DebConf11/Visas

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[edit] Overview

Bosnia and Herzegovina can only be entered with a valid passport, while for some country all you need is ID.

EU, American, Australian, Canadian and most of the Latin American citizens do not require a visa to enter the country for stays up to 90 days. Most other countries do not need Visas either.

For those countries which are not on the visa exemption list, getting one is possible through Bosnian embassies/representations in your (or neighbouring) countries. Fees for visas issued by diplomatic/consular offices:

  • Single entry-exit visas and transit visas 31.00 EUR
  • Multiple entry-exit visas for periods up to 90 days 57.00 EUR
  • Multiple entry-exit visa for periods over 90 days 72.00 EUR

If you need an invitation letter for the conference, or if DebConf is sponsoring your food/accommodation and you would like a letter stating that, please contact visa@debconf.org.

For further information, please visit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs or their page about visas with information for your country.

[edit] Official information

Official Government documentation regarding visas:

[edit] Visas planing

Who should sign the letters? Perhaps someone on behalf of DIVA? (It needs to be a recognised legal entity, not Debian/DebConf.)

[edit] Invitation letters

Some people need an invitation letter to improve their chances while applying for a visa, whether at their country of residence or at the border. Even if they don't need a visa, some people need invitation letters to show to their employer or university. Some need it to ensure that they will not be stopped at a border, whether at beginning of their journey, or even in transit.

There are two versions of the letter, the invitation letter and the verified invitation letter. The former is useful if you want to make sure you will not have problems when you leave your country of resident or while crossing any border, but don't need a visa to enter Bosnia Herzegovina. The latter is only useful if you do need the aforementioned visa. Please understand that local team has to do some work to verify the letter, so if you don't need it, please don't ask for it, you would only be making things harder for those getting letters verified, and hence for yourself, as we need to be more stringent in granting those and it will thus take longer to be sent.

In any case, you need to do a few things to get a letter:

  • Have your penta account properly filled out.
  • Send an email, preferably with a gpg signature, to visa@debconf.org;
    • this email must contain the following information,
      1. your full name,
      2. your passport number,
      3. the country that issued this passport
      4. and your physical address if you need a physical copy of the letter snail mailed to you.
  • If you include a short description of your involvement with Debian, preferably with links, you make the visa team's work easier, and thus ensure you get your letter faster.
    • Of course, this information might be in penta already, but since few people have access to your records, this is just a way to speed things up.

[edit] Visa help

For Bosnia:

  • Will people need to apply for a visa through the usual process?
  • Will they need a letter to show at the border? (What should it say?)
  • We should only help people who we can confirm are involved in Debian -- each year in the past we had some people who just wanted to get a visa any way they could, without a Debian connection.

For other countries:

  • Some people will need letters to help them get visas for transit through the US, or through other European countries. The same text from DC7 could be used for the UK -- there it was important to state that we will be paying for accommodation/food/travel, as appropriate, the dates and address of the conference, etc.

[edit] Useful info

Apparently EU citizens require only a regular ID card to enter Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  • UPDATE 15. March 2011. : This has been confirmed by the Government officials. More can be found at: DebConf11/Travel-Visa.


[edit] List of countries that need extra help acquiring Visa to enter BiH 

[name of the country (number of people coming to DebConf)]

- Taiwan (3)

[edit] Visa in previous Debconfs

[edit] See also

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