A Taiwanese physicist issued an open letter recently to urge the Physical Society of the Republic of China to suggest that local universities and research institutes refrain from inviting US physicists to Taiwan in response to the US’ “unequal visa application procedure.”
In a letter publicized in the latest volume of the Chinese-language Physics Bimonthly, Lin Juhn-jong (林志忠), a professor from the department of electrophysics at National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), said many Taiwanese physics researchers or professors had encountered difficulties when applying for US visas in recent years, but had only complained in private while failing to publicly discuss how to respond to the situation.
Lin urged the society to suggest that the National Center for Theoretical Sciences, the National Science Council and the Ministry of Education reduce the number of invitations extended to US professors and researchers of physics, while increasing the number of invitations to researchers from Europe and Japan.
Lin also called on the society to urge the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to require that all physics professors and researchers from the US apply for a visa go through a “detailed review process” and pay at least US$150 on the principle of “equality” in terms of visa applications.
Under current regulations, US citizens receive a 30-day visa exemption.
“This should be done in case a few of them steal Taiwan’s scientific research results or endanger Taiwan’s national security,” Lin said.
Lin, a researcher of condensed matter, published the letter after he informed the Naturejobs.com Web site last September that he had encountered difficulties in applying for a US visa after the terrorist attacks on Sept 11, 2001.
Lin complained about a lengthy application process and the need to prepare a detailed curriculum vitae, having to travel to Taipei for a personal interview and the US$150 fee.
Lin said he now had to wait for between two and four months for a visa instead of the one to two weeks he had to wait before Sept. 11, adding that in 2005, he did not receive a visa in time to attend a conference of the American Physical Society even though he applied for the visa about two months in advance.
“I have visited Europe on eight occasions, Japan on 10 occasions, and Hong Kong and China about 10 times since the summer in 2002, but I have only visited the US once during this period of time,” Lin said in the letter.
“As a condemned [sic]-matter physicist, I’m proud of being kept out of the US borders. I am very occupied by my trips and invitations to Japan and European countries. How can I have extra time to visit the US? The United States is fading out of my intellectual map of world,” he wrote.
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