Hello,
I am an Indian and have heard and dealt with these problems. First off, I
would state that most of these problems can be avoided if you have
carefully read the guidelines to obtain visa. Yes folks, RTFM is valid here
as well.
Next, make sure that you have proper documentation and you are applying for
the right kind of visa. For FUDCon Beijing, I got "F" visa easily. Someone
who applied for "L" was denied. Same is true with Schegen and with visa to
other countries. Best bet is to call up the consulate and talk to the folks
there beforehand telling your purpose and documents you have. They are
usually friendly and tell you what kind of visa to apply for and what
documents you are missing.
For India, in my personal experience, there is a role of your income in
getting visa. The exchange rates are not in our favor and mostly European
countries and US would want you to have sufficient funds in your bank
account and a travel-cum-health insurance. Get this done before you even
think of applying for the visa.
Aditya Patawari
http://blog.adityapatawari.com/
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Adimania
India
On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 8:50 PM, Ruth Suehle <rsuehle(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, all. It's too late to solve this for this year, but I'm
hoping to
crowdsource some answers for next year.
We have booked flights for people based on the itineraries they requested,
in some cases on the assumption that they knew better than we did how best
to get to Prague from their own countries and deal with getting visas.
Because some countries require you to (or at least strongly suggest that
you do) have a flight before you request a visa, we are now quite over
budget for travel due to denied and delayed visas requiring us to rebook
flights on different itineraries. It's not only India, although because we
have many contributors who want to attend Flock from India, it's the
primary problem country in this situation.
As those of us doing the flight bookings are American and rarely need
visas where we travel, this is unfamiliar territory. Can those of you who
deal with visa problems make any suggestions about how to avoid this next
year? Or is it simply unavoidable, and we need to budget in the equivalent
of several extra people's flights for these rebookings?
Thanks!
Ruth
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