[AFRI-Discuss] [Ext] Request for additional travel support for African region ATLAS III participants

[ICANN Travel Support]

Dear Raymond, Remmy, and Peters:

Thank you very much for raising your concerns regarding applying for a visa for ICANN66. We understand that applying for a visa can be a challenge and that is why ICANN has done the following to ensure that the visa process is as smooth as possible:


  1.  We have engaged and worked with Tourism Montreal and with the Special Events Unit of NHQ Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada regarding our event and they are fully aware of our event and have sent communication to their diplomatic missions putting them in notice about our event. Kindly note that they have even provided our applicants with a special code (which is embedded in the invitation and local host letters) that they need to include so that they can distinguish themselves from the general applicants.


  1.  Funded travelers applying for an ICANN Invitation Letter receive a letter which indicate that ICANN is funding their travel. Additionally, the Welcome Email provided to the Funded Travelers give additional support of the type of funding they expect to receive from ICANN, which could be added to their visa application so supplement support.



  1.  Funded travelers that will require a visa will receive an email from Travel Support outlining what documents we will be providing and when to expect them so that they can include that in their visa application and if necessary.


Let me know if you have any additional concerns.


Best wishes,

Joseph de Jesus
Travel Support Manager
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

Fax: +1 424 832 1074
www.icann.org

From: Raymond Mamattah <mamattah.raymond at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, July 25, 2019 at 7:30 AM
To: ICANN Travel Support <travelsupport at icann.org>, "staff at atlarge.icann.org" <staff at atlarge.icann.org>, "atlasiii-programme at icann.org" <atlasiii-programme at icann.org>, ALAC Working List <alac at atlarge-lists.icann.org>, Afri-Discuss <afri-discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org>, Pierre Dandjinou <pierre.dandjinou at icann.org>
Subject: [Ext] Request for additional travel support for African region ATLAS III participants

Dear all,

We the below mentioned Penholders, on behalf of the ATLAS III awardees, refer to the announcement of the ATLAS III travel support selected participants, among which are 19 people from Africa.

Aside being selected, the intended purpose of training future leaders for At Large cannot be achieved if the selected participants can not get visas to attend the scheduled conference and training during the ICANN 66 at Montreal in Canada.  It must be indicated that getting visas to Canada from our various embassies across Africa is cumbersome. In this regard, we wish to make the following suggestions on behalf of all the African 19 delegates, which can make it easier for us to get our visas:


1.    ICANN or the host entity to write directly to the various embassies of the selected participants well in advance to introduce the participants.  There must be acknowledgement for receipt of this introduction letters from the embassies.


2.    The various invitation letters must clearly indicate that ICANN is fully sponsoring the participants, listing that airfare, accommodation and stipend will be fully provided to each participant.



This is very important because the embassies would like to know if the participants can have enough funds for the trip. In fact, it’s even a requirement for the participants to provide their bank account statement showing evidence of enough funds, hence if it’s indicated that the participants are going to be fully sponsored the better.

It must be noted that acquiring the visa can take close to 12 weeks in some countries, hence, the earlier the processes are started, including implementing the above mentioned suggestions, the better for the African delegates to get their visas and attend the trainings.

We are counting on your utmost support in this regard.

Raymond Selorm Mamattah
Remmy Nweke
Peters Omoragbon
(Penholders on behalf of Afralo ATLAS III awardees)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/afri-discuss/attachments/20190725/9fc2a8f5/attachment-0001.html>