Visa Information

Please consult this website: www.netherlandsandyou.nl to see whether you need a visa to enter The Netherlands, and apply well in advance if you need one.

We provide visa invitation letters to data management research/industry community members, or anyone who will credibly attend SIGMOD/PODS 2019. Please contact CWI secretary Iris Hesp by email (irishesp at cwi.nl) to apply for this service. Please indicate in the email which accepted paper (or tutorial/demo/research competition entry/..) you are an author of. If you are not an author, please explain your connection with SIGMOD/PODS 2019 or the data management research or industry community, if that is non-obvious. We may ask you to register and pay for the conference first (in case the visa is denied, we would refund).

Some additional remarks:

  • most SIGMOD/PODS 2019 visitors would be interested in a short-stay visa, type business- this matches the conference invitation letter.
  • when the visa application form asks for a contact person, this would be Iris Hesp of CWI. You can find address and phone number on the letterhead of your invitation letter.
  • Iris tries to handle invitation letter requests quickly, it should take just 2-3 business days.
  • the visa application process is organized differently, depending on where you live. This sometimes includes third parties (e.g. in the USA, it is handled by an organization called vfsglobal). Therefore, please carefully read and follow the instructions on the above NetherlandsAndYou website, which is the official one from The Netherlands. Its starts by asking you from where you are applying.

    note for applicants resident in the USA: It has been reported that the web system of vfsglobal shows no appointments available. Please call +13473292738 or email them on netherlands.usa@vfshelpline.com if you hit this issue.