The Git project offers financial assistance to active contributors and developers to help them attend key community events, such as the Git Merge conference.
This document outlines the eligibility criteria, application process, and reimbursement guidelines.
First please read the Software Freedom Conservancy Travel and Reimbursable Expense Policy.
As the Git project is part of the Conservancy, you must follow this policy when requesting any reimbursement.
If you agree with this policy, you are welcome to proceed with the next steps.
Note: In case the Conservancy’s official Policy differs from what the guidelines listed on this page, please defer to the Conservancy’s Policy and let the Git PLC know.
Please send an email to the Git PLC (Project Leadership Committee) with a cost estimate in USD for your travel to the conference.
In your estimate you might take into account the fact that the flight and hotel costs might increase a bit between now and the conference date, but please base it on facts by checking current prices.
Please only include items that the Policy allows us to reimburse (see the Conservancy’s Policy above) and within the specified limits.
Many conferences like the Git Merge provide meals like lunch, breakfast and sometimes dinner. It’s nice if you can take this into account in your estimate.
Make sure to mention the total cost for a visa if you need one, and the total cost for everything (including visa costs).
If we don’t reject your estimate and if you need a visa, please start to apply for a visa as soon as possible. It can take a lot of time.
And then let us know when you get a visa or if your visa request is rejected. Also please let us know if you can get an estimate of when you will know if your visa request is accepted or rejected, or in the case you cannot get a visa in time which unfortunately happens quite often.
The more we know about your visa process, the better we can help you and others. For example if you get an appointment, let us know the date and the documents that could help you get a visa then.
Don’t wait for your sponsorship request to be fully approved to apply for a visa if you need one. If you follow these requirements:
we will reimburse your visa fees even if you don’t get a visa. We encourage you to apply for a visa soon because unfortunately not getting a visa is the most likely thing that might prevent you from attending.
We cannot fully approve most requests right away, because there is a risk, even if that never happened in the past, that we get too many valid requests that we cannot all satisfy.
When a Git related conference is announced, we prefer to leave some time for people to apply, and then, after that time passed, decide for all those who applied during that time.
This shouldn’t prevent you from applying for a visa soon (see the above section).
This means that we usually accept late applications. If you decide late that you would like to go and need financial assistance, please apply even if it’s late. Don’t apply though if it’s too late and you cannot for example get a visa in time.
When we approve your request, you will receive an email from us saying it’s approved. Don’t start booking anything that is not visa related, especially not flights, before you receive that email.
When your request has been fully approved, the Conservancy will be able to provide official Sponsorship Letter. This is a letter saying that we approved to reimburse your travel costs for up to a certain amount. It might help you with your visa process.
The Git PLC itself cannot provide an invitation letter to the conference though, as it is not organizing the conference even if individual PLC members may participate in these activities through their affiliations with other organizations.
Please don’t ask the PLC for things related to the conference, like an invitation letter, how to submit a talk, how to get a free ticket to the conference, etc. Instead, please first take a look at the conference website and if you don’t find the information there, find the organizers (they usually announce the conference on the mailing list) and email them directly (without us in Cc).
When we approve your request and you need a visa, we will usually say that:
we approve to reimburse you for the visa fees up to a certain amount, and
if you can get a visa, we approve to reimburse you for the whole travel up to a certain amount.
This is because we don’t want as much as possible to waste flight and hotel booking money when people don’t get a visa, which unfortunately happens quite often these days.
In some cases already having flight tickets and hotel bookings could help you with the visa process. In these cases, please email us and convince us that chances are high that you will get a visa if you can book the flight tickets in advance (before you get a visa). Also try to find flights tickets and hotel bookings that are at least partially reimbursible, so that everything is not lost in case you cannot get a visa.
It’s your responsibility to find and provide us with documents, estimates and good arguments to convince us that you have a good chance of getting a visa if you can book in advance.
Please take another look at the Conservancy’s Policy just before or while booking.
Note especially the documentation requirements, including a record of your flight search cost.
Note that you’re free to stay extra days at your own expense, as long as the flight cost is comparable.
We reimburse only the expenses occuring during the time when the conference happens, or maybe a bit before and after it if all the reasonnable travel options force you to stay later or arrive earlier.
Also please take another look at the hotel rates policy, since some of the options near the conference venue might be on the expensive side.
If you mentor someone working on Git for the Google Summer of Code, you might apply and be selected by the Git mentors and org admins to be a Git delegate at the GSoC Mentor Summit organized by Google.
Usually only one primary delegate is automatically accepted by Google. One or more secondary delegates might be accepted by going through a waitlist.
If you are selected to be a Git delegate and accepted by Google, the Git PLC will reimburse your travel in a similar way as for Git developers going to a conference.
The difference is that Google is usually providing a significant amount of money to the Git project for the primary delegate and a smaller amount for the secondary delegate. If you are among them and your travel cost would be less than the corresponding amount provided by Google, you can consider that the Git project will reimburse your travel costs. In other words, you don’t need to send a request to the Git PLC.
Please consider the following though:
Google usually provide food and lodging free of charges during the whole Mentor Summit, so in most cases you shouldn’t need to ask for such reimbursements. You should mostly ask for your flight (or maybe car, bus or train) costs to be reimbursed.
Contact us and the Git GSoC org admins as soon as possible before booking flights if you are not sure you will get a visa in time, or if you are not sure to go to the Mentor Summit for other reasons. Note that Google provides us money for your travel only if you actually go to the Mentor Summit, and we might be able to send someone else at the last moment.
If you are not sure that your travel costs will be less than what Google provides us, please send us a regular request as soon as possible.
When you want to get reimbursed, please take another look at the Conservancy’s Policy for the exact submission steps. It usually requires you to send an email directly to a Conservancy email address, not to the Git PLC, though it’s fine if you put the Git PLC in Cc.