Development of a knowledge base to expedite Visa applications.

[DragonflyStats]

Communication to the R Consortium Working Group on Diversity and Inclusion (RCWGDI)

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As raised at the meeting yesterday, a better understanding of the processes behind Visa requests is desirable across Data Science organizations.

I strongly support the suggestion that we jointly create a knowledge base to expedite Visa requests - both within the R community and outside (i.e. Julia and Python).

As I noted on the chat, there was another set of cases in the UK relating to the Machine Learning Summer School that took place during the summer. Several attendees were initially denied entry to the UK.

The organizers used their links with government agencies to ensure those invited were allowed enter the country. The lesson here is that conference organizers should seek the assistance of government agencies (i.e. the likes of the Office of National Statistics in the UK).

While we can put in place procedures to improve the outcome, it is believed that certain European countries are willingly adopting unwelcoming attitudes to Visa holders at the airports, even if their papers are in order.

In this case, the R community should develop conferences in places that are accessible to those currently excluded (e.g. an African R User Meeting). I realise that this is not addressing the Visa question, but it does create an avenue for researcher from the Global South to advance their careers through presenting in conferences.