On 01/13/2014 02:13 AM, Ellie Young wrote:
And while we are on this subject, I want to reiterate that we expect individuals to cover their own visa expenses as well as contacting the British Consulate on their own or through a visa service in their home country. The UK accepts applications for visas 90 days prior to the expected date of entering the UK (applying before doesn't do any good.)
Incidentally, why do Wikimedia scholarships not cover or at least assist with the expenses of getting a visa? It seems that the people affected by this are (on average) the ones who need the support of a scholarship the most in order to be able to attend Wikimania. If the UK is discriminating against our contributors' nationalities, we might not be able to do much about it (although we definitely should try to). But at the very least we can help with the financial discrepancy.
-- Tobias