Dummy Return Flight Ticket

Most visa applications ask to see how you intend to leave, not just how you intend to arrive. A return or onward reservation answers that question.

What is being asked for

Consulates want evidence that you do not plan to overstay. An itinerary showing a departure from the country, within the period your visa would cover, is the standard way to show it. The same requirement appears again at the airport, where airlines are fined for carrying passengers who will be refused entry.

What a return reservation must show

• Your name exactly as it appears in the passport used for the application
• A departure from the destination country, dated inside the permitted stay
• A verifiable airline PNR
• Flight numbers and dates that make sense as a real journey

One-way travellers and onward tickets

If you are not returning to where you started, an onward reservation to a third country answers the same question. It is the departure that matters, not the direction.

Why not just buy the ticket

Because the visa may be refused, plans move, and a refundable fare costs many times what a hold does. Buying flights before approval is money at risk for no gain — the application asks for evidence of intent, and a verifiable reservation is evidence.

Check the mission’s own checklist before you book. A minority insist on a confirmed ticket, and where they do, a reservation is not a substitute.