We have couple of new projects in VFWG and running and that is why we need new members to help us finish them. You can check the projects in here!

 

After a period of elections, the VFWG has the new board. You can check them here!

 

The Visa Freedom working group has succesfully finished the cooperation with two Summer Universities this summer! AEGEE-Paris and AEGEE-Praha with AEGEE-Budapest. Many interesting workshops were organized and a lot of AEGEE members learned about the situation with visas in Europe.

 

Find in the section "Cooperation and Partners - SU and other WGs" a PwP presentation about VFWG, our goals, projects and activities. With this presentation we hope that more SUs organizers will be attracted and concerned about this topic and therefore decides to dedicate their SU to this topic or will collaborate with us, in order to inform the participants and make this issue much more visible. We are all in this ! :)

 

Are you a new member of VFWG? Then we prepared a knowledge tranfer document for you where you will get to know about all the current activities, projects, members of VFWG and tasks of the board.. Either you should get the link in Welcome email (after subscription to visa-members-l) or you can write to the board and ask for it. Do not hesitate!

 

During Agora Skopje, the WG reform proposal was approved, therefore from now on, all WGs are going through a transition period. What is exactly waiting for us?

 

Do you want to remind yourselves the activities of VFWG during Agora? Do you wanna watch our famous video? Then check our Past Activities and you can read whole update!

 

New project of VFWG was launched in cooperation with other members of VFWG. You can read more in our Current projects.

 

You can check the second article of VFWG's members: this time you can read an interview with NetCom Olga Iatsyna, who is also a member of VFWG and talks about visa difficulties and unfair treatment..

 

VFWG already has an article in the AEGEE's online magazine "AEGEan" that was writen by our member Raphael Schütze from AEGEE-München !! Take a look !

 

As I mentioned already earlier, with NetCom Olga Iatsyna (who is now our member), we developed a project called "Send a postcard to your embassy". We asked Ukrainian and Russian antennas to send a postcard back to their countries, to embassies where they got their visas and thus being able to travel around Europe. Plus, they were asked to write down all the problems they came along during their visa procedures. 

Unfortunatelly, we received only a limited amount of info and no postcards were sent. But all this info stated in the problems will be used during our WS at Agora Skopje. And a similar survey asking for visa problems will be in future distributed again within whole Network.

We are looking for a responsible person, who would be able to take care of this in the future. Someone, who would be able to collect this info from our members. Do you want to find out interesting info about the visa procedures and visa policies in different countries? Then you are the right one to be the responsible for this project ! 

 

Visa Freedom Working Group helped with the creation of a proposal for Agora Skopje that would not only simplify the criteria for Working Groups stated in the CIA, but also re-structure the WGs of AEGEE to attract more members to become active on the European level. The proposal will be presented during one of the Prytania by the Speaker of VFWG and AEGEE Academy.

 

We created the new logo for Visa Freedom WG on the topic: “Freedom of movement for the place we call home.” With the external help of Deniz Özhan from AEGEE-Izmir, we want to make VFWG fresh and interesting again ;) Wait for our new webpage design !! You can check the logo for now on our Facebook fanpage !

 

In co-operation with the Network Comission Olga Iatsyna and Russian and Ukrainian antennas, we launched a project “Send a postcard to your embassy” – during summer and the time before Agora Skopje, all of the members from those antennas, who will get visa for Europe (e.g. for Summer University) will send a postcard from the foreign country back to the embassy, thanking for the visa and writing something nice about the SU and AEGEE :)

In September, we sent all of them a survey to find out the results of this projects and possible problems or news concerning the visa issues. If you participated in this project, you can fill in the survey here.

 

Network Meeting in Pécs, Hungary in the end of October will take place. One of the core topics will be the European level involvement therefore at least one representative from VFWG should hold a presentation, workshop, training or round table discussion. The NWM will be between 22nd and 25th October and there will be a rented bus to Skopje afterwards. :) The fee will be 40 or 45 euro (depending on whether it starts on Friday or Saturday) for the 5,5 days but if somebody can come to just a couple of days, it's obviously less.

