The rules for every country differ as far as gaining access to their visas are concerned. One of the quite common ones that is kind of being phased out most likely because it is impossible to verify in a timely manner is the one where a certain country will demand that you have already planned a flight out of their country before the visa that they are yet to give you has even been issued.
This became a big problem for me and many others back in the days of "true backpacking" because we didn't really know yet exactly when we were going to depart from the country. Also, in many instances I had planned at some point to exit the country that I had just entered by land crossing and you can't get a printout of that sort of thing since in most countries this just involves a bus or a minivan and the tickets are simply purchased at the bus station with cash.
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I first encountered this rather silly requirement when traveling by land from Singapore up to Malaysia with the intention of making my way through Laos and over to Vietnam. It was when I had nearly finished with the West coast of Malaysia that I got to talking with someone in a guesthouse in Penang (near the northern border with Thailand) that I heard from this person that Thailand was sometimes asking people at the border to provide proof of exit from the country within 30 days, which was the maximum entry on arrival visa that existed at the time.
I wondered if people would literally be turned away if they couldn't provide proof of a planned exit and someone in the same cafe that was in the guesthouse overheard our conversation and said that he had experienced exactly that and it was a huge pain in the ass.
When you arrive at a border crossing you are normally not near anything by design. These crossings don't exactly have taxi ranks waiting for you should you suddenly find yourself trapped and it was a huge rigmarole for him to get back to Penang. Thankfully I got this advice before I ended up at the border and someone knew where to get fake flight itineraries at a local rather dodgy travel agency.
The cost was $5 and they would make you a "booking" that looked exactly like real bookings and if you wanted it, for $10 they would even get you boarding passes. This was a long time ago so it actually wasn't uncommon to get boarding passes for flights long before the flight was actually taking place. I would imagine that the idea was that you could arrive to the airport later on the day of your flight and simply bypass the ticking queue.
So I went for the $5 option and when the printout happened it was done on a dot matrix printer and it looked just as legitimate as the real ones just like this that I had received in the past. They asked me what I wanted my destination to be and I just said "anywhere that isn't Thailand" and he responded "Japan?" and I was fine with that.
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Remember these guys? Well they are still used today because unless I am missing something, there are no other kinds of printers that actually impact the paper they are printing on and are good for carbon copies.
Anyway, the place, although dodgy as hell, was actually extremely professional. They even pulled up the information on the internet to prove to me that the flight that was on my fake itinerary is actually a real flight so if the Immigration official decided to look it up they would see that it is an actual flight. Of course I doubt that any immigration official actually has the time to do this sort of thing but I liked that they covered all their bases at this place.
When I got on my minibus to enter Thailand I did so with confidence and there was this little restaurant sort of place that they stopped at before the border so that everyone could get their departure and arrival cards filled out properly. I was asked by the agent there if I had proof of exit at this station and of course, I now did have that.
When our minivan of 12 people or so pulled up at Satun border crossing I believe it was called, we all lined up in separate lines to make our way through there as quickly as possible. Everyone made it to the other side with no problem with their visas. One guy did say that the official behind the glass demanded an "express fee" of 500 Baht because the official claimed there was a problem with his arrival card and the official would fix it for him but there was a fee for doing so. There was nothing wrong with his arrival card. The official simply wanted to put some money in his pocket and they probably do this many times a day.
For me, I was never asked anything at all by the person behind the glass and I got my stamp. I don't know if this has anything to do with my nationality but it might. There was a guy from India in our van and he was asked by the official for proof of an outgoing flight. This guy legitimately DID have a flight and was able to produce the documentation.
This is something that travelers out there need to be prepared for. People from G8 countries have this sort of global arrogance that makes them think that they can do whatever they want around the world but in reality, the fact that you are from a "richer" country also makes you a target for officials that are seeking bribes... it all just depends on what sort of mood the guy in the box is in that particular day. I like to be prepared so I was ok with the fact that the $5 that I spent on my fake flight wasn't needed. Be prepared!
Yes we just made fake tickets in order to get our visa process on the go. We are travelling and it is only to speed up the process even though tickets have not been purchased as yet. Our travel agent recommended this and she does not earn anything from this extra service.
Like a lot of things involved with travel, the amount of "proof" that Immigration of various countries needs to approve your visa is kind of out of control and much of it seems arbitrary and like they are simply making people jump through hoops just because they can make them. Therefore it isn't at all surprising that people find ways to cheat the system.
Yes you have to find a cheat mode around the rules and regulations.
I've heard of companies that will do similar things; they'll actually book a flight for you so you on paper have a return flight in the event you're asked for once when you arrive in a country. You only really pay a few dollars compared to the actual booking price. I think they just refund them and keep the little fee you get charged. The whole thing seemed insane to me, but the more I read into it, it seems people actually use them.
oh for sure. People do it with hotels as well. One of the most common ones is to make a booking on booking.com and then never turn up or simply cancel the booking after you confirm it - they have an option to pay at the location so no money changes hands. You don't pay for the room in advance.
I've always thought it was a bit authoritarian for immigration to demand to know EXACTLY where you are staying for your entire trip before they will let you in. When I first started backpacking I would turn up in a city and not yet know where I was going to stay and that was part of the fun. In most places, you can't really do that anymore.