<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Hi,<br>
<br>
I come from Russia and I can share a bit of experience from the
other side, i.e. what is needed when applying for a visa.<br>
<br>
A letter of invitation serves one or two purposes of the ones
listed below:<br>
<br>
1) Support that this person is indeed invited to a given event. A
consulate may request further proof of person's involvement in the
industry.<br>
If he or she is a, let's say, a bus driver (not taht I want to
offend any bus drivers), a consulate would probably have further
questions. <br>
If you are inviting - you should probably ask a couple of
questions as well why this person wants to go to an OSS
conference. <br>
In a way, yes, you guarantee this person has a solid reason to
attend. In light of all recent tragic events in Europe that is a
bit more than formality now.<br>
<br>
2) Identify the means of travel. In case of FOSDEM it should be
clearly stated that the person is paying himself all travel
expenses. That would mean the person <br>
needs to present at the consulate a hotel booking, airline or
whatever tickets booking and may even need to present a credit
card or a monthly statement from a bank to support a claim that
he/she have sufficient funds to travel. The invitation should say
that the cost of attending the conference is 0.<br>
<br>
hth,<br>
<br>
Ivan<br>
<br>
<br>
On 21/12/2015 19:42, Emanuil Tolev wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CANeG0fLcAaavxOdXhfv6tToCXo7ofYryvHfs6onW34skBsg9Kw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote">+1 to all of Daniel's questions. I'd
also like to help our international attendees (and willing
to spend some time doing that). The FOSDEM FAQ makes it
sound like there's a legal or moral obligation that prevents
FOSDEM from inviting any random attendee, so they have to be
a conference speaker to get a letter from the FOSDEM org
itself. If so, it'd be useful to know the details of this
for other people who want to help invite non-EU attendees.</div>
<div class="gmail_quote"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 21 December 2015 at 16:28, Daniel
Pocock <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:daniel@pocock.pro" target="_blank">daniel@pocock.pro</a>></span>
wrote:
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
Some refer to a requirement for a guarantor who is
resident in Belgium.<br>
Does that mean invitation letters also have to come from
organizations<br>
with an address in Belgium?<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I personally don't think the embassies themselves know
European law all that well on this point. They keep
referring to it as a Schengen visa, which, if so, might
well mean that any citizen of a Schengen country can
invite the person to apply for the visa.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
Does every invitation letter have to be a letter of
guarantee as well,<br>
or can invitation letters be issued without specifying any
guarantor?<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If anybody has information (and especially experience)
on the responsibilities of guarantors that would be quite
helpful as well. It'd make the decision to issue such a
letter from e.g. my company much easier.</div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Could this even be done on a self-serve basis with a
web-form in future?<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Not sure the government would like that very much, but
I suppose if we're going to be making one without question
for everybody who asks, it does make sense.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Greetings,</div>
<div>Emanuil </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
FOSDEM mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:FOSDEM@lists.fosdem.org">FOSDEM@lists.fosdem.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/fosdem"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/fosdem</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<br>
<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
FOSDEM mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:FOSDEM@lists.fosdem.org">FOSDEM@lists.fosdem.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/fosdem">https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/fosdem</a></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>