[governance] 2013 Preparations for MAG

[Fouad Bajwa]

Though this is not the core of the discussion but still visa remains a
challenge though I haven't mentioned the funding handicap because in
order to get the visa, the insurance costs, the ticket costs etc are
contributors to distress.

India and Pakistan are at different levels of HDI and the treatment of
embassies vary due to the state of security and other foreign affairs.
In Pakistan the Embassies just look at every citizen as a runaway
candidate. IT would not take into consideration that I have been
travelling for most part of my life and still return to Pakistan
eachtime without violation of durations or extensions. It treats me in
the same basket.

The French Embassy in Pakistan deals with visa issues much harder than
the US and British embassies. It engulfed my passport for more than 3
months without any notifications etc in 2009 and diplomatic help had
to be sought from elsewhere in Islamabad to get my poor passport back.
The final remark was that they had forgotten about it? Who takes a
passport and forgets about it? And they also made me send them two
dummy faxes stating that how much I needed my passport
back......???????

At the moment, if I ask the Swiss to allow me to attend a meeting in
France without staying in Switzerland is like asking India to issue me
a visa without any reason. You have to apply to a Schengen region
country's embassy where your stay will be the longest. In this case it
would be France and we are back at point number one, no visa for you
Mr. Bajwa!

Anyways, that is insignificant because most of the usual faces and
suspects (including myself but no visa this time) at IGF open
consultations and MAG meetings can easily move about and wouldn't be a
priority for them to address but heck, we can continue to ask like all
the other things we ask for like improving the Main Sessions, managing
workshops better, finding better venues that are accessible,
improvements to the MAG, hire an Executive Coordinator and Elect a
Chair of the MAG and still have less developing country
representation, you know, those kind of things.....

Best

Fouad

On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 5:50 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
<suresh at hserus.net> wrote:
> I have found the French rather easier to get Schengen visas from in India,
> than the Germans, who require a German Schengen or other visa within the
> past few years to exempt you from a mandatory personal visa interview and
> biometrics collection rather than just submitting your visa paperwork at a
> local collection centre and then having your passport mailed back to you.
>
> Local visa policies for each country vary in minor (process related) details
> at the discretion of their local embassy or consulate, even given the same
> general visa regulations that they have to follow.
>
> --srs (iPad)
>
> On 25-Nov-2012, at 18:06, "Louis Pouzin (well)" <pouzin at well.com> wrote:
>
> Apropos of visas, would it be easier to get one for Germany or Belgium ?
>
> Louis
> - - -
>
> On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 1:15 PM, Fouad Bajwa <fouadbajwa at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> [..]
>> On the Visa issue, getting the Swiss visa is hard and the French visa is
>> the worst. The French will keep your passport for months. Swiss will
>> immediately reject it and unless the IGF secretariat intervenes, no visa.
>> This happens for every stakeholder irrespective of govt or civil society in
>> Pakistan. The Swiss had refused visa even for the May consultations and
>> every time I had applied in the past 3 years.It was only when the Swiss
>> Mission to the UN intervened on the request of the IGF Secretariat was the
>> visa made available. The French continue to refuse visas when one tries to
>> participate in UNESCO activities.
>
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