[robocup-humanoid] Fwd: RoboCup 08 News Letter 1 (15 Nov 2007)

[Oskar von Stryk [Humanoid]]

Dear Teams,

There have been two news letters from the organisators of RoboCup 2008
which unfortunately
have not yet been posted to this mailing list yet.
With best regards,
Oskar von Stryk
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "XiaoPing Chen" <xpc... at ustc.edu.cn>
Date: 15 Nov. 2007, 13:33
Subject: RoboCup 08 News Letter 1 (15 Nov 2007)
To: robocup2008


RoboCup 08 News Letter 1
15 Nov 2007

Topics:
1. VISA
2. Invitation letters
3. Registration Dues

Dear all,

After a series of discussions within and between RCF and LOC, now we
would like to
notify following messages about RoboCup 08, Suzhou, China.

1.VISA
*General Information

-Generally, an overseas visitor needs visa for his/her visit to China.
There are
different kinds of visa with different requirements (say, different
types of
invitation letter). Sometimes there may be even some differences in
the
application processes/rules for the same kind of visa between
different countries.
Therefore, participants or spectators should contact the Chinese
Embassy in their
country or the Chinese Consulate in the consular jurisdiction for the
detailed
information.

-In all cases, the applicant or his/her travel/visa agent MUST GO IN
PERSON to the
visa office of the Embassy or Consulate in the CONSULAR JURISDICTION
where he/she
is a resident to submit the application. In other words, no one can
get visa by
post/mail. It is thus suggested by some participants to China Open and
visitors to
Chinese universities in the past to use a travel agency specializing
in travel to
China. Please note that, however, this may take more time.

*Special Cases

-Visitors from the following countries need an original invitation
letter from the
authorized Chinese departments in order to apply for an ¡°F¡± visa at
the Chinese
Embassy or Consulate.
    Iran, Nigeria, Turkey

-Within 15 days, people (not including reporters, diplomats, etc) from
the
following countries can enter China by the passport, no visa
requirement.
    Brunei, Japan, Singapore

*Taiwanese need to apply for journey certificates, please visit
following website
for the details:http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/chn/lsfw/qzjj/t266910.htm.

2.Invitation Letters
  There are two types of letters that the LOC will provide
correspondingly.

-Type1: PDF format letters singed by the general co-chairs. The LOC
will send the
Type 1 letters to all the participants by email within 10 working days
after the
corresponding registration closes (see Section 3 for more details
about
registration dues). If a team completes its registration earlier, we
may send the
letter earlier.

-Type2: Original letters issued by the authorized Chinese departments
and
particularly required by participants. The copy of each participant¡¯s
passport is
required for this letter. After receiving the copy, it will take about
10 working
days to issue the invitation letter. Then the post process of the
original letter
will take 3-15 days before the participant receives the posted letter,
depending
on the international post service the participant chooses and the
country/region
where the participant receives the posted letter. Participants from
Iran, Nigeria,
or Turkey may need the letters of this type.

3.Registration Dues
-For senior teams from Iran, Turkey, or Nigeria: April 20
-For other senior teams: May 15
-For junior teams: May 20
-For individuals who only attend the symposium: June 15

Please contact us if you have any further questions. You can also get
some
information from the website of the event (http://robocup-cn.org/?
flang=zh-CN).

Best regards,

Zengqi Sun and Xiaoping Chen