Indeed, this hasn't made the news very much in the UK, and I can't find any mention of it on government websites... My understanding is that, under the plans, high risk (and first time) entrants from particular countries will need to pay a bond/surety in order to enter. However, the UK government is currently a slightly shaky coalition - very unusual for British politics - and it appears that this policy is being reconsidered, after the minority party in the coalition raised concerns. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/25/nick-clegg-visa-bond-theresa-may for more - the entire plan may well be scrapped, or the fee dropped to a sensible level. London is a very diverse city - my local area has Bengali as a first language (about 80% speak it) - and so understandably this policy is not very popular in the capital.

The bid team (who are independent from, but friendly with, Wikimedia UK) are working closely with London & Partners, who are the official tourist agency for London. L&P deal in part with fast-tracking visa applicants from around the world to bring them to major UK events - L&P are very, very keen on bringing Wikipedia to London, and they have the backing of the UK government to do so. They already have the connections and the experience needed to make this happen - they did it for the Olympics and other major events, and I am certain they will do it for Wikimania if they have to.

Sufficed to say that although we can't promise anything - I can assure you that the bid team will do everything they can feasibly do to help bring people to London. I will bring this up with the bid co-ordinators when next I meet them.

Richard Symonds
Wikimedia UK
0207 065 0992

Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).

Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.



On 27 June 2013 20:59, Roan Kattouw <roan.kattouw@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 12:19 PM, Nkansah Rexford
<nkansahrexford@gmail.com> wrote:
> The news item:
> http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/after-india-protests-uk-says-no-final-decision-on-rs-2-7-lakh-visa-bond-384665
>
"The government intends to run a pilot scheme for such bonds, tightly
targeted at a small number of visa applicants assessed to pose a high
risk of overstaying."

That suggests that they'll only ask for a bond from people that are
from those countries *and* are deemed to be "high-risk", not from
everyone from those countries. I would guess that in the current
system (without bonds), these people would be very likely to have
their visa denied anyway.

That said, the news articles I've read about this aren't very clear,
which suggests the government hasn't been very clear about what its
plans are.

Roan

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