Why doesn't the UK ask for travel bookings for a tourist visitor visa?

Question

I am planning to visit London for 6 days from the US. I have given my biometrics and when I was preparing to mail my documents to the UK visa processing center in the US, I used this link from the UK government website to cross-check the documents to be sent to the processing center.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visitor-visa-guide-to-supporting-documents (Guide to supporting documents).

Something that really surprised me was in Section 4 (documents that should NOT be sent along with the package) was hotel bookings and flights bookings.

Section 4: documents you should not send unless specifically requested

This page provides guidance on the types of documents that are not required to consider your application.

• hotel bookings

• flight bookings

Typically I have always been asked to provide my travel plans, accommodation plans and proof of them. This is the first time that travel plans and accommodation plans are not asked to be sent. What might be the reason behind it? This really confuses me. Any help in clearing my confusion would be greatly welcome.

Answer 1

The short answer is that the UK has determined that hotel and flight bookings really aren't very useful for considering whether to issue a visa. Years ago, they did ask for these documents, and stopped doing so.

Both of them can be easily made and easily cancelled. One can make flight reservations without even paying for them! Such unpaid reservations will be cancelled within 24 hours, but that's sufficient to provide some "documentation" which ultimately proves nothing.

And, hotel and flight bookings, even if paid, don't say anything about the traveller's intention to leave the country, which is vitally important in considering whether to issue a visa. It is, after all, easy to simply not board a return flight.

Finally, travellers' plans can change, and if that happens, the hotel and flight bookings are useless for the purpose of visa issuance.

It's also been pointed out that not following the directions in applying for a visa makes that application appear weaker than it otherwise would appear, and it would be less likely to be approved.

Some countries still ask for these, but they may have other reasons for doing so, such as propping up a tourism industry, bureaucratic inertia, or whatever.

Note, though, that you may need to present your hotel and flight information at immigration when you enter the country. This is where the information is most useful.

Answer 2

On top of the reasons Michael Hampton listed, the UK does not want people to purchase non-refundable tickets or hotel reservations and then find they've wasted large amounts of money if they are denied a visa, so they specifically advise against this, e.g.:

We take this opportunity to remind applicants that UKVI does not require a flight booking or tickets to be submitted with a visa application. Our online guidance clearly advises customers not to make payments or travel reservations until a visa decision has been received.

See also our previous question, UK.gov says do not attach “flight/hotel booking”, but then my auto-generated checklist asks me to tick whether I am attaching this document. The system does allow you to provide an indication of your travel plans, even without confirmed bookings. That answer quotes the guidance used by UKVI staff:

For visa applications, visitors are not required to provide an itinerary, but you should normally expect the applicant to have some plans for their stay, and provide information about this on the application form.

At the border, you should expect the applicant to be able to answer questions on what they plan to do

In other words, even without firm bookings, they still expect applicants to have some idea what they plan to do and how long they plan to do it for (five days of the usual tourist things in London or two months staying at the mother-in-laws house in Wales or four days at a conference in Edinburgh, etc...) and will assess the application accordingly.