 

Applications for Agora Skopje were opened ! If you want to represent our WG at Agora, you better hurry up !! There are not many places left..

we are preparing a workshop that will be on the topic “Visa obstacles of young volunteers” about visa issues, visa policies, invitation letters, visa facilitation agreements etc.

During the time of Agora, we will organize a meeting of as many members of VFWG as possible. At least 4 people will be representing VFWG there ! Find us !

And of course that we will prepare our table for the AEGEE Fair !! Be ready to be amazed again by Visa Freedom ! Games, information, maps, videos – all of this you will find at our table !

 

A meeting during the first week of September will happen, so please update your Doodle that was sent to you. The meeting should be about preparations for the WS and Fair for Agora, evaluation of our information platform services for the SU's participants / organizers and an event that we could organize during the winter :)

 

My dear locals,
Great time of Summer Universities started and i would like to suggest you to join the initiative developed together by Visa Freedom Working Group and me, your NetCommie :)

Most of you have to receive visas to go to Summer Universities. And we all know how hard sometimes to do it and how happy we are when we finally get it and go to the Summer University of our dream...
So  we suggest you to share your happiness with the embassies and consulates as well :) 
It's very easy - check the post address of embassy or consulate of the country you're going in and send there from this country nice postcard saying something like:
"Dear Sirs,
I would like to thank you very much for issuing me a visa for Summer University in [name of the country]
[here you might be creative and post your own text, poem or draw a picture :)]
Hope for future successful cooperation!
Best regards,
[your name]
Member of AEGEE-[local]"

In this way you will do very important thing:
 - attract attention to your person and possibly they will remember your name or your AEGEE local and next time it might be easier for you or member of your local to get visa for this country
- make small and nice surprise to a hard working people in consulates ;)

We would like to suggest you to spend just 5 minutes and join in this way our common initiative and to contribute to visa fighting process! 
Only acting all together we will achieve significant results!

Always yours,
NetCommie and Visa Freedom Working Group 

Olga Iatsyna
Vice Speaker
Network Commission of AEGEE-Europe
www.aegee.org/netcom
AEGEE-Dnipropetrovsk
www.aegee-dnepr.org.ua

 

Hi all,

our next meeting will be on 28th June (Tuesday) at 21.00 (BXL) !

Agenda:

- new logo, video, facebook page, webpage

- postcard projects with TR and UKR

- proposal for Agora Skopje 2011

- fundraising and HR initiatives of VFWG

- future events of VFWG

Looking forward :*

 

Dear all AEGEEans!

The Invitation Letter template, Protocol for issuance of the IL and a lot of important info were created and updated in our Useful documents for organizers!

We strogly recommend you to use this template, as we hope that once the foreign missions will accept and recognize our organization, we can fight for more "visa freedom"! As long as we, AEGEE, use it and fight for "easy visa", we can stil make some difference!!

Yours VFWG

 

Hi all "fighters"!

Please do not forget our meeting today 23rd  May at 21,00 BXL at our Skype lounge. We will discuss:

1) video for Agora, logo, website, Facebook

2) SUs 2011 Team's progress

3) Visa info Team's progress

4) Postcards project's progress

5) Meetings (briefly), proposal (briefly)

I am looking forward to hear from you all again :) In case of questions, write to visa @ aegee.org ´:)

Take care, Jana

 

Dear all AEGEEans !

Maybe you have heard about Visa Freedom Working Group ! Maybe you have even heard about our great success at Agora Alicante ! And maybe.. someone told you a secret about us ! That we are looking for a designer, who would be HONORED to create for us a NEW LOGO !!

Are you skilled in designing? Do you have an idea how our new logo should look like ? What is the attribute for „Freedom of movement for the place we call home“ ? Do you want to help us to make our working group even more visible and therefore one step closer to our aim of visa-free Europe ?

Then do not hesitate to LET US KNOW ! On visafreedomwg @ gmail.com ! (The estimated deadline is the end of May.)

We are looking forward to see your proposals ! The chosen one will be evaluated by public gratitude of VFWG, placing his/her name on this webpage and Facebook of VFWG and overall prestige in AEGEE !

Take care and see you somewhere in Europe !

Jana + Belén + Antoine and whole team of VFWG

 

Dear AEGEE members, dear supporters of Visa Freedom working group !

