Re: PostgreSQL Anniversary Summit, Call for Contributions

The world rejoiced as scrappy(at)postgresql(dot)org ("Marc G. Fournier") wrote:
> Just curious, but what is involved in these "invitations"? For
> instance, is there a limit on # of invitations any one person(?) or
> company can issue? Are there any legal implications of issuing such
> an invitation? I could imagine some pretty hot water if "pre 9/11"
> someone were to invite bin Laden to a conference, and had the twin
> towers go down while he was here, for instance ...

Here should be the authoritative information:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/visas.html
Countries/Territories Requiring Visas

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/letter.html
Letter of Invitation for Countries Whose Citizens Require a
Temporary Resident Visa to Enter Canada

If an .se address implies Swedish citizenship, there's good news;
Swedes don't need a visa to come to Canada. Ditto for pretty well all
of Western Europe, all of North America (including Mexico), and Japan.

I expect that most of those likely to need visas (and letters) will
hearken from Eastern Europe or Asia.

It's worth noting that whomever is providing that letter of invitation
has to be prepared to send, to our foreign friends, a photocopy of our
own Canadian birth certificate or some equivalent thereof.

Not to say that this is *spectacularly* intimate information, but I
daresay people would Not Be Pleased if such material got misused.

There is some fairness there; the requirements are nicely laid out,
and the "intimacies" go in both directions.

The other "pointy bit" is that the letter of invitation needs to
indicate the inviter's relationship to the person being invited. I
expect that would need to be a tad more specific than merely "he's
some guy from Sweden that I heard about on the Internet"...

What this all implies is that these Letters of Invitation do indeed
impose a certain degree of legal burden (whether highly formalized or
not) such that I'm sure NOT going to be heading to the printers so I
can send them out by the gross...
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