Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

Wikimania 2016 bids/Esino Lario/Visa

< Wikimania 2016 bids | Esino Lario

Italy is part of the Schengen area, which has a uniform visa policy:[1] requirements can be strict but most Wikimania attendees will need no visa, or enjoy visa facilitation. Rejection rate for Schengen short-stay visa is is less than 5 % and as little as 1 % for many countries:[2] EU and Italy have good relations with almost all the countries in the world; in particular for Italy Middle East, Northern Africa and the Balkans, all countries quite poorly "served" by Wikimanias after Alexandria 2008.[3]

dark blue - no visa required, Schengen area; light blue - no visa required, special territories of Schengen member states; dark green - no visa required (annex II), red - visa required (annex I); brown - visa required (annex I), transit visa required; pink - passport not recognized; gray - no information.
See also the official visa map

Citizens of 73 countries will not need to worry about visa, making Wikimania Esino Lario the second most internationals-friendly Wikimania ever![4] You can easily check the requirements for your country, if any, with the Ministry's Do you need a visa? tool.

Free access (Schengen area)

  1. Austria
  2. Belgium
  3. Czech republic
  4. Denmark
  5. Estonia
  6. Finland
  7. France
  8. Germany
  9. Greece
  10. Hungary
  11. Iceland
  12. Italy
  13. Latvia
  14. Lithuania
  15. Luxembourg
  16. Malta
  17. Netherlands
  18. Norway
  19. Poland
  20. Portugal
  21. Slovakia
  22. Slovenia
  23. Spain
  24. Sweden
  25. Switzerland
  26. Liechtenstein

European Union free movement (non-Schengen countries)

  1. Bulgaria
  2. Croatia
  3. Cyprus
  4. French territories of French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte, Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin
  5. Ireland
  6. Romania
  7. United Kingdom

Visa free

  1. Albania (+visa facilitations)
  2. Argentina
  3. Australia
  4. Bahamas
  5. Barbados
  6. Bosnia and Herzegovina (+visa facilitations)
  7. Brazil
  8. Brunei Darussalam
  9. Canada
  10. Chile
  11. Costa Rica
  12. Colombia
  13. El Salvador
  14. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (+visa facilitations)
  15. Guatemala
  16. Honduras
  17. Hong Kong SAR
  18. Israel
  19. Japan
  20. Mexico
  21. Macao SAR
  22. Malaysia
  23. Nicaragua
  24. New Zealand
  25. Panama
  26. Paraguay
  27. Republic of Korea (South Korea)
  28. Saint Kitts and Nevis
  29. Serbia (+visa facilitations)
  30. Seychelles
  31. Singapore
  32. Taiwan
  33. United Arab Emirates
  34. United States of America
  35. Venezuela

Visa facilitations

  1. Armenia
  2. Cape Verde
  3. Georgia
  4. Moldova
  5. Montenegro
  6. Russia
  7. Ukraine

Managing visa

edit
Visa is managed in Italy, and/or in Switzerland where needed.

Visa procedures for Wikimania Esino Lario attendees will be managed by the staff of Wikimedia Italia. The staff has previous experience in managing visa requests for the Wikimedia Conference organized in 2013 in Milan; for this event the majority of the visa procedures were successfully managed; difficulties emerged for participants coming from the Philippines and Indonesia[5]. To make sure all participants can apply for visa with the necessary support we set a proper timeline and the partnerships with Wikimedia CH will allow us to relay also on another country' procedures for visa requests, in case Italy presents a more difficult situation.

Excursions in Switzerland

edit

For participants coming from outside the Schengen area, to be able to make an excursion in Switzerland it is necessary that the visa is "Valid for Schengen area" (not a visa valid only for Italy)[6]. Please make sure to specify it when you make the visa request.


Notes

edit
  1. ↑ Legislation summary.
  2. ↑ Visa statistics (2012) for the 2023 Schengen consulates of the world: in one third of cases rejection is less than 1 % and in half of cases less than 3 %.
  3. ↑ Wikimania London was out of reach even for some Europeans who enjoy visa free access to Italy: contrary to popular belief, citizens of Europe were not necessarily favoured by nearby locations. For instance, 60 % of Serbian attendees had visa rejected by UK; while in 2012 Italian consulates were (together with Switzerland's) the consulates with lower percentage of rejected short-stay visa for Iranians among the countries with over 5 thousands visas issued in Iran; and granted 100 % short-stay visas asked in Serbia.
  4. ↑ Based on the visa information pages of previous editions, which however didn't provide stats for visa rejection. The 170 visa countries record of Hong Kong is hard to match. The United Kingdom is not part of Schengen; Frankfurt and Gdańsk of course were, but EU negotiators have not stopped working since then!
  5. ↑ Please note that the difficulties were not related to a mismanagement of the procedure but to a refusal of the requests.
  6. ↑ Ilario Valdelli has checked by calling the offices of the Swiss customs.
Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimania_2016_bids/Esino_Lario/Visa&oldid=27136187"