Onward travel requirements (Onward Ticket)

Many travelers face a situation on being asked to show their onward ticket at the airport by the staff. An onward ticket is one through which the traveler shows or proves that they will be leaving their country. This means that you need to have documented proof that you will be flying out of their country on a particular date. Many countries make it mandatory for the traveler entering their country to hold an onward ticket.

In case one does not have an onward ticket, one of the options is to get hold of a fully refundable onward ticket. However, this is not as simple as it seems as you might have to run around for claiming your refund from the airline. Also, there might be a situation where you are at the airport and you might have to run around for buying an onward ticket then and there itself.

The other aspect of onward ticket is the uncertainty of it being enforced. There is no one single way in which one can find out if they would be asked for an onward ticket at the airport. Therefore it is important to be well prepared for such kind of a situation. Many of our traveler folks who follow a flexible and open ended schedule and undertake overland travel might face such problematic situations.

By not having an onward ticket, entry can be denied and worst of all, you might be sent back to your departure destination at your own cost. Thus to avoid such untoward situations, the key here is to be smart. This means that if you are convincing enough and do not catch the eye of the staff with respect to this aspect, you won’t have to face any hassle. Even if asked, one can tell them their travel plans and convince them that you will be actually leaving their country legally. The other thing that one can do is to carry some documented proof of a future flight. One can carry a copy of a ticket booked for a future date out of that country (no payment being made for the same but only upto the calculation of fare and destinations and dates).