November 19, 2005

Consulado General de Chile

Tokyo, Japan

Attn: Secretario Manuel Lara

Re: Temporary Resident Visa

Carl W. Vilbrandt and Constance Joan Vilbrandt

Dear Secretario Lara:

This letter is in request of Temporary Resident Visa status for myself and my wife. We are U.S. citizens presently living and working in Japan. For over six years, I have been an Associate Professor in the Computer Arts Lab, Department of Computer Software, at the University of Aizu ( http://www.u-aizu.ac.jp/~vilb/ ), an international prefectural university devoted to research in Information Technology, located in the Tohoku region. However, my association with the university and Japan began in 1995 as a researcher in cultural heritage preservation of historical objects. For 25 years before coming to UAizu, I headed my own consulting firm in 3D computer aided design; clients included international and national commercial corporations, educational institutions and governmental agencies.

Recently, my wife, Jody, and I purchased property in Region IX near Vilcun in the hope of making Chile our future home, as I am retiring from the University of Aizu at the end of December 2005. We will continue our applied computer research in Japan (and hopefully Chile) through Mythworks, Inc., based in Eugene, Oregon, in conjunction with Hosei University in Japan. Our research focus is the development of implicit objects, the underlying technology for Personal Fabrication. This is joint research with the Center for Bits and Atom's FabLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( http://fab.cba.mit.edu/ ), Hosei University and the HyperFun Consortium ( http://cis.k.hosei.ac.jp/~F-rep/HF_proj.html ), and under a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 2005/2006 grant entitled “Desktop Manufacturing from High Resolution Digital Files” for which I am the principal investigator.

Jody and I have devoted ourselves to the use of appropriate technology and have a great love of the natural world. From our and our son's travels in South America, we found Chile immensely beautiful and decided we wished to live our remaining years in Chile. We have a strong sense of community and have met with local community members and leaders in the area of Vilcun. It would be our pleasure to volunteer to help in community projects, particularly with regard to Information Technology education. Jody and I are founding members of a nonprofit, community IT education project in the rural Aizu region of Japan.

We have traveled in several, diverse countries and cultures, and very much enjoy the new people and places we meet. Jody was a student of Latin and French and is comfortable with reading Spanish. She had many Spanish speaking friends growing up in California and in her convent school. We are looking forward to really learning and speaking Castellano and living in the Chilean culture.

Thank you for your consideration of our request.

Sincerely,

Carl W. Vilbrandt, Assoc. Professor

University of Aizu, Department of Computer Software

Tsuruga Ikkimachi, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima-ken 965-8580

e-mail: vilb@u-aizu.ac.jp http://www.u-aizu.ac.jp/~vilb/

office: +81-(0)242-37-2792 fax: +81-(0)242-37-2772

Spouse: Constance Joan (Jody) Vilbrandt

Home address: 1-17-25 Matsunaga, Ikkimachi C-101

Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima-ken, 965-0001 Japan

+81-(0)242-33-1045

Attachments: Visa applications (2), curriculum vitae, police reports (2), health certificates (2), financial statement, property description in Chile

2005-10-26T14:44:45