January 25th, 2006

Welcome to the United States, unless you're a Canadian technologist who is an invited guest at a Microsoft conference, in which case, keep out

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Vancouver technologist Darren Barefoot was invited to Redmond by the MSN Search team but was stopped by Immigration and denied entry.

Ultimately, the customs agents concluded that because Microsoft was covering my flight and accommodation, I was being compensated for consulting activities. In order to enter the country, I’d need a work permit.

He says Customs, but I’m pretty sure it was really Immigration that stopped him.

Sorry, Darren. We miss you already. We even asked the rain to take a few days off and invited the sun out to play just for you.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
Non-Computer

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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