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If you require a visa to visit a country where you need a visa, I would suggest contacting the organiser for an invitation letter. Organisers of international conferences are used to getting this kind of inquiry, and know how to deal with it. I have the feeling if the author had been able to produce an invitation letter in the beginning, he would have been much more likely to be able to attend the conference.

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I don't know much about this stuff but I doubt it would work. For invitation generally there's some degree of responsibility put on the person sending out the invitation. If you are a random internet person buying a ticket they are probably not allowed to "invite" you because at that point it's like ... "why did you invite this person? do you know him?" .... "err ... because he paid $X for a ticket".

I'm the author of this blog post. And I don't think the invitation was the main issue here. I did have a ticket, and I wasn't visiting any friends there who could invite me. Also I haven't been asked about the invitation letter during the main interview, I haven't even been asked why I don't have it or anything like that...

I think the main issue was my not permanent employment, here, in the UK. I just don't like the way the officer was interviewing me.

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