What we achieved so far ?

 

» New HR strategy - Our new HR responsible Burak developed with the CD responsible Guillermo a new application form for new motivated and active members of Visa Freedom Working Group. Do you want to become a member? Apply here!

» Before Agora Enschede 2012 VFWG tried to ensure smooth visa-period for all the "visa" participants - visa-responsible of Agora Skopje was contacted and asked for feedback (to get more knowledge of ILs preparations), extension of the visa period before the Statutory event for "visa locals" was succesfully communicated and help is offered to anyone who will need it from the side of VFWG.

» VFWG members Olga Iatsyna with Evgeniya Larikova were developing the "Booklet project“, in order to facilitate the granting of visa to AEGEE people, through sensitization of the embassies of Schengen countries in the target countries to the opportunities of AEGEE events for visa appliers. We wanted to create and print a catchy info booklet about AEGEE and which underlines how AEGEE fosters "Schengen country values" like democracy, human rights, cultural exchange, active citizenship, youth participation and distribute this booklet in the respective translation to the embassies of at least Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Poland, plus create postcards which Agora- and SU participants with visas send to the embassies which issued the visa. This project was directly contributing to the Action Agenda 2012.

» Flyer was an idea of all the boards of working groups of AEGEE-Europe - it should raise awareness about all the WGs in AEGEE, their main topics and goals. Contact details are also stated. This flyer when distributed within the Network (mainly at the Statutory events during Fair) will attract the attention of the members and will help as a usefull PR tool.

» Strategic plan for locals was a new project that might have been interesting for the whole Network, directly contributed to the Action Agenda 2011-2012, would be benefitial for future AEGEE generations, helped AEGEE to create a "name" among European authorities.

The goal was to: develop a manual and help the locals to deal with the foreign missions = how to act / ask for visas / discuss with the person / which letter / who should sign the letter / what should they do if the embassy responds negatively etc. - aim of the initiative = we want the embassy to recognize VFWG and AEGEE (it can be easier when they recognize an AEGEE letter); publish it on our website and send to the locals (write it in google docs to put it on the website after) and make it connected to the old manual (on what should SZ countries focus); contact ACT in order to convince the locals to contact the foreign missions.

» Blog of Visa Freedom Working Group was an idea being developed by Olga Volovykh. We want to collect stories, articles, photos, pictures, videos, interviews and different feedback from the AEGEE members during several events (especially the statutory ones) that happen during the year and sum it up to our webpage and Facebook page.

» Visa Freedom WG Network - we were searching contacts all over AEGEE, in order to create a functional network of visa-responsible people (at least one per country), in order to cooperate and help in the field of visa issues that would be shared with SUCT and Statutory locals. Do you want to join or contact us ? We want you ! This project directly contributed to the Action Plan 2012-2014.

» IFISO cooperation - we would like to closely cooperate with IFISO members all over Europe and we were looking for more contacts ! We already asked the AEGEE-Europe to contact the headquarters of IFISO and we were in touch with IFISO member. If you want to let us know about your office, please contact us. We wanted to create a database of visa information and contacts from each European country and share with other NGOs and other AEGEE locals our knowledge about Europe in exchange with wilder parties and better events.

» VFA initiative or „Visa Facilitation Agreement“ initiative was a longer-time project of VFWG that firsly started with collection of different stories and experiences with visa issuing and visa rejections and mostly with the fact that the embassies do not apply the VFA of the country and ask for fees in order to process the visa application. Our law-educated VFWG’s members Lenny and Ani Berberyan were working on the legal procedures of these embassies and were in charge of writing Letters of complaint, in order to abolish the visa fees for the AEGEE members. This initiative was also contributing to the Action Plan 2012-2014.

» Visa Awareness Action Day was an event that was developed in cooperation with other working groups of AEGEE-Europe. This project or event would mean to cooperate with a local from AEGEE and help them organize the Visa Awareness Action Day in their city. We would support with our knowledge, materials and experience, but the organization on the spot would be more the responsibility of the local.

There is always a chance to apply for grant, therefore, if you think about organizing such a 1-day event, please, do not hesitate to contact us!

