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

hm.

[priestx]

Would it be a problem to set-up a video conference to train these people from around the world?

Re:Why would an international conference be in the

[tomstdenis]

Yeah, except you can't take paid speaking engagements up here without a work visa either.

He wasn't denied because the session was on security, he was denied because he's NOT ALLOWED TO WORK THERE without proper approval.

He would have been deported from Canada for the exact same reason had he told them the same story. In fact, if he wasn't a member of the EU he would have also been deported from Ireland, the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, etc, etc, etc....

So while Canada is cool and all [hey I live in Ottawa], it's not a safe haven for illegal aliens either. They have to file fraudulent "refugee" claims like the rest of the population of Toronto.