Hello all,
there are few countries out there that requires visa for one to travel. One country in mind is Brazil. They require for one to get a visa prior to landing (unlike some other countries who have visa on arrival program).
My question is that these countries require a travel itinerary (roundtrip ticket) to be presented as you are applying for a visa. However, there's always a chance that they will deny your application for whatever reason. My problem is that in the US, we can only hold our ticket booking for 24 hours and most likely the visa process will take more than 24 hours. Thus, I may need to actually purchase the ticket. If my visa gets rejected, I hate to have to pay the ticket penalty for canceling the trip. Any tips? Btw, yes I am talking about nonrefundable discounted coach ticket.

Thanks in advance

As it pertains to Brasil.......you do not need an actual ticket in my experience to accomplish this.......I've got 21 trips there over the last 7 years.......

An itinerary page from an airline website will do.....or an itinerary from a TA....you don't actually need to buy the ticket per say.

Input everything and print out the page with all the details of the booking you want from the page before you are supposed to pay.....and then close the website without paying. That will work. I have done that 3 times over the last 7 years when applying for a visa. You will probably get a 90 day visa the first time.......and if you go back the second or third time you will get a 5 year visa like I have.

They do not care what flight you go out on, or if you travel on that specific flight actually. They just want to see evidence of a ticket.

Often, on international tickets to destinations where visa's are required, a refund is possible if the refund request is accompanied by a visa refusal letter from the destination country's embassy.

Excellent.
Thanks a lot. I surely will try those methods. I appreciate it.

For our Russian visa applications in 2003, they requested a travel agent's itinerary. I'd made all our arrangements independently and so we had no travel agent. I cobbled up a lovely travel agent letterhead on my computer, added a graphic of an airplane and the name of our "agency" and put in all the details of our planned trip. We got visas with no problem at all.

It depends of your passport whether you require a Visa to travel to Brazil. Personally I don't need a Visa to Brazil.

You can check the latest requirements from:

http://www.nwa.com/services/timatic.html

We've gotten visas for Brazil and India, routinely get visas for China and, in the past before Mrs. PTravel was a U.S. citizen, routinely got Schengen visas for Europe. Though, theoretically, visas can be denied, we've never had any problem whatsoever obtaining them. However, if you're concerned, just ask a travel agent to print up an itinerary for you -- I've actually done that when I wanted to get the visa well in advance of booking my trip.

Oh wow. I didn't know they didn't really check those itineraries. So I guess I was quite paranoid by it. I know this for sure with Argentina that they actually check with the hotel I put on the visa application. Do any of you know if it is the case with your past applications to other countries?

In my case, the details were real- it was only the travel agency itinerary that was bogus. Russia required an invitation from my hotel, and that also was real. So, checking with the hotel or the airline wouldn't be a problem.

Most hotel reservations are cancellable without penalty except 24-48 hours in advance, so you could go ahead and book the hotel.

I am a bit surprised that you mention needing a visa for Argentina, since Americans don't need a visa if staying 90 days or less. Because of this, I'll add a bit of information for people who don't hold an American/Canadian/EU/AUS/NZ passport:

Depending on your nationality, getting your visa can be very easy to extremely difficult. While they may not check itineraries in a detailed manner for American passport holders, they may check very rigorously for citizens of countries they are concerned about.

Case in point - a friend of mine who has a Pakistani passport (but with a valid Singaporean student visa) has huge problems getting a visa to go anywhere but Pakistan. You can bet that in his case, the letters and invitations had better be legit, because they will be checked very carefully.

FlyHighDude, I don't know whether or not the details will be checked in your specific case, but if they are, forged documents are an excellent reason to deny a visa.