» Discussions until the Agora Budapest were: "Country specific approach: Moldova / Ukraine / Georgia" (about inclusion of Eastern-European countries in European society) and "VFAs implementation in European countries" (to find out how European countries are implementing VFAs and eliminate the differencies).

» We encouraged local antennae and their working groups to get in touch with official bodies of the government dealing with visa issues. We wanted them to present our organization and get as much information about the visa policy as possible.

Presenting AEGEE to an embassy: AEGEE and the Summer University Project (.doc)

AEGEE-Istanbul at the Czech consulate (topical report) in Past Activities.

» Photos / pictures for our WG - we wanted to make our webpage look as good as possible, colorful and full of interesting and useful information. But besides all the information you can find on our webpages, we would like YOU to participate and send us some cool pictures from your travels, trips, events, statutories, meetings etc., which we could use and make our webpages look great and full of AEGEE spirit ! Please send us your pictures with the permission of possible publishing on the webpages.

 

 

» 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. You can see our new webpage with the new logo !! And check the logo on our Facebook fanpage as well!

 

» "Any VISA problem? Let's find solutions!" (online advisor on Facebook) - was created by VFWG in order to get closer to all members of AEGEE who ever had a problem concerning VISA issuing and they couldn't end up attending an event or exchange, which is the worst thing that can happen.

This forum is the perfect place to share all the doubts about Invitation Letters, VISA petitions, etc etc etc... If you have any question, don't hesitate to ask! It would be essential to get to know exactly what you, AEGEE people, want to know about VISA procedures! If you have some bad experience, we would like to hear it and possibly learn from it, in order to avoid the same situation.

 

» During Agora Skopje a new Working Format of WGs was approved and therefore we will go through a transition period until Agora Enschede 2012. New activities will be developed, new discussion and new board positions. Among the discussions of the following 6 monthswill be: "Country specific approach: Russia" (about inclusion of Eastern-European countries in European society) and "VFAs implementation in European countries" (to find out how European countries are implementing VFAs and eliminate the differencies).

 

» 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 was presented during one of the Prytania by the Speaker of VFWG and AEGEE Academy.

 

» Visa Freedom Working Group takes part in AEGEE's online magazine called "AEGEEan". Every couple of days you can find here new articles and news that happened in our Network. And we already have our first articles in the section "Working Groups". Take a look.

 

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

 

» Facebook – we refreshed and updated our Facebook fan page - check it and add comments, suggestions or upload videos and pictures on the topic of visas and freedom of movement. You will also find there our contact details and latest news from the team of VFWG !

 

» SUs and Invitation Letters – we offered cooperation and help to SUCT (you can find on the website of the SU also link to our page).

We also prepared a general template of the Invitation Letter in English with the help of AEGEE-Istanbul. The incoming responsibles need to translate it to the language of their country in order to enable their participants to apply for visa. The Letter will be usable for this year’s SUs and later for other AEGEE events will be created a special letter. But do not forget - only the letter itself does not mean that you will obtain the visa.

We also released the “Protocol of Invitation Letter creation”, because different countries want different things in the Letter. So please, be careful when you will be preparing it. For more information, please check Visa Info section !

 

» Information Database - we created a section of our webpage where you can find all the necessary information about visa policy, procedures and contact details of foreign missions. Information are targeted for organizers as well as travellers in or out of the EU. Foreign missions, visa fees and other necessities will help you on your way to obtain visa for your big trip. So far you can find already a lot in Visa Info.

If you are traveling to the EU (mainly Schengen area) and you need a visa to enter your desired country, you are advised to contact (besides Incoming responsible to obtain your Invitation Letter) also your university and ask to prepare for you a supportive letter, declaring your status of a student, membership in AEGEE and kindly asking the "visa-application place" to abolish visa fee for you.

 

» Pool of Visa Experts - this section of our webpage will help you on your trip around Europe. You will find contacts to people in Europe that have many different experience with visa issues and can enlighten you and your friends in this field for a specific country, translate or provide some other information that you might need.