[2022] C9 Visa Issues, half of team stuck in Korea until February+

As someone going through the US visa process right now I can tell you that it is very difficult to get a US visa, even with all the resources these orgs will have.

I filed for my visa at the embassy in December of 2021 and the earliest appointment date was August of 2022. Luckily, I managed to get this revised to February 2022, but that was entirely down to luck.

This is primary due to COVID - Visas are much faster to process in normal times

The problem is you need to get an appointment at the embassy or consulate through the US website. This year at my local consulate the next free date is in April. After that, it's in August, and then October. And I do mean date - as in, one singular date, with one appointment free at 8am, per month.

• You are only able to file for a visa in an embassy of a country in which you are a resident (not a legal resident, but have a permanent basis). This is especially true for non-immigrant visas (most of them), as you must demonstrate that you intend to return to your previous country and not overstay it.
• Most countries, including South Korea, only have a single embassy for a given country
• You are explicitly discouraged from "window-shopping", and the embassy staff do not like it
• In general you cannot view what appointments are available without first filing for your petition, which costs around $190 (non-refundable) each time
• You are not able to file for a petition in another embassy without first cancelling the previous one - this means you have to pay $190, then cancel and pay that again in order to compare the slots of two different embassies.

For me, I had the option of filing in either the Irish or London embassies as I live in Ireland and am a British citizen. However, had I filed in the London embassy I would have had to had a very good reason as to why I flew to the London embassy to file for a visa after not living in the UK for 6 years, and "I wanted to skip the queue" isn't a good reason. If you're South Korean and not a dual citizen I imagine you're pretty SOL

It may be different for other countries, but for the United States this is how it works, at least as of today. It's not possible to window-shop without paying a decent amount of money, and even if one were to do this, you'd still not be guaranteed an earlier time frame, because COVID.

Most Riot employees including myself are probably free to live and work in the united states for a period of 90 days due to the ESTA program without a formal visa, but if you want to stay beyond 90 days and work, one needs an actual visa and that's what we're talking about here. You would almost certainly be able to attend/run an event in that 90 day period, so most of the time, you don't need a visa.

There are certain contingencies for large international businesses. For example, if one wanted to transfer an employee from Acme inc, Dublin to Acme inc, San Francisco, and one could demonstrate that employee had specialised knowledge that would be very difficult to hire for, one could file for an L-1b visa. If Acme inc was a very large business, it might have what's called an "L-1 blanket", which is where the US government recognises that the business needs to have it easier to move employees between countries.

However, L-1 blanket or not, unless you have an urgent need and/or are a healthcare professional, during COVID you will need to wait in the queue subject to consulate availability, just like everyone else. It's not the visa itself that takes time, it's getting in front of a consular officer to hear your case.

doom