aKademy 2006

So aKademy 2006 was announced. The date is interesting, as it starts on my birthday. ;-) I wanted to go there, but didn't start any preparation before the final announcement. Now I looked at what do I need to go there. First a plane ticket: it is 220EUR+airport taxes. This is not that bad, and the fact that I don't have to go to the capital city, but I can use another one (where my mother in law lives) is a bonus. So traveling can be arranged. But I need a visa as well! Unfortunately Ireland is not part of the Schengen treaty and altough I don't need a visa to enter the Schengen states, I need one to enter Ireland (and UK for that matter). I couldn't find the local site of the Irish embassy, but I found some informations on a travel agency site and I was shocked. The amount of documents they ask is enormous and I'd say aberrant. Starting from proof that you work here the listed documents are: registration of the company (not clear if you need it also if you are an employee?), birth certificates of all your relatives (parents, sisters, brothers, spouse, children), official declaration that you don't want to work there, copy of all pages of your current and past passports where there are visas or stamps, bank account statement, reservation at an Irish hotel and whatever. All officially translated to English and everything in two examples. The waiting period for the visa is 4-6 weeks. Amazing. Not even the US or the UK has these kind of requirements. Of course it is well known that getting a visa for the US is a simple lottery, but for the UK on their site it is said that 93% gets the visa and they try to issue the visa for everybody in one day. Also for the US they decide on the same day you have the interview. I hate paperwork and usual treatment at embassies (most of them). I would also need to go to the capital city twice (800km in total), pay a lot for the travel, for the visa and for the translations (it's not cheap to do official translations) and after that you might still not get it. I found an email address (which does not bounce) and asked there again about the requirements to get the visa. If they don't answer, I will call them. But if the requirements are the same I read on the tourist agency site, I may not go. It would take far too much energy and money from my side and it may not worth. So happy aKademy for all the others.

PS: To make it more interesting, I have to tell that my country most probably will join the EU in less than a year. And the preferred destination for working is Spain, Italy and Hungary, and we don't need a visa there since 2002 (to Hungary we never needed). Funny, isn't it?

UPDATE: I got an answer. That's good as I sent my question last evening. It seems that if you go to the conference, you need less papers as the invitation helps a lot. I still need to translate some documents, but only 2 pages. I also got the address of the website. So simple site, that no doubt I couldn't find with google... http://www.theconsulateofireland.ro/ The requirements are here http://www.theconsulateofireland.ro/e4.htm . It might be possible to get the visa in 2 weeks instead of 6. Well, this doesn't really help, as it anyway means two trips to the embassy. Hm, I have to think a little more about it.