Agree with Bodhi here, contact WMDE they have been doing this conference for many years and should have the networks to help get your application for a visa processed.
On Tue, 16 Aug 2022 at 22:20, Bodhisattwa <bodhisattwa.rg...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Anass, > > Regarding the particular incident with Wikimedia Summit, I would suggest > your representative to communicate with the conference organizing team > directly about not getting any date of appointment before the conference > and they will contact with respective embassies and consulates. Like the > representative from your affiliate, I know of few others who did not get > their visa appointments, so when they contacted the organizing team, they > were given the support and respective embassies and consulates contacted > them and gave them appointment for submitting visa documents. I know this, > because I was one such candidate. > > Regards, > Bodhisattwa > > On Tue, Aug 16, 2022, 19:09 Eric Luth <eric.l...@wikimedia.se> wrote: > >> I agree with the others that you are raising a really important point, >> Anass. Thanks for that. >> >> I have tried to support visa applicants to two international Wikimedia >> events in Stockholm, the Wikimedia Diversity Conference in 2017 and >> Wikimania in 2019. It was frustrating even for me as organizer, and I can't >> even imagine how frustrating and disheartening it must be for the visa >> applicants. >> >> After these two occasions, I have made a few simple conclusions. >> >> - If it is of high priority that visa applications are accepted, more >> funding for supporting the applications than one might think is needed. It >> is time consuming to support visa applications, but it does make a >> difference. >> - One reason why there needs to be plenty of funding for supporting >> the applications is that the embassies, at least the Swedish ones, work >> independently of each other. We tried to develop one process and timeline, >> but it failed because of all the embassies' own procedures and timelines. >> It is close to impossible to develop one structure or process, but support >> needs to be given to each applicant in their own process. If that is done, >> it does however increase the likelihood that the visa is approved. >> - For Wikimania, we were even more actively engaged in the visa >> processes as compared to the Diversity Conference – as we seemed to notice >> that it made a difference. We reached out to the embassies informing them >> about the upcoming conference, we were in close communication with the >> Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that organized a reception during Wikimania >> for WikiGap organizers, and even successfully appealed a rejection. All >> this took a lot of time, and not all applications were successful. But a >> higher proportion was successful as compared to the Diversity Conference. >> - We are not sure, but WikiGap *seems* to have made a difference in >> many embassies. That is, the Swedish embassy in a given country has after >> the WikiGap events a relationship to the Wikimedia movement, and might >> even >> know about the applicants, which in many cases *seems* to have led to >> more approvals. I am not sure if that is possible to repeat in more >> instances, but for us it shows at least that building relations might >> help. >> >> I don't think, however, that we will ever reach 100% approvals. I thus >> also wholeheartedly agree with the previous message that we need to explore >> successful person / remote integration. >> >> I also want to acknowledge the fact that I write this as a previous >> organizer. As the situation is of course much harder for all applicants, >> for me it is not about complaining, but trying to rase a few points that >> can perhaps increase the probability of approvals in more cases. >> >> Best, >> *Eric Luth* >> Projektledare engagemang och påverkan | Project Manager, Involvement and >> Advocacy >> Wikimedia Sverige >> eric.l...@wikimedia.se >> +46 (0) 765 55 50 95 >> >> Stöd fri kunskap, bli medlem i Wikimedia Sverige. >> Läs mer på blimedlem.wikimedia.se >> >> >> >> Den tis 16 aug. 2022 kl 14:51 skrev <ehei...@wikimedistas.uy>: >> >>> Thanks Anass for bringing this up! It's a very frustrating situation for >>> community members to deal with visas. It's also worth noting that in >>> certain cases there are places that request a visa from certain countries, >>> but do not have an Embassy in the country they are requesting the visa from >>> -- meaning that a community member has to travel to another destination >>> (sometimes significantly far away!) in order to get paper processed. That >>> takes money and time. >>> >>> To me, the big elephant in the room is the need to re-imagine how we can >>> do better integration of in person / remote events. The challenge here is >>> that in the upcoming future it won't make sense from a carbon budget & >>> climate perspective to fly people around the world, and we need to start >>> designing more real decentralized events, not only to expect that we'll be >>> able to plug a video screen somewhere and have in-person meetings while >>> people watch from the outside (which doesn't lead to real participation / >>> interaction). >>> >>> Also, flights have gone up significantly -- plane tickets are double the >>> amount that they were before the pandemic; this also will represent a >>> challenge for conference organizers, because they will be able to fly even >>> less people with the money allocated for the event. And also worth noting >>> that from anyone outside of the US / Europe, flying to Europe takes *a lot >>> of time*. How we are asking community members and volunteers to use their >>> time it's a big part of the conversation about equity. >>> >>> Sorry to hear that the visa issue has prevented a community member to >>> bring their perspective fully into the table. >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines >>> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >>> Public archives at >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/X2ZGHJMQ4HZ3LEJTQFZHVDJYX2YO6A7D/ >>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines >> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> Public archives at >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/4DX2ESW4MBLHFOYPNXGDCATNVLRM4LC7/ >> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/T5CKLAQM7TMT2ULR2MSM5SKA5EJGV5F3/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org -- GN.
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