Visa Requirements & Letter of Invitation

General Information

Visitors from outside the European Union (EU) should check whether or not a visa is required. In most cases a valid passport will be sufficient. Moreover, visitors from central and east Europe should check whether or not a special health insurance is required for receiving a visa. All insurance and visa costs must be borne by the participant.

Participants that require to receive an official invitation in order to obtain a visa should apply for this invitation by at least 4 weeks prior to the meeting at the very latest. Requests received later may not be processed by the embassies. Therefore, the deadline for this type of "Letter of Invitation" is 29 February 2008.

Participants that require to receive an invitation in order to raise travel funds or for administrative purposes should also apply for this invitation by at least 2 weeks prior to the meeting at the latest. It should be understood, however, that such an invitation is not a commitment on the part of the organizers to provide financial support. Therefore, the deadline for this type of "Letter of Invitation" is 29 February 2008. It should be understood that the organizers can only issue an Invitation which includes the time of the assembly plus the Saturdays and Sundays directly before and after the conference, respectively.

Schengen Agreement

Austria is a member of the "Schengen Agreement" and so are Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Island, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and The Netherlands. Participants from outside these countries and the European Union (EU) but with a valid visa for one of the Schengen countries may freely move into and within any other Schengen country without any further controls.

Letter of Invitation

Participants are kindly asked to request a "Letter of Invitation" via COSIS. Please have your COSIS ID-Nr. and password ready and use this official Letter of Invitation Request link. If you are not yet registered with COSIS, please use the Quick Registration. During the request you have the possibility to check or change the address where you want to receive the letter. After finishing your request you will get the letter as hardcopy by mail as soon as possible.