Only 25% of Iranian RoboCuppers got visa for RoboCup2007 competitions in Atlanta!

Unbelievably most Iranian teams did not manage to take part in RoboCup2007 competitions in Atlanta due to VISA problems. Usually when a country applies to hold an international event, it should also have the proper infrastructures built to appropriately welcome their guests from all over the world. RoboCup is no different from other international events as it is the only and most important international AI & Robotics competitions. Iran has been a major participant of various RoboCup events especially since 2003. However, US rejected many visa applications of Iranians without providing them with a proper reason. This has been most likely due to Iran-US political clashes but the question remains to be unanswered that where do political issues stand in a solely scientific event which hosts the academic society. This not only affected Iranian teams’ one year preparation for the competitions but has also financial loss of each member of the teams. Every Iranian had to go to Dubai, Ankara or Cyprus to apply for visa. Approximately each applicant had to pay about 6000 USD for travel costs and application fees to apply for VISA which most of them did not get. IRNC received many emails from various Iranian teams that this should be reported to the RoboCup Federation and demanded a proper response from the Federation regarding this issue. This message has been conveyed to RoboCup Federation and most Trustees expressed their sympathy to Iranians who did not get visa. They mentioned that this is an unexpected and unforgivable matter but it was out of their hands and could not take care of this problem. We should also mention that the Organizers of RoboCup2007 specially Dr. Tucker Balch, General Chair of RoboCup2007,  tried hard to make contacts with US embassies in order to ease the VISA process which IRNC appreciates, but still we believe that proper arrangements with the US embassies should have been made long before the competitions. At least Iranians should have been clearly informed about possible VISA problems so then it would be their decision to whether risk their money or not.