International visas

[Paul W. Frields]

Sandro and I had an interesting chat regarding travel visas, and
here's the agreement we arrived at.  The following is based on our
reading of the Swiss entry process, which is fairly easy to
understand.  I've tried to be general about the guidelines so this
might work in other places as well.

* If a traveler requires a visa to enter the country where FUDCon is
  held, and that traveler's costs are approved, we should also cover
  their visa costs.  This includes an application fee, insurance, and
  any other related cost required for travel, provided the costs are
  reasonable.

* Costs for items like passports, which have long-term benefits far
  beyond FUDCon travel, should be handled by the traveler, not FUDCon
  funding.

* In some cases, it's possible for a foreign mission or embassy to
  require an official sponsorship to approve the traveler's visa.  To
  sponsor a traveler means that the sponsor guarantees that person's
  costs (possibly within some limit) to the state the traveler is
  visiting.  This can happen if the embassy/mission judges that the
  incoming traveler is a high risk for either remaining in the state
  beyond their permitted time frame, or some other criteria not under
  our control.  This is probably a very unlikely situation for our
  travelers.

  We can't ask community members to provide this sort of sponsorship,
  because it makes them liable for these costs.  If the embassy or
  mission returns with this requirement before it will grant the visa,
  then we would have to decline.  That means we would lose a little
  money on an airfare, and the traveler wouldn't be able to attend.
  The risk is low and seems worth taking, since we want to encourage
  international visitors to FUDCons in their region of the world.



-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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