US Blocks Entry For German Black Hat Presenter

bushwhacker2000 alerts us to the dilemma of Thomas Dullien, a prominent security researcher who has been a fixture at the annual Black Hat security conference. Dullien was denied entry into the US on his way to this year's conference. Dullien, a German reverse-engineering expert known in hacker circles as "Halvar Flake," said he was blocked from entering the US on the technicality that he had (years ago) signed a contract with Black Hat as an individual, not as his company. Customs agents said he would need an H1-B visa to perform the contracted two days of training at Black Hat, and put him on the next plane back to Germany.

Comments

Standard B1 visa should have been enough

[EmbeddedJanitor]

A B1 visa should have been enough since he had no intention of living in USA. I have frequently travelled to USA on a B1 for business purposes. For many nationalities B1 falls under the vis waiver program.

However, when you travel into USA there are certain words you should use carefully. "Work" is one of those. Don't say "I am coming to work in USA". Say "I am on business, attending a conference".

Re:Hurrah!

[HalvarFlake]

There is no conspiracy, just a misunderstanding between legal systems and an apparent unwillingness to resolve the issue. Generally, it is not a problem for a Canadian or a US Citizen to come to Europe to perform a service for a few days which he invoices from the US. In Germany, the rule is that he must not spend more than 6 months in Germany lest he falls under German employment law (and needs a work permit etc). It is not a problem as an American to enter Germany, conduct a trainings class (that is not offered by anyone else anywhere), and leave three days later. Also, as far as I am informed, had the agreement for payment been signed by my current full-time employer (a German company), the entire thing would have been no problem -- it is legitimate for a German company to send an employee abroad to conduct a trainings class. The agreement was signed by me though, several years ago. Under German tax law, there's a special status for certain specialized tasks (amongst others, specialized teachings) that allows one to act in some aspects like a 1-person-company. Think of this as a more restricted form of freelancing (e.g. you can't just decide to have said status if you're a programmer, you have to qualify for it due to the specializedness of whatever it is that you're doing). The issue now is that today's custom agent did not treat this any different from a regular Joe trying to get into the US for a full-time job. Which this isn't. It's more that someone 'specialized' is contracted in from abroad for two days to provide expertise not available locally. I hope this clarifies the situation a bit.