Due to urgent and necessary administration of VFWG mailing lists (visa-l and visa-members-l), the board of VFWG had to close those mailing lists temporarily, which in practise meant that nobody was able to subscribe to these lists – beginning on 5th May 2011 23.59 BXL.

All those subscribers were provided with detailed info about further procedure and evolution in future. The re-opening of the mailing lists was on 11th May 2011 23.59 BXL.

During that period, current subscribers of those mailing lists were divided into 2 groups:

1) visa-l : observers, people just interested in visa issues, passive and new members of AEGEE + ex-board of VFWG, project director + available for reports of activities of VFWG, announcements, requests etc.;

2) visa-members-l (only renamed visa-board-l): active members of VFWG, participants in projects, active advisors, current board members.

The subscription to visa-l will remain open for all AEGEE members (follow the instructions on www.wg.aegee.org/vfwg).

The subscription to visa-members-l we be upon request sent to visafreedomwg @ gmail.com, and moreover you have to state how do you want to contribute to this working group, what is your motivation, interests, skills and time possibilities. All the information is required in order to be subscribed to the list. Once you become subscribed at visa-members-l, you are automatically becoming a member of VFWG.

Thank you for understanding and sorry for any inconveniences. Feel free to contribute to VFWG mailing lists or contact us directly at visafreedomwg @ gmail.com.

Best regards

Jana + Belén + Antoine

Board of Visa Freedom Working Group of AEGEE-Europe

visafreedomwg @ gmail.com

www.wg.aegee.org/vfwg

VFWG on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6423027069)

 

Dear AEGEE members, dear supporters of Visa Freedom working group !

Due to urgent and necessary administration of VFWG mailing lists (visa-l and visa-board-l), the board of VFWG has to close those mailing lists temporarily, which in practise means that nobody will be able to subscribe to these lists – beginning on Thursday 5th May 2011 23.59 BXL.

All those subscribers will be provided with detailed info about further procedure, so, please do not be alarmed, other emails will come soon. The re-opening of the mailing lists is planned for Wednesday 11th May 2011 23.59 BXL.

During that period, current subscribers of those mailing lists will be sorted into 2 groups:

1) visa-l : observers, people just interested in visa issues, passive and new members of AEGEE + ex-board of VFWG, project director + available for reports of activities of VFWG, announcements, requests etc.

2) visa-board-l : active members of VFWG, participants in projects, active advisors, current board members

Thank you for understanding and sorry for any inconveniences. We do this for the sake of our VFWG.

Best regards

Jana + Belén + Antoine

Board of Visa Freedom Working Group of AEGEE-Europe

visafreedomwg @ gmail.com

VFWG on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6423027069)

 

Dear AEGEE, dear "fighters",

the webpage link of our working group has been updated to www.wg.aegee.org/vfwg from ../vff. However, the old version will be still for some time available.

Big thanks to Wim, who made this happen.

VFWG Board

 

Dear members of VFWG,

the Agora Alicante 2011 is over, but our VFWG is just at the beginning of our job ! With all the support and great contribution that we received during Agora we start to work and our first task will be improvement of our webpages, new logo, pictures with the topic of visa and freedom of movement, Visa pool of Experts, invitation letter for SUs and much more.  

If you want to join us and help us, or just simply give an advice, you can find the contact details or subscribe to our mailing list !

Looking forward to receive even more support from our dear AEGEEans !!

Jana

Speaker of VFWG

 

Dear members of VFWG,

It is our pleasure to announce hereby the new board of VFWG for the term 2011/2012.

Speaker:     Jana Pokorná
Secretary:   Antoine Ramon
Treasurer:   Belén Moreno Hurtado

Congratulations and we wish to all members of VFWG and the board a fruitful, creative and enthusiastic term, but furthermore really PRODUCTIVE one !

Yours,

Diana & Ermanno
Your Election Committee

 

And huge thanks to our Election Comittee for their work and good wishes from the new board!

Yours,

Jana + Antoine + Belén

Board of VFWG

 

Dear all,

today we will have a meeting of our WG. The agenda will contain upcoming AEGEE Fair and our options to attract people and invite them to join us. Moreover, we will discuss the proposals concerning WGs that will be presented and voted for at Agora and we will also discuss about the updated websites - what else do we want to see there.

