Draft Process for travel fund when visas are involved

[MylesBorins]

When individuals need to get visas to attend events there is a much longer timeline, more costs involved, and more paperwork.

It would be a good idea for us to document the process of determining if someone needs a visa and have different instructions / deadlines for these occurrences.

/cc @mrhinkle

[Trott]

Can you elaborate on this, maybe with an example of the problems that arise? I may be thinking too simplistically or something, but it seems like:

• Individuals need to know if they need a visa or not. That's information they have to figure out.
• Given that visas can add weeks to how long it takes for someone to be able to travel, they will need to ask earlier than others. But again, that's mostly on them to get the request in sooner. Once things have gotten to the point that someone may not be able to get a visa in time, there's not much to be done.
• Once they have a visa, the submission deadlines for expense reports would seem to be unaffected.

Maybe I'm not understanding the problems, but it seems like the main accommodation we'd need to make is allow people to request funds for travel with lots and lots of extra lead time. That's something we should try to do anyway for sure, but I'm not sure there's anything to do there other than for some folks who care about this stuff to make sure it happens. (Seems like a community-committee thing, maybe?)

The other thing we'd need to make sure is that requests for approvals don't get stalled, but we recently changed the process for expense approvals specifically to avoid them getting stalled because it was happening so much. I suspect we're OK on that one now.

[jakeNiemiec]

Consider that for some countries (like Germany) you need to have "proof of transportation / accommodation" (i.e. plane ticket) before you show up for your interview at the embassy (which you also need to pay for). If it is a business visa, you may also need to get documents or references to prove you are there for business. 👍 Thanks for the extra effort to include international folks.

[joyeecheung]

I've obtained my U.S. B1/B2 visa and Canada business visa with the help from the Node.js foundation (for previous NINA conferences) so I can help documenting the process.

Schengen visas are a bit more complicated and I got mine with only personal financial proofs, and I am not a lawyer so probably cannot provide much help with that.

[joyeecheung]

Also for business visa, based on my experience this is usually how it works:

1. Get funding to book flights and hotels, some countries require the conformation from hotels/carriers as part of the application. Emails sent to your mailbox when you book online or booking information that you get using "print" on their websites are usually sufficient.
2. Get any other documents required to apply for visas, you can look it up on the websites of the embassies / the visa centers they have contracts with. In the case of business visas, an invitation letter from the foundation is necessary. If it's an event hosted by the foundation, you can just use https://events.linuxfoundation.org/visa-request/ to get a letter (collaboration summits are not listed there so I assume one would need to contact the staff directly). In general you need to prove that you have a stable income (= bank statements) and strong ties to your home country, e.g. an employer, your family (letters with stamps, other types of official documents depending on your country).
3. Submit the application online. Some requires a face-to-face interview (e.g. U.S. for a Chinese citizen) so you'd need to prepare for another trip.
4. Submit your passport and other printed documents and have your biometric information collected in a physical place.
5. Wait for the approval.
6. Get the passport back when you are notified and check the visa there matches your application. Be prepared to write an appeal letter to the embassy in case your application is denied.

Also of course if you don't have a passport, you need to get one before submitting the visa request ;) In general it's a good idea to start the preparation at least a month ahead.

[codeekage]

Thank you @MylesBorins for bringing this up. It is really difficult to get a visa in Nigeria.

It'll be lovely if NF could always help out with invitations and probably have collaboration with most embassies.

This will make applying for a visa way more easier and getting folks to other nodejs events too. Sadly because of the time frame left without an invitation, I might not be able to make it to the collab summit even when travel funds have been approved.

I'll really appreciate if everyone could come together to see how we could assist people more.

[WaleedAshraf]

@codeekage I feel sorry for you. Here in Pakistan, the process is defined, but it takes some time (almost a month) to get VISA processed for Europe. And it was the one reason I didn't plan to attend Collab summit. (too late)

I'm not sure that Foundation would be able to make collaboration with embassies. I think that would be too much for Open Source foundation to take on. But I agree with MylesBorins post.

We can add some guidelines like,

• If you need to get a visa, start at least 2 months ahead.
• Get a,b,c documents ready.
• If applicable, get travel fund approval from the foundation.
• See if Foundation can write an invitation letter for visa processing.
• If travel funds are approved, see if the foundation can mention that in the letter. (helps in processing)
• Which type of visa is best suitable for attending open-source events/conferences. etc.

As most of Foundation events happen in Europe, Canada or USA. So we should only add guideline about these countries.

Once we have a document, people can contribute in adding more information in it.

[ChALkeR]

@MylesBorins @mrhinkle @hackygolucky I need to get an invitation for the travel visa again this time, but I wasn't able to find out whom I should contact about it :-/. https://events.linuxfoundation.org/visa-request/ doesn't list this event. I have the document from the previous year that worked for me back then, so I can email the example (and my personal details). Can anyone tell me how I should request that?

[keywordnew]

I've had some experience navigating visas; I'll draft some language to get us started.