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What is a Flight Itinerary for Visa?
Do I need to purchase a flight ticket before applying for a visa?
What is a Flight Reservation?
A flight reservation is a document of a detailed plan of your flight or travel journey to a specific country.
In fact, it is only a flight/travel timetable on the chosen flight airline, comprised of a flight name, traveler’s name, a valid flight reservation booking number, arrival, and departure date and airport IATA codes.
! Embassies and Consulates usually ask for a round-trip flight reservation and not for a one-way flight reservation.
What is a Dummy Ticket?
A dummy air ticket is nothing more than a round-trip flight reservation from and back to the original departure country. A dummy ticket is not a paid return ticket.
Basically, it is only a document that included travel itinerary details, but it’s not a confirmed ticket.
Why do embassies and consulates Ask for it?
Most of the embassies and consulates in the world do not obligate visa applicants to book a flight ticket, because they are aware that in case of visa rejection, then it will be inevitable for the applicant to lose his or her money.
They even indicate in the list of required documents for visa application, that applicants are not obligated to buy the tickets but rather only to reserve the flight.
And, only after you get your visa, you may purchase the ticket you have reserved or cancel it and buy others in most convenient dates, within the time of your visa validity.
However, there might be exceptions where embassies or consulates in specific cases will ask you to actually purchase a round trip flight ticket prior to the visa interview.
As proof that you will not be overstaying
The main reason why the embassy or the consulate of your travel destination country asks you for proof of a round-trip flight reservation is that they want to make sure you will not overstay your visa and will get back to your home country before it expires.
Since a round-trip reservation shows the departure and arrival to your home country, this is a convincing document that you will return.
This means you have to book a round trip flight reservation because otherwise, your reservation would be meaningless.
Deciding the length of the visa
Another reason is to decide the length of your visa.
The officials at the embassy or consulate where you are applying at will decide on the length of your visa based on the Itinerary Flight so that you can get granted with a visa that allows you to stay at your destination country for as long as you need to, and not for a shorter period.
How to get a flight and hotel booking for any visa application?
You can get a confirmed flight reservation for any visa application by:
- Purchasing a refundable flight ticket, or
- Reserving a flight ticket which is way cheaper.
Step-by-step instruction on how to book a flight ticket without paying
1. Go to city.travel website.
2. Choose a destination (in our case, it is Beijing Capital Airport, or PEK, since we will be meeting you at the gate upon arrival) and dates:
3. Choose a suitable ticket taking into account the price, departure time, number of stops, travel duration, etc.)
4. Fill out the information about the passenger:
5. Choose flight insurance if necessary:
6. Click “Book a flight” and a confirmation email will be sent to you with the following details:
7. Now you need to print the ticket and take it with you to the embassy to apply for a visa. Keep in mind that you need to cut out the part where it says “The order must be paid before —- (Your local time). In case of non-payment, the booking will be automatically canceled by the airline”
In order to do so, follow the steps below:
1. Click “Print” in the right upper corner of the email confirmation, save as PDF on your device.
2. Go to https://www.sejda.com/pdf-editor and upload your file, then cut out the unnecessary part with payment notice as shown below:
3. Apply changes and download the document. Then print it, and you are all set for a visa application!
Step-by-step instruction on how to book a hotel without paying
1. Go to Booking.com and choose the city (in our case, it is Beijing), pick the dates (approximately 2-3 weeks from the time of your arrival):
2. Choose a filter “Free cancellation” on the left:
3. Pick any hotel from the list and reserve:
4. Proceed to fill out the traveler’s personal details and book. You will receive an email confirmation with your booking, Print it out and take with you to the embassy.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment to this post, we will be glad to help!