The time frame is 10-12pm (BXL) and of course everybody is welcome to join our discussion and contribute with ideas and suggestions. The Skype Lounge of VFWG is open 24/7, all you have to do is get in touch with one of us and get the contact details.

I order to fit everybody's time schedule for the next meeting, I recommend to all of you update your VFWG Doodle asap :)

Looking forward to meet you tonight ! Jana

 

We want to promote our working group at the upcoming AEGEE Spring Agora Alicante 2011 - do you want to help us? Do you have a good idea how to attract AEGEE members to "fight" with us?

 

On our table you will find a lot of interesting and useful information about our working group, you can take a look at the pictures of our members or watch a video about the purpose of Visa Freedom.

 

You will get our activity plan for upcoming year and a lot of contact details, in case that you would like to join us, and you can take for free Visa Application Forms for countries outside of the EU.

 

You can also play a Spanish game or a quiz with us and learn a lot of new things about visa issues and this whole field and win a small present from us, very practical, which you will definitely use in future !

 

Visa-participants must confirm their assistance by sending a copy of their flight tickets before April 12th 23:59 Bruxelles Time to incoming @ agoraalicante.org. Visa delegates' fee will be 35€; 40€ is the fee for Visa visitors.

 

Which countries need VISA to travel to Spain?

* Albania (except for holders of biometric passports)
* Armenia (except for holders of diplomatic and service passports)
* Azerbaijan
* Belarus
* Bosnia and Herzegovina (except for holders of biometric passports)
* Georgia
* Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (except for holders of biometric passports)
* Moldova
* Russia
* Serbia (except for holders of biometric passports)
* Turkey (except for holders of diplomatic and special passports)
* Ukraine
 

In order to get the visa invitation, please write us an e-mail asap to incoming @ agoraalicante.org with a scanned copy of your passport and the following information:

» Name

» Surname

» Gender

» Date of birth

» Place of birth

» Citizenship

» Passport Info (Passport no, issue date and expiry date)

» Address (street name, Nr. of house and apartment, city, region/district, postal code, country)

» Your date of arrival and leaving (we will prepare visa invitations for the following period: April 26 to May 2, for exceptions please write us to incoming @ agoraalicante.org before buying any ticket).

 

How can I apply for VISA?

Write an e-mail to incoming @ agoraalicante.org and send us all information we asked in previous question.

For more info visit the page of Agora Alicante !  

 

The visa walls between Schengen and not Schengen are getting bigger. Struggling with these growing visa borders is not that easy. Thats why, as VFF-WG, we need to have a more  serious position. In near future we are taking initiatives such as a visa booklet project for the embassies or  starting campaigns across Europe. This means we will be acting  not only for members of AEGEE but  also for all European students and European youth.

During  this new term of VFF-WG board, we were able to achieve some goals that will be presented to you during the agora in few days time.

In the Agora-Ljubljana  we will propose a small  change in the name for our WG, this change will be mainly for the local and european level representations.I should remind you that on the local level  there may be big  potential for  FR and PR possiblities for our WG. The current VFF-WG Board  we might be acting more  diplomatic when we consider especially the externals, officials. We had noticed that the word "fighters"  somehow seen as unfriendly, negative.

We will be still visa freedom fighters of AEGEE, and we want to keep the phrase "visa freedom fighters" for sure, because  it provides lot of  spirit and motivation for any of us.And we  propose  "Visa Freedom WG"  as official name for our working group. This change will be open to your votes through ballots in the Agora. Just to make it clear, we need to have a more diplomatic image. The WG  name which  sounds  more  diplomatic and democratic,   would be more suitable for   AEGEE.

This issue has been shared  with the Visa-L subscribers, and now you can share your ideas as Agora is approaching, considering the short time for a detailed discussion your ideas are welcome on http://www.zeus.aegee.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=126#126

Discussing this  through the AEGEE forum is for  avoiding the  extra mails in the AEGEE lists.

With best freedomofmovement wishes,

         Your Visa Freedom Fighters WG Board,

                   Robin, Evren, Dario, Tena, Kostya, Kate, Gozde


Don't forget to join our workshop in the Agora!