Learning from organizing an international DebConf23 in India by Pirate Praveen

September 22, 2023 | Reading Time: 2 min

Some things we learned while organizing DebConf 23 at Kochi, sharing this in case some one organizing an international conference in future may find this useful.

• Visa type: Conference visa is strongly recommended, if someone is already in India for tourism they have to intimate FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) before the conference.

  • e-visa can happen in 1-2 days but people applying at missions may need upto a week or longer to get the visa.
  • People coming on conference visa can combine tourism (but not the reverse).
  • For conference visa application, people will need these documents.
  1. Invitation from organizer (mandatory),
  2. Political Clearance from Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) (mandatory) and
  3. Security clearance from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) (If required, see “Security clearance from MHA” section below).

• Political clearance from MEA: Close registrations for foreigners at least a month before the conference (the earlier the better) as you will need to share the full participants list including passport details with MEA for political clearance (this can take upto 2-3 weeks).