Re: Covering visa fees as part of flights+accommodation expenses for events
On Tue, Jun 28, 2022 at 1:53 AM Stefano Rivera <stefanor@debian.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Daniel (2022.06.27_15:57:52_+0000)
> > I think covering travel Visa fees makes a lot of sense.
>
> +1
>
> > Thus I suggest a maximum fee for any Visa related activities, e.g. a default
> > of USD 200, adjusted to inflation and (if necessary) relative Visa-cost
> > insanity of DebConf hosting countries*. Because sometimes travel is required
> > to just get a Visa, e.g. going to a larger city to apply in person. Of
> > course - as with all our reimbursement - only the actual cost can be claimed
> > with receipts.
>
> That sounds sensible. I'd go one step further and say that any
> visa-related travel costs shouldn't be automatically covered, but
> require the sign-off of the visa team (for debconf, or DPL otherwise).
>
> In the case of Indian visas this year, it took the local team a few
> weeks of effort to find a better solution than travel to Istanbul for
> the Indian attendees. I think we want the pressure to be on for visa
> team to try to make something like that happen.
>
> I'd also suggest that the bursaries team publish a clearer list of what
> is and isn't acceptable for travel reimbursement (e.g. taxis, travel
> hotels).
>
I think Debian should help cover VISA expenses and I support Stefano's
suggestions.
Perhaps we can cover direct VISA fees by default and handle other
costs (i.e. travel, express delivery, etc) on a case by case basis.
VISA fees are usually already a significant part of costs and having
it covered could help a lot, like Schengen VISA usually costs 80 EUR
and US VISA costs 160 USD.
Regards,
Aron
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