On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 2:10 PM, Gabriel Thullen <gabriel@thullen.com> 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 in Montreal and they did not coordinate with the chapter in doing this."
The situation there is obviously more complicated than what is being said so I will not dwell on that. What disturbs me is that the Montreal bid was accepted in absence of the local chapter support. That is not acceptable. Looking back on the success of the Esino Lario event, I believe that strong local chapter and volunteer support is vital for a Wikimania event.

​​Let us just say that there was confusion and communication issues with the original proposers to host.  The Steering Committee (including yours truly) thought that Wikimedia Canada was  involved.    I think everyone can agree how important it is for having the local chapters involved--- most recently Esino Lario and Mexico City and of course  South Africa coming up.

2)
Wikimania should be a world conference of Wikimedians. One very important aspect of a bid should be visa help. Some countries are shall we say "visa-friendly" and some countries are not. If the event is to be held in a country where it is difficult to obtain visas, the organizers must set up a service to facilitate the visa process and obtain help from their local government authorities. In Geneva, for example, the government has set up an office to help foreign delegates get visas for international conferences, both UN conferences and NGO conferences. I have met with them a few times and they are really very helpful.

​The Foundation tried very hard to set something up with Canada for trouble-shooting to no avail.   I spent many hours and it wasn't possible.  A service agency was not a possibility.  They have a new system and I have to admit it is a confusing process for a lot of people.    They follow very much the model of the United States.    It is the major reason   why we don't regularly hold Wikimanias in either of these countries.  ( ​The last one was 2012 in Washington, D.C. )   For the scholarship program:  we had relatively few people denied Visas when you look at the total attendance... the highest number was in D.C (I don't have the exact number but was told it was high);  the next was London (9);  Italy (2); Mexico City - 0; Hong Kong - 1.     

As others have indicated in this thread, there is a big effort with alot of people involved in trying to delivery everything that is needed in a timely manner.

And yes, Visa friendliness along with security/safety issues are important criteria when deciding where to hold future Wikimania's.    



3)
The scholarships probably need to be awarded a bit sooner so that recipients have enough time to go through the whole visa procedure. Most countries require proof that the visitor has a return flight and that he can cover his food and lodging expenses as well as his emergency medical expenses. It has also been pointed out in this discussion that some embassies are quite fond of old fashioned paper. That means snail mail, pony express and all that. I works fine, it just takes time...

​We notified people end of April which gives them 3 months which is usually sufficient (some countries won't accept applications before that time).  Most of our scholarship recipients have been very diligent in getting all the paperwork and information in process shortly after that.   We set up a system this year that required people to send us proof that they had filed by May 15.   If they need paper, we send paper.   We even support people having to travel to other countries to apply.    Even so, it is often the individual embassies that are big part of the problem in securing approval.   ​ 


Gabriel

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 8:45 PM, Nurunnaby Hasive <nch@nhasive.com> wrote:
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 not available in Bangladesh and If we need Mexico visa we need to visit India. But It's not good for me to go India for a visa so that I follow different ways. I informed that If I have a valid USA visa then I may enter Mexico. So I go to USA embassy and I submit all documents provided by Wikimedia Mexico. I am lucky enough I got USA visa and attend Wikimania Mexico. In the same time, one of my fellow Wikipedian go to India for Mexico visa and got rejected. After back I suggest him to apply for the USA via using same documents and submits. And finally, we both got USA visa and attend Wikimania Mexico.

What exactly I point that, In my many International conferences attend experience I see, Visa processing fully depend on the particular embassy. Its totally depend on them if they provide visa or not. But the documents may help to get visa easily.

Hasive

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 11:59 PM, Jean-Philippe Béland <jpbeland@wikimedia.ca> wrote:
I suggest you direct your questions to visas@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 <jayantanth@gmail.com> wrote:
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 every year, every visa applicant for Wikimania, got their invitation from hosting countries. 

Regards,
Jayanta
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