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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   2562 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 10, 2025

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So if anyone has brilliant ideas about US visa applications, creative leave arrangements, or general life optimization, I'm all ears.

I'd start by reaching out to Inkhaven. If they had this open internationally, they should already have considered visa issues. Hopefully a whole bunch of influential rationalists should already have considered how they could do this. If you're not getting paid I would think a tourist visa would do. It's essentially a writing holiday. But if you are getting paid for for your blog posts that makes it considerably more complicated I should think. There are visas for artist residencies, so I wouldn't be too concerned about the writing thing being weird as being the problem, but those generally would require the sponsor (Lightcone presumably in this case) to be engaging with being an official sponsor through the US government. Also the timing is likely tight for November. J-1 or B-1 Visas might be a possibility depending on the exact details. Unfortunately India is not part of the Visa Waiver program or you might have been ok with just an ESTA as you can travel for 90 days for business.

"You may be eligible for a B-1 visa if you will be participating in business activities of a commercial or professional nature in the United States, including, but not limited to:

Consulting with business associates Traveling for a scientific, educational, professional or business convention, or a conference on specific dates Settling an estate Negotiating a contract Participating in short-term training"

If they had this open internationally, they should already have considered visa issues.

The United States visa system is fraught with problems, especially during Trump's second term. The path of least resistance is to only focus on American-based writers or those who don't require any kind of visa paperwork.

Thank you! I'm not getting paid by the piece, it's more that I'll quickly have to figure out a hotel if I don't keep producing them.

I intend to write back to Lightcone, but they've left me till the end of the month. I need to figure out exact dates and visa considerations, and I wanted to get the easy questions out of the way before pestering them.

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