Travel & Visa Information

Getting to London

London is served by five major international airports:

London is the main intercontinental air hub with both America and Asia. The two largest airports are Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport, having multiple daily flights to the other four continents. Heathrow Airport, City Airport and Gatwick Airport offer the most convenient connections to Central London. Information on how to travel to Central London from all airports can be found at Transport for London here or alternatively on the airport websites directly.

London is also served by Eurostar, providing rail links with continental Europe via the Channel Tunnel and terminating in Central London.

Getting around in London

Transport for London (TfL) operates public transport in London. You can travel with an Oyster card or your contactless payment card. TfL also issues paper tickets.

We strongly suggest you either obtain an Oyster Card at the earliest opportunity when you arrive in London, or alternatively use a contactless payment card. You can obtain an Oyster Card at any London Underground station, which requires payment of a refundable deposit. You can alternatively arrange for a Visitor Oyster Card to be shipped to your address in advance of the event. If you want to use your contactless payment card, we advise you to check which cards are accepted on TfL before travelling.

Nearest stations on the London Underground to Queen Mary University of London are Mile End on Hammersmith and City, District and Central lines; and Stepney Green on the Hammersmith and City and District lines. The street address of the venue is:

Queen Mary University of London
327 Mile End Road
London
E1 4NS
United Kingdom

The conference will take place in the Octagon.

Please see QMUL’s direction information or Transport for London’s site to find out more detailed transportation information.

Visa Information

Information about obtaining a visa for those traveling to the United Kingdom are available on the website https://www.gov.uk/apply-uk-visa. International registrants should be particularly aware and careful about visa requirements, and should plan travel well in advance.

Please note that the Association for Computing Machinery does not issue formal invitation letters for visas to attend ACM sponsored conferences. However a visa support letter can be issued upon request.

Requesting Visa Support Letters

As part of the visa application process, you may be required to provide a visa support letter. ACM is able to provide visa support letters to attendees as well as authors with accepted papers, posters, or members of the conference committee.

To request a visa support letter, register for the conference and then email your request to supportletters@acm.org. The request should include the following information:

  1. Your name as it appears on your passport
  2. Your current postal mailing address
  3. The name of the conference you wish to attend (“ACM IMC 2017”)
  4. Your Registration Confirmation Number
  5. If you have any papers accepted for the conference, please provide the title and indicate whether you are the “sole author” or a “co-author”
  6. A fax number or email address of where the letter can be sent

Visa support letter requests are handled in the order they are received. You should allow 7-10 business days to receive it.

Please note that support letters will only be sent to participants who have registered and paid for the conference. Should participants withdraw from the conference after the issuance of a support letter, the consulate will be notified of the withdrawal accordingly.

If you have any questions about the visa support letter process, feel free to contact ACM IMC 2017 registration chair Matthias Wählisch.