I saw France Business Visa For Attending OpenSource Conference and Can an Indian passport holder apply for a Taiwan visa without the special documents? While both give some details as to how to approach for visa, I am not sure how to get this done.
The last time I did to get a visa was for South Africa and used VFS Global, as they have a branch in Pune and could apply for South Africa from the Pune office.
The benefit of using VFS was that I didn't have to go to Mumbai and saved time and money for both, and my passport was safe.
There is visahq but it seems more expensive than VFS Global for using a similar service. Also, they are in Mumbai, not in Pune.
My itinerary would probably be around 2 to 3 weeks long, part of which the conference for the first ten days or so, and then ten days doing the typical touristy things, seeing places, eating out and trying to understand the culture, even for just a bit.
If I do go, I will probably be speaking to peers or/and general public without being compensated, and sharing knowledge at the conference.
I am not sure whether to apply for a tourist or business visa for the conference. The 'company' organizing the conference is a non-profit organization based in Taiwan. They are expecting 600+ people from all over the world to come and be part of the conference.
Looking forward to know.