Should airline ticket be bought before getting a visa?
When applying online for a Vietnam visa on arrival, a foreigner must make sure to choose airplane as mean of transport to Vietnam. Therefore, buying an airline ticket in this case is inevitable. However, for the best assurance, should an airline ticket be bought before or after getting a visa online?
Should or should not an airline ticket be bought before getting a visa?
For some certain countries when applying for a visa, their embassies require applicants to make a flight reservation in order for a visa to be issued. In such circumstance, you only need to call the booking office and book your flight without having to making a payment for the ticket. This is still enough for you to meet embassies’ requirements.
For other countries where there is no need for a proof of flight like Vietnam, it is highly recommended that you buy your airline ticket only after you’ve applied for a Vietnam visa and successfully received the visa approval letter online. Why so? Although most of applicants can get visa approval letters on scheduled date as request in the applications, there is still, sometimes, an exception with special applicant who Vietnam Immigration Officer require more detailed checks. Therefore, even if this is not a rule, you should be aware that your visa approval letter can come later than normal. If you had booked a flight before for a scheduled date of travelling, then it would be a disaster not getting visa on your expected time. Besides, some foreigners often ignore the different time zones between their countries and Vietnam which leads to wrong inference about the time their visa approval letter are sent. For example, an application for emergent service often takes 30 working minutes to 1 working hour to be processed but clients often mistake that they will get the visa approval letter after 30 minutes to 1 hour after their application without paying attention about the working time in Vietnam and working time in their homelands. Hence, paying airline ticket for a specific travel time without being guaranteed about your visa status may cause many damages.
In conclusion, unless you have an urgent unexpected travel to Vietnam without any prior plan and schedule, you had better try to get a visa before booking a flight ticket for your best sake.
Read more: vietnam visa requirements for us citizens