Dear friends,
 
SUs are so near all the organizer Antennae must start to work for VISAS!
All of us know it's something very important and very awful because always the SU of a lot of AEGEEns depends on the procedure  to obtain that nasty stamp.
 
As SubCommie and Speaker of the Visa Freedom Fighters WG (VFF), I'll try to help you as I can in this nasty matter.
 
First of all, dear friends, I would like to communicate you can find a good support for your visas in the VISA BOOKLET, an on-line tool of the VFF where you will find info about who needs visa and for which country. At the moment we are updating it (things about visas change quickly!), but be sure I'll advise you when VB will be ok.
Anyway the "address" is www.aegee.org/visabooklet .
 
Now I'll try to give all the Visa Responsibles of each Antenna of this Region organizing a SU some suggestions.
It's something from my personal experience, then they're not strict rules: only suggestions, and lots of Responsibles, that are just old foxes in AEGEE, will know them, but my idea is to support young members and first of all young locals.
 
First of all I suggest you to take immediately a contact with your partecipants needing visa: they must have a different deadline for everything. You will lose a lot of time for their visas, then you must anticipate all the dates.
If you require some percentage of the fee in advance, ask your partecipants to be as quick as possible, and when you receive the amount start immediately the procedure for visas.
You need one month from the day you send the Consulate the request of visa to the day your partecipants will receive their visas.
 
Then the first thing is asking the partecipants if they need visas. Anyway it's usually written in the application you receive,... but a check is better.
Today usually people from Jugoslavia, Bosnia, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Turkey, Moldova, Albania need a visa, but please check with attention because it's different for each country. You can check calling your Ministry of Foreign Affairs or visiting its web page. In this way you can also obtain the telephone number and first of all the FAX NUMBER of the Visa Office in the Consulate of your country nearest your partecipant (remember! The Consulate must be in the country of your partecipant also if an other one is nearer: a rare exception can be when a Consulate in a small country is not organized with a Visa Office. In this case your partecipant must communicate you where he's able to obtain the visa.).
 
When you know the FAX NUMBER (ONLY the fax or sometimes the ordinary mail! No e-mails, no telex, no phone of course!) of the Visa Office of the right Consulate send immediately a request of visa concerning your partecipants.
It must be written on a letterhead sheet and it must contain:
  1. A list of your partecipants needing a visa from that Consulate. In the list for each partecipant there must be: name, surname, date of birth, place of birth, nationality, residence address, city, country and passport number (ask your partecipants for this info as soon as possible! Without them they usually can't obtain any visa.).
  2. The name of your event.
  3. The exact address of those partecipants during all the SU (pay attention! The Consulate can ask the police to check it during the SU!).
  4. The exact dates you ask for the visa (ask for the visas calculating  also one or two days more for the arrive and one or two days more for the departure).
  5. A specifical statement where you take under the responsability of your local all the expenses of the partecipants concerning lodgement, meals and transports inside your city.
  6. Your manual signature
  7. Your name and surname, your e-mail address, your telephone and mobile numbers, your home address
  8. If you have it, the web page of  your local
In the attachment your can find an exemple of this request.
 
Then you must add to this request also:
  1. A clear scanned copy of your Identity Card (pay attention! They have to compare the signatures!).
  2. A short presentation of AEGEE in general and of your local.
  3. A short presentation of your SU.
  4. If you have the support of the University, of an Institution or similars, also a letter of theirs.
 
When you have sent the Visa Office of the Consulate this documentation by FAX I suggest you to send also each partecipant the same material. In this case an e-mail is ok (the partecipants have only to print it: it can be useful when they will go to the Consulate; they can just show the same material you have just sent the Visa Office. ).
When you send this material by e-mail, it's usually too huge: to solve the problem avoid to send the partecipant also your IC copy (it's important only for the Consulate!), but advise them the Consulate just has it.
In this e-mail advise the partecipants they must go immediately to the Consulate asking for their visas.
In the same time, if you can, it's better for you to call the Consulate asking news about your documentation: sometimes it arrives not readable, sometimes the visa officers need something more. Be sure, at the end, that your material is ok.
 
Advise your partecipants they must absolutely communicate you if and when they receive their visas!
 
Last suggestion: take constant contacts with your "visa candidates". They are used to disappear during the procedure and, when you just think they can't come, they are used to appear again :-) . 
It's usually a problem of e-mail communication.
 
Finally, if you know your partecipants just received their visas, but they don't come, advise your police department: you don't damage your "partecipants" but you guarantee yourself.
Don't forget: when you send the Consulate your IC copy, you are accepting to be responsible for them. It's anything so hard (advising the police you lose all your responsabilities), but anyway it's not a joke!
 
 
An important thing: also after all this procedure YOU CAN'T BE SURE TO RECEIVE ANY VISA.
Finally it's always something absolutely imponderable,
 
but remeber:
 
IT'S NOT AN AEGEE EVENT IF YOU DON'T RISK ACCEPTING ALSO PARTECIPANTS NEEDING VISAS!
IT WILL BE ALSO A GREAT HOLYDAY, BUT BE SURE: YOU ARE JUST OUT OF AEGEE!
 
 
Have great Summer Universities, friends!
 
Regards
 
Luca
 
 
----------------------------------------
Luca Falcone
President AEGEE-Napoli
Network Sub-Commissioner RAINBOW Region
Speaker Visa Freedom Fighters
PR Responsible AEGEE HRWG
Secretary Bobigosa WG     
e-mail address: [log in to unmask]