If the concern is at the immigration counters then I think invitation letters might be a
good idea. The USA does have a somewhat more strict process (in which they ask targeted
questions before stamping passports) that perhaps doesn't exist in Hong Kong, but as
someone who has only ever been through HKIA once I can't really tell how strict
they'll be there.
Of course, I defer to Alan and his much great knowledge of Hong Kong's process!
--
Joseph Fox
English Wikipedia
On 24 Nov 2012, at 15:58, "Alan C Y Lai (Wikimedia)"
<alancylai(a)wikimedia.hk> wrote:
Dear All,
I think I must first reiterate the fact that Hong Kong is one of the most accessible
place in the world in terms of visa free access [1], therefore our concern is more of
whether our participants would be turned away at our immigration counters.
However, it is also true that there is little we could help about would-be participants
would-be applying for visa. We encourage participants to plan ahead and apply for Hong
Kong visa (or visas of nearby countries like China, Macau and Taiwan if they're
planning to go these places) well before the start of the conference so that they can be
certain of their entry status. We can only assist a little of the Hong Kong visa
application process by sending invitation letters and notifying the Immigration Department
about their intentions to view the application favourably.
Our Immigration Department usually view visitors favourably unless there is legitimate
reasons not to and usually approve visa applications. However it is still a bureaucratic
process that takes time especially if you apply through Chinese diplomatic missions
(embassies and consulates) so it should be no less than 4 weeks before departing towards
Hong Kong as the web page suggests [2]. Nearby countries especially China would require a
separate visa and we urge caution to plan your itinerary and visa application so that you
won't have issues of entry.
Best regards,
Alan Lai
Sent on the road
[1]
http://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Visas
[2]
http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/pledge_p4_6.htm
On 24 Nov, 2012, at 20:40, "Federico Leva (Nemo)" <nemowiki(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Joseph Fox, 24/11/2012 13:12:
It would be almost fraudulent to send out
invitation letters to people who haven't yet received allowance to even enter HK I
think. But I don't know, maybe send them to people who have paid?
I've no idea what's the best way or even if invitation letters are
required/useful at all for anyone to get HK visas, people who know more will decide/find
out; I'd only want to be sure that our scholarship recipients don't fail to attend
due to visa problems again.
Experience teaches that we're bound to underestimate visa problems people will
have... better to be safe.
Nemo
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