On Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 11:20:54AM -0400, Ruth Suehle 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?
I'm not traveling to Flock (another colleague has kindly stepped in) due
to other personal commitments. That said, as a frequent (four times &
counting) Schengen (all western Europe) traveller from India for the
three or so years, a few points:
- Gathering all the documents needed for visa well _ahead_ of time
instead of scrambling at the last moment is important. Most Eu
embassies' websites have good details.
- Ensure to not miss any important personal documentation (including
income tax returns proofs and related docs).
- Having sufficient personal funds (e.g. ablity to fund by yourself
for 2-3 months or so stay+food expenses on your own) also helps.
- A clear purpose document.
- Ensure your dates are accurate, don't mangle them.
Just my experience.
Or is it simply unavoidable, and we need to budget in the equivalent
of
several extra people's flights for these rebookings?
Diligent planning and having crystal clear documents will alleviate a
lot of these woes.
--
/kashyap