What are the types of Flight Itinerary for Visa Application

In layman term, “It is a verifiable document issued by an airline, travel agency or an online service provider to confirm that visa applicant has booked/paid for a flight seat on an aircraft.”

Technically speaking, “A Flight Itinerary for visa application is the proposed route of an airline information such as flight name, departure/arrival timings along with dates, flight code, departure/arrival airport IATA codes (Ex: FRA is IATA code for Germany’s Frankfurt International Airport, BLR for India’s Kempegowda International Airport and LCY for Britain’s London City Airport) and flight reservation/booking numbers.”

Flight Itinerary is further classified into two categories:

·         One-way or Open Flight Itinerary

·         Roundtrip Flight Itinerary

One-way or Open Flight Itinerary

A One-way or Open Flight Itinerary contains details of the applicant’s entrance into the host nation. It does not mention the date of departure.

In the expert’s opinion, the aforesaid itinerary is not the right choice for a visa application. As it stirs suspicions—in the minds of the staffers at the diplomatic offices—that the applicant might overstay in the country or extend his stay illegally. Thus, a one-way Flight Itinerary leaves a negative impression on the minds of the staffers at the corresponding embassy or consulate that the applicant has no intention whatsoever to return back to his/her home country.

Roundtrip Flight Itinerary

It illustrates the dates of both your arrival in and departure from the host nation. The aforesaid itinerary gives satisfaction to staffers at the embassy or consulate that applicant does not have intentions to extend his/her stay in the host nation and will leave the country as soon as possible, once his/her visit is completed.

It also helps visa officials to determine the number of days that the applicant will spend in the host nation. They arrive on aforesaid conclusion on the basis of applicant’s arrival and departure dates mentioned on the roundtrip flight itinerary. In simple words, a roundtrip flight itinerary helps visa officials in determining the duration and validity of the visa.

Besides, the document also helps visa officials to determine whether the applicant has arrived at the accurate embassy or not.

Let us explain it to you with a simple example of the Schengen Area.

A Schengen Visa allows its holder to visit as many as 26 countries. Now the question emanates that if the applicant wants to travel to more than one Schengen Country, in which embassy he/she should apply?

In that scenario, the applicant will apply to that embassy or consulate of the country where he/she is planning to spend his/her time most. Such a country is often dubbed as or refer to by ‘main destination’.

However, if the applicant intends to stay in all countries for the same duration, then he/she will apply at the embassy or consulate of the country which he/she is planning to enter first.