. We need places that don't arbitrarily exclude people so much. The US needs to fix this visa issue and until then, it would be best if events were organized elsewhere.
Not all interesting people doing research or involved in programming are American or EU citizen. This happens everywhere, including from countries if you happen to leave have set foot in or lived, you are practically banned from going to the US.
If I ever go to Iran, I can say goodbye to ESTA for the rest of my life. Even if it's because of a plane issue and the plane needs to do an emergency landing.
Goes without saying: Please do not apply this frustration to American citizens. Most american citizens don't realize or have experienced how difficult the government has made traveling to the US. It is incredibly frustrating as a native citizen to be interogated for, having the right, to return home. It's insane about how aggressive they have become for selecting out and collecting biometrics for visitors.
There are a ton more people for whom it is very bad. ESTA only includes maybe 600-700 million people. There are probably 7 billion people for which it is hard to very hard to get any US visa.