Lor, in her #2 Sulawesi post, relates needing return flight info to get a visa extension.
I'm headed for Vietnam and SE Asia in 3 weeks, and I've got only a one-way ticket (my FF carriers, Continental and United, both offer one-way tickets at exactly half the miles for a round-trip ticket). For obvious reasons of flexibility, I’d like to postpone actually booking a return flight.
This past winter I traveled for 7 months in India, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. And although I had a return flight booked, I was never asked about it by immigration offices at any of those countries.
So my question is: have any of you been required to show evidence of onward or return travel arrangements when entering a country in SE Asia?
Thanks
Lee
Travel reports: www.LeeGilchrist.net</a>
When checking in at Singapore for a flight to Thailand we were asked for proof of an onward ticket out of Thailand.
Hmmm. Interesting. Raises two more questions.
1. So it was the airline that did the checking, not the immigration people?
2. Would a train reservation showing a border crossing be sufficient?
On my first trip to Bali, 20 years ago, I was not asked for the onward ticket when flying from Bangkok to Denpasar; however, I had to pay the Indo Immigration officer a $10 fine (bribe) for my entry stamp! For the 2nd trip into Denpasar in 2000, from Brisbane, the Qantas agent wanted to see my onward ticket before allowing me to board. That same trip and once in Bali, I heard that the fine (bribe) for the entry stamp had risen to $50. Inflation apparently! For my 3rd trip into Indo, from Penang to Jakarta in 2008, the Indo Embassy wanted to see my onward ticket before granting the Indo visa in advance.
Indonesia has though, as I understand it, always been a problem with regard to onward tickets. I understand that the Philippines also insist upon forward passage.
In flying with United to SE Asia, on several occasions in recent years, and to Bangkok, I have never been challenged for a lack of an onward ticket (within the 30-day Thai visa period). Several years ago though, when flying from Bangkok to Hanoi, the airline wanted to see an onward ticket; albeit, my ticket home from Bangkok sufficed.
'Three trips into SEA in the last four years. Always with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong originating in Vancouver.....Final destinations....Bangkok Thailand, Phuket Thailand and Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.....I always had a return ticket but was never asked about that at immigration..
I also did a couple of flights with Air Asia......KL-Phuket(return) & KL-Columbo Sri Lanka(return).
Also wasn't asked by immigration about onward travel.....My guess would be that it's the airlines doing the asking about onward travel, probably before boarding.
I will be flying Cathay Pacific into Bangkok from San Francisco in October, and returning from Hanoi in December (7 weeks later) on Cathay Pacific. I have the round-trip ticket.
At this point I'm not sure of when I'll leave Thailand for Vietnam, or whether I'll fly there or take trains and buses. I know it will have to be before my 30 days is up, or I'll need to arrange some extra visa days while I'm in Thailand.
Is this round-trip ticket (SF to Bangkok, Hanoi to SF) likely to present any issues with the airline when boarding in San Francisco, or with Thai Immigration? Reading some of the posts, I'm getting a tad concerned that I might need proof of when I'm leaving Thailand, although I don't even know yet!
Used BKK as my hub a few times recently, with Air Asia, Egyptair, Air Phuket and Bangkok Air, always had a return ticket, never asked for it. Entered Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam on various occasions, by air and several land borders, never asked there either.
Dave
Hi,
Never been asked to show proof of return by immigration at all, have been asked by airline on several occasions - including a few weeks back. Also had to help out a guy in front of me trying to board a Manila flight in Hong Kong with a one way ticket. If the airline will not let you board immigration becomes something you need not worry about.
We did a trip through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos ...leaving 3 mos later from Bangkok. When we landed in Hanoi the agents held us for quite a while because while we did have a ticket out of Bangkok in 3 mos time they could not believe we did not have an onward ticket to Bangkok ..that we were going to take local transit through those countries. Eventually they gave up questioning us and let us go ...took about an hour. They were not rude, just puzzled. I did not think we looked that decrepit but I turn 60 next month so maybe so :)
Ok, so Indonesia seems to be something of a special case—a bit more stringent.
#3 Sarlie wrote “Several years ago though, when flying from Bangkok to Hanoi, the airline wanted to see an onward ticket; albeit, my ticket home from Bangkok sufficed.”
So the idea is, Show us you won’t be stuck in Asia. And that should suffice in #5 TravelingNana’s situation, also. But then #8 Living was hassled in Hanoi even though they had return flights from BKK
Living’s episode is the only one in which immigration people challenged the traveler (and of course, #7 Brax is correct when he says that “If the airline will not let you board immigration becomes something you need not worry about.”)
Based on your posts I thought, hmmm, maybe I’d better make sure about this. I booked my reward travel through Continental, but my flight from Seattle to Saigon is with United. I called customer service at both of them. And both of them found this verbiage: “Visitors are required to have proof of sufficient funds to cover their stay and documents required for their next destination” And both of them thought that meant that I need a return ticket, though “documents required for their next destination” certainly doesn’t explicitly say that. I asked the United agent, Will I be asked for proof of a return ticket when I check in? She said yes, after conferring with her supervisor. But I wasn’t convinced, and I laughingly told her that I didn’t believe her (she understood me perfectly and wasn’t offended.)
So a couple hours later I called United again. This time the agent conferred with his supervisor, and came back to declare that No, I wouldn’t be challenged when checking in for my flight. And he said that if I’m challenged at all, it would be by the immigration officials in Saigon. (So I should stop now that I’ve heard what I want to hear, right?
The passage I quoted earlier is such that something as simple as a bus ticket from Saigon to Pnom Penh, for example, should suffice.
Now if you want to be tantalized further, how about that phrase in the above quote, “Visitors are required to have proof of sufficient funds to cover their stay” I mean, can you imagine laying out bank records for the immigration people? Get real.
Oh, the ambiguities we travelers have to put up with. : )
Lee
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