[governance] Host Country's attention to IGF participant Visas

[Fouad Bajwa]

Siva,

It might be good to remind the new MAG members from our group when
they sit in the rotated MAG meeting in May 2012 to take this up.

It might also be good to do a background research on the exact process
for the visa so that they can take that information to the meeting.

During the IGF Kenya, there was also a designated person looking after
the visa issue. They arranged a long list of people that had requested
visa on arrival. Most of the people I know took the visa facility
before departure to be on the safe side.

I availed on arrival in Nairobi opportunity though it did require
being sent to another immigration section after waiting for a longtime
in the original que, stand outside a room after being designated ;o)
as a "Pakistani Traveller" for nearly an hour while the officials
tried to find the notification from their Interior Ministry but that
was just me and my colleague travelling from Pakistan. It finally did
go through.

During IGF Vilnius, I am not sure how the process was run but the EU
process is almost the same amongst the Schengen States except for
Italy that requires some kind of a departure security fee and
registration of return to get back the security. Anyone that already
had a Schengen Visa from any country could travel to Vilnius.

For IGF Egypt, the host country notified all its Embassies and
Missions around the world to offer quicker processing. I too availed
this and it was indeed quicker than the last application I had made a
year ago.

On the other hand, visa and entry requirements cannot be the same I
guess, it has to do with diplomatic relations and other international
treaties and blah blah. However, efforts can be made if the host
country people are requested to pay more attention to the visa needs
of developing country participants.

-- 
Regards.
--------------------------
Fouad

On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 7:24 PM, Sivasubramanian M <isolatednet at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Roland
>
> Good to hear this about India :)
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 2:38 AM, Roland Perry
> <roland at internetpolicyagency.com> wrote:
>>
>> at 00:03:30 on Fri, 2 Mar 2012, Sivasubramanian M <isolatedn at gmail.com>
>> writes
>>
>>> I hope that the IGF Host Countries could designate someone like Sylvia
>>> Moya and pay special attention to the visa issues of the participants
>>
>>
>> Such a person was available, and did good work ahead of the IGF in
>> Hyderabad.
>> --
>> Roland Perry
>>
>>
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