4 accepted papers at ACL 2026 as an undergrad in India, but I might have to withdraw my SRW Thesis Proposal due to the $300 virtual registration fee. Looking for advice/options.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a final-year undergrad from a Tier-3 engineering college in India, currently working as a Project Associate/Research Intern at IIT Hyderabad.

This research cycle has been completely surreal for me. After presenting 3 papers (2 Orals) at EACL last month, I just received my notifications for ACL 2026 in San Diego. I miraculously had 4 submissions accepted:

• 1x ACL Industry Track
• 1x ACL Student Research Workshop (SRW) - Thesis Proposal
• 2x C3NLP Workshop Papers

Here is my dilemma:
One of my co-authors is graciously registering and presenting our Industry Track paper. However, to keep my SRW Thesis Proposal and the workshop papers in the proceedings, the ACL rules state I must register as a "Virtual Student Presenter" for the Full Conference.

The Early Bird cost for this is $300 USD (approx. ₹25,000 INR).

To put that into perspective, my home university provides zero conference funding for undergrads, and my current intern stipend barely covers my rent and food in Hyderabad. $300 is a massive financial wall for me right now.

I am filling out the ACL Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Subsidy application for a virtual waiver. However, the author registration deadline is May 11, and the D&I grant notification doesn't come out until May 26. If I select "Pending Subsidy" and the grant gets rejected, I won't have the cash to clear the balance, and my papers will be pulled from the program.

I’ve worked for over a year on this SRW Thesis Proposal (focusing on mitigating bias and hallucination in low-resource multilingual RAG systems). I’m applying for PhD programs this November, and having an ACL SRW Main Conference publication is critical for my profile.

My questions:

1. Has anyone successfully navigated this "pay before grant notification" paradox with ACL before? Is the D&I committee usually forgiving to undergrads from the Global South for virtual waivers?
2. Are there any external NGOs, open-source AI collectives, or industry sponsorships that offer micro-grants ($300) for researchers from developing countries just to cover registration fees?

I am trying to exhaust every option before I am forced to withdraw the SRW paper. Any advice, leads, or pointers to organizations that support Global South researchers would be life-saving right now.

Thanks so much for reading.