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
place. If there is a limit put on the number of attendee then at least
that can be in the open so people know and if people already have visa that
enable them to attend they could at least present this as part of the
application.
Ideally an Affiliate would be the best situated to do such things but this
then raises issues about the status of User Groups which are designed not
to have the bureaucracy of chapters and therefore wont necessarily have the
same legal standing to support visa applications or even advocate for them.
On 24 June 2017 at 10:19, Risker <risker.wp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
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
visas.
The decisions for locations for Wikimania are made about two years in
advance - which is actually pretty late for large international conferences
(most international organizations make these decisions 3-4 years in
advance). But even during the course of two years, some circumstances can
change significantly. I am aware that Canada has become more stringent in
handing out visas, as have many other countries in the past 2 years -
something that couldn't really be anticipated at the time the decision was
made. I don't have any good advice for any of you on this - while I live
in Canada, I'm not a member of either the Wikimania planning group or
Wikimania Canada, and I have no contacts in the federal government that
would be helpful in getting visas.
I am hoping that some magic can happen for you that will enable you to
come to Canada. We will all be losing the value of your company, and you
will be missed.
Risker/Anne
On 23 June 2017 at 21:28, Kerry Raymond <kerry.raymond(a)gmail.com> wrote:
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 to grant a visa. WMF is not a Canadian organization, and
it is not clear to me that WMF is actually in a position to confirm the
real life identity of the user they want to attend in any case.
Kerry
Sent from my iPad
On 24 Jun 2017, at 12:19 am, Jean-Philippe Béland <jpbeland(a)wikimedia.ca>
wrote:
As per WMF directions, Wikimedia Canada was not involved in anything in
relations to visas. The WMF is taking care of that themselves. They did not
ask us to write anything to embassies.
I am sorry that Canada has strict rules on visa requirements for a lot of
countries.
Jean-Philippe Béland
Vice President, Wikimedia Canada
User:Amqui
On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 11:03 PM, Ranjith S <ranjith.sajeev(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
My visa is also got rejected. So I am not coming
to Canada this year. I
think Canada is a bad place for Wikimania due to their strict rules. And
thinking that is not a tourist friendly country.
On 23-Jun-2017 12:52 AM, "Jayanta Nath" <jayantanth(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I think Wikimedia Canada not send any intimation
to their Embassy of
respective countries.
Jayanta Nath
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Jean-Philippe Béland
[image: Wikimedia Canada] Vice-président — Wikimédia Canada
<https://ca.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?uselang=fr>, chapitre national
soutenant Wikipédia
Vice president — Wikimedia Canada
<https://ca.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?uselang=en>, national chapter
supporting Wikipedia
535 avenue Viger Est, Montréal (Québec) H2L 2P3,jpbeland(a)wikimedia.ca
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