Sorry new user to this forum and i assumed that the user profile was used as reference for base details in discussions.
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I was planning to inquire at the embassy of the countires i plan to visit before visiting even if they have a VOA policy.
I am wondering if i can get a letter headed note from that embassy if i pre-apply for my visa having explained my financial status and backpacker intensions.
i doubt it will work or make a difference but its worth a try.
If you're travelling on a UK passport you shouldn't have any problems with China. I got my visa without any ticket, either way. Although I appreciate it might be different if you're not getting it before you leave home.
Why not try to get it before you go? Just don't mention any visit to Xinjiang province (Kashgar,etc) when you give your proposed itinerary - which BTW you don't have to stick to. I stayed in Kashgar for a whole month before leaving the country.
Don't worry!
This is one of those silly rules which are rarely enforced anywhere. Every year thousands of travellers do RTWs without running into such problems.
Recently I read a blog of a traveller from an EU country who travelled to every country in South and Central America plus a few in the Carribean. It was longer than 1 year trip and he never had proof of onward travel as you can imagine. The only country where he ran into trouble was Jamaica, but this could have been just a bad day of the immigration officer.
Obviously Latin America might not be representative for the whole world, but I think you won't have any trouble 99% of the time. If you get unlucky with the 1% just bite the bullet and do as they say, buy the expensive ticket out of the country.
The only places I'd make sure to have proof of onward travel are the countries with paranoid regimes like Russia, USA, Israel and North Korea.
For a start this is a good summary about visas: http://www.travelindependent.info/b4yougo.htm#Visas
This website is an excellent resource and you might find some info on this proof of onward travel challenge.
Ooooh - I don't think, looking at my post again, that I stressed enough the importance of not mentioning Xinjiang province or its towns. Or Tibet, which I left off also.
You will NOT be issued with a visa if you even hint at either.
Although once you're in China it's not a problem at all. There are tours to Tibet from Xining and other places, and travel and hostels are easy with no problems at all in Xinjiang. You won't be the only white face there by a long chalk.
(I really don't know why the visa people have this rule, unless it's to exempt themselves from censureshould anything happen to you in these places.)
This is one of those silly rules which are rarely enforced anywhere
Except at airline check-in counters. If airlines are instructed to check if all passengers meet the entry requirements for their destination and the official requirements include "proof of onward travel", they will not allow you onboard.
Is that accepted as proof of onward tavel if I have a plane ticket back home from a third country?
Let's say I'm flying from Vienna to Lima with an open-jaw ticket returning from Rio?
As Aribo says..it is nearly always the airline that will make this a problem,if they want to.
If you have a ticket home from a third country (with them) then there is no reason for them to make it a problem.....
"wish to travel where the wind blows me," Did you change your mind already?
Perhaps you should re-read what you wrote and think about it in regards to this issue. Either you travel where the winds blow you or you don't (instead you travel according to a plan). If a country won't let you in, then guess what, the wind is blowing in a contrary direction.
While many countries make some kind of statement about this, there are all kinds of circumstances under which it is not enforced. Really, this issue is one that as noted above, applies only to air travel because the airline insists on it, not the Immigration Department of a country. Avoid airlines that insist or avoid air travel. Really, once you are on a continent, all travel can be a land crossing anyway can't it?
As a sailor this is a topic presented in a way I can have a lot of fun with.
I think you need to go back to your first idea of where the wind blows. On a sailobat, any contrary wind just means you must pick a different destination or do some 'tacking'. Tacking is a sailing term which refers to a sailboat being unable to sail directly into the wind. Instead to get somewhere that is directly to windward the boat must be sailed across the wind while still moving ahead and then turned to sail across the wind in the other direction while still moving ahead. In other words you sail in a zig zag instead of straigt ahead.
People often have to meet a boat in a particular place to join it. Often they do not have a fixed time that they will be on the boat. Wind and weather often make that impractical as you might imagine. So they fly one way and hope the boat is there when they get there. Sometimes it is and sometimes it is not. Keeping a schedule is simply impossible. What do you think all those thousands of people do about 'proof of onward travel'? The answer is they usually don't.
Because an Immigration law or airline requirement exists does not mean that it is always enforced. It ALWAYS depends on the circumstances and your reason for not complying. There is ALWAYS discretion in enforcement. In my personal experience involving hundreds of people meeting a boat where such rules/laws might be applied, I can think of only one time someone was not able to join the boat I was on because of this issue. Tempest in a teapot in my opinion.
Just adapt your next move as you go along Danjofo. Go where the wind blows you.