[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2006 - visa issues (was host city contest to open ...)

Tue Aug 16 18:53:31 UTC 2005

On 8/16/05, Paweł 'Ausir' Dembowski <fallout at lexx.eu.org> wrote:
> > For citizens of (much of) the EU, Australia, and Japan (and a few other
> > places like Singapore and Brunei), there is no need for a visa at all.
> > You just show up and come on in, no problem.
> 
> Well, at least people from Poland and Greece do need visas to get into
> the US.

The visa issues are numerous:
1- how easy is it to get a visa?
2- who can issue the invitations to allow someone to get a visa?
3- how attractive is the country and how much visa fishing will the
conference prompt?

1 is, in my opinion, not a problem, as long as we have a strong 2 to
issue the invitations. We just have to think about it in advance and
make sure all people ask for their visa in advance. Having the
Foundation as a recognized charity in the US for example, does make
things easier  than they would be in a country where getting a visa is
difficult *and* we have no legal representation.

3 is... a bummer. We stopped counting the phony applications we had
for Wikimania this year three days after we opened registration. The
US in that respect will definitely attract lots of people fishing for
invitations. *sigh*

This said, in my opinion, neither of the 3 should play too strong a
role in having/or not having Wikimania in the US. We just have to be
prepared.

Best,

Delphine
-- 
~notafish