Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

Hi, I don't understand that how WMCA directed by WMF about the VISA invitation? In visa application, there must have an invitation for Canada, otherwise it would reject. We are applying Visa to Canada, but invitation comes from USA. This is a foolish decision made by WMF. As per my knowledge in

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

Hi Jean-Philippe, just to be clear: I'm not trying to blame WMCA for anything. 'being able to accomplish that' includes having the expertise and manpower. It would be great if you could help with visa issues, but given the situation, that is just not always possible. Lodewijk On Fri, Jun 23,

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

Wikimedia Canada was not the requester behind having Wikimania in Montreal, so it cannot be blamed for that. A "Wikimania Montreal Committee", now defunct, was behind the request to WMF to have Wikimania in Montreal and they did not coordinate with the chapter in doing this. As a chapter, we are

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

I have a few comments: 1) We do not know how the Montreal venue was selected for Wikimania. Jean-Philippe said: "A "Wikimania Montreal Committee", now defunct, was behind the request to WMF to have Wikimania in Montreal and they did not coordinate with the chapter in doing this." The situation

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

I suggest you direct your questions to vi...@wikimedia.org. Those requests were managed by an international team. You will get better answers than on this mailing list I think. JP On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 12:07 PM Jayanta Nath wrote: > Hi, > > I don't understand that how

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

Hai, My thought is - at first Canada is a tough country to get VISA for people from Asia, Africa and other 3rd world countries. They like only people with USA,UK Visa. Then the invitation problem it was from USA. No mention about an organisation in Canada. Third the Canadian embassy is reject

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

Sorry to know that visa rejection news. As my thought visa process fully depends on the embassy. It's not guaranteed any chapter even WMF to ensure that If they provide invitation letter that means anyone got a visa! I may share my last Wikimania Mexico experience at this point. Mexico Embassy

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

Interesting. You are right and you don't have to blame and there is no sense to excuse the current rejection of visas. Instead of speaking always of a division Global North and Global South there should be a support for your action to save an important event like Wikimania. Kind regards

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

Hi Jayanta, please be careful to make judgement calls without knowing all the facts. Lodewijk On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 7:07 PM, Jayanta Nath wrote: > Hi, > > I don't understand that how WMCA directed by WMF about the VISA > invitation? In visa application, there must have

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

I believe this was not the best decision to make, I can understand handling recipients' financials and some other logistics through WMF. But clearly visas should have been handled by some entity in Canada. We ran into some problems in 2008 (limited number as Egypt is a touristic country in the

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

I would think that once a location is chosen the first step would be for the WMF to immediately open up discussions with the relevant Authority to ensure that scholarships recipients have sufficient paperwork and time to get approval as well as any assurances or processing options can be put in

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

A lot of great suggestions and comments have been shared on here, but just to add unto that. One thing I know for sure that works is having an invitation letter from say the WMF and the Local Organising Organisation. It is also very useful to often include mayors of towns, states and cities where

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

So an organisation P in country Q writes a letter of support to country R to grant a visa to person S from country T on the basis that organization P thinks that person S is actually the pseudonymous user U? I am not surprised immigration officials don't find this an entirely compelling reason

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

So an organisation P in country Q writes a letter of support to country R to grant a visa to person S from country T on the basis that organization P thinks that person S is actually the pseudonymous user U? ++ this is the big issue. On 24-Jun-2017 6:58 AM, "Kerry Raymond"

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 2:10 PM, Gabriel Thullen wrote: > I have a few comments: > 1) > We do not know how the Montreal venue was selected for Wikimania. > Jean-Philippe said: > "A "Wikimania Montreal Committee", now defunct, was behind the request to > WMF to have Wikimania

Re: [Wikimania-l] Visa rejections

Writing as a Canadian, I can only apologize for the difficulty so many of you are having in obtaining visas to this country. I am really looking forward to welcoming many of you to the beautiful city of Montreal, and I am devastated to read that so many people seem to be being turned down for