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I have a visa appointment this Friday 19 at the Italian Consulate in Philadelphia and I have a question about the flight reservation requirement: According to the Visa requirements "Confirmed flight reservation for a round trip showing complete itinerary."

Does this mean I have to reserve the tickets, pay and print the itinerary?

In this case if my visa gets denied then I will lose the money I paid or can I just show the planned itinerary (written not booked)? in this case the travel agency would not give me the Travel Insurance coverage until I book and pay for the reservation.

I am a US green card holder and applying from North Carolina.

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  • From where do you have the visa requirement that a confirmed flight reservation is required? The EU regulations covering the Schengen agreement have no such requirement.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Sep 17, 2014 at 8:56
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    @Tor-EinarJarnbjo is up to each Schengen country to issue or deny a visa. According to the Italian Consulate in Philadelphia you need to provide a confirmed flight reservation. Confirmed and paid are two different things, some travel agencies can provide a confirmed flight reservation with a deposit and a final higher price
    – Guido Preite
    Sep 17, 2014 at 9:08

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Does this mean I have to reserve the tickets, pay and print the itinerary?

No. Source

  1. return-trip booking or ticket or proof of available means of personal transport

Checked the emabassy of France too

  1. Your travel itinerary : you MUST BOOK your airline ticket but do not purchase until the visa has been approved.

Considering both are Schengen countries, I would believe both would use the same rules. But you could always call up and confirm, which is a sure shot way for confirmation.

But as insurance is compulsory, you have no other way than to book the tickets.

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A confirmed booking is required. Unfortunately this is difficult to get from some airline's websites. The best way to do this is to ask a travel agent to hold a reservation for you; then print the reservation (it will have a reservation number).

You'll need insurance as this is a requirement for the application, and you can purchase it separately. I always use axa-schengen.com as its very convenient - everything happens online and it takes 10 minutes to get your proof of insurance by email. Simply print that and submit it along with your other supporting documents.

Don't forget you'll also need to show a hotel reservation or other proof of accommodation for your trip.

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  • Would it also work to buy a refundable ticket (which you can sometimes do on airline websites), submit that, then get the refund and book what is hopefully a cheaper non-refundable airfare after the visa is issued?
    – Zach Lipton
    Jun 15, 2016 at 19:11
  • Sure that would also work.
    – Burhan Khalid
    Jun 15, 2016 at 19:46

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