International Questions

The United States has a nice web page at http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/temp_1305.html that should answer your questions. Be certain to click the "learn more" link after the description of the Visa Waiver Program to determine if your country is a participant. There is also information at the Department of Homeland Security website at http://www.dhs.gov/xtrvlsec/crossingborders/#2

If you are flying in to the United States from any other country, you MUST have a valid passport for your country of nationality. The particular requirements are a little complex based on the date that your passport was issued (that is, whether it is machine-readable, whether the photo is digitized, etc). Those requirements can be found at http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/temp_1305.html

If you are driving into the United States from Canada or Mexico, or are coming in by boat from Bermuda, check the requirements at the Department of Homeland Security site at http://www.dhs.gov/xtrvlsec/crossingborders/#2

Yes. Sorry!

All we can say is "Probably." You can try inquiring on our forums, or you may check out history by year pages for a breakdown of members by country.

As much as we would love to be able to help, Anthrocon cannot take responsibility for sponsoring international visitors. We recommend that you speak to a local travel agent. They deal with people traveling all the time and can give you a much better answer than we can about how to obtain a temporary visa to visit the United States.

Pittsburgh is no less safe than Copenhagen, London, Montreal, Paris, Prague, Amsterdam, or any other large city worldwide. We also have the advantage of being located in the heart of the city's business district, an area where the local authorities are particularly eager to see that people behave themselves.

You do have notaries, although you may not call them by that name. The signatures on the form must be verified by whatever authority your government uses to certify the authenticity of documents.