The five minutes before you press submit are when an application is cheapest to fix. Afterwards, a mistyped surname or a photo that fails an automated check costs you a resubmission, usually a second consular fee, and sometimes a rearranged departure. What follows is the complete run-through, in the order the portal will ask for things. Work down it once, slowly, with your passport open in front of you.
Your passport
Every other field on the form is checked against this document, so start here.
- Validity beyond your travel dates. Six months past departure is the common rule, but some destinations count from arrival and a few only need validity through the stay. Check the rule for where you are going.
- Blank pages. Destinations that still stamp on entry want one or two free pages, and a full passport can stop you at the border even with a valid visa attached.
- Physical condition. A lifting laminate, water damage or a detached cover can get a passport treated as invalid on arrival, and an electronic visa is tied to the number you filed under.
- The right passport. If you hold two, apply on the one you will check in with, since eligibility and fees differ between your nationalities.
- The number, read character by character. Passport numbers mix zeros with the letter O and ones with the letter I, so read it off the bio page itself.
Your documents
The list varies by destination and by the passport you hold. Our requirements checker shows what a given passport and route asks for, including the transit stops that are easy to miss. These items come up almost everywhere.
- A photo that passes an automated check. Background, head size, expression and pixel dimensions are all measured by software before a person looks at it; the measurements are in our guide to passing automated photo checks first time.
- The standard document set. The bio page, the photo, an itinerary and proof of onward travel form the core of most applications; the documents an electronic visa application usually asks for covers what sits alongside them.
- Proof of funds, where it is asked for. Statements issued by the bank, every page included, covering the exact period requested; formats, minimums and the mistakes that get statements rejected has the detail.
- Proof of accommodation. Whatever you file has to name you and cover the dates on your form; what counts and what does not includes the honest answer on refundable bookings.
- Travel insurance where it is required. Policy number, coverage dates and medical limit all legible on the page you upload.
- Files prepared before you open the form. Accepted format, under the size limit, plain filenames, still readable at full zoom; the most common upload errors are avoidable in advance.
Your data
- Names exactly as the passport prints them. Surname and given names in the portal's own fields, nothing added or abbreviated. Mismatches between passport, ticket and approval are a routine cause of trouble at check-in, and fixing and preventing name mismatches covers the awkward cases.
- Dates in the format the field expects. A departure on 5 March entered as 3 May passes every validation rule in the form and fails at the border.
- Place and date of birth taken from the bio page. Not from a driving licence, an old application or memory; automated checks compare them against the passport.
- Contact details that will still reach you. Approvals and requests for more information arrive by email, sometimes into a spam folder, so use an address you check while traveling.
- Every stop on the route declared. A connection can require its own permission even when you never leave the airport, and the form only knows the stops you tell it about.
- A category that matches the trip. Tourist, business, transit and study carry different conditions, and a mismatch found after arrival is much harder to fix than a second application before departure.
Timing
- The earliest date you may apply. Most schemes accept applications only within a set window before travel, and filing before it opens is refused outright.
- Room for one resubmission. A realistic buffer is the published processing time plus however long it would take you to redo the weakest part of your file.
- Peak periods. The northern summer and the year-end holidays stretch processing almost everywhere, and major events do the same for particular destinations.
- Any passport renewal in progress. Apply on the passport you will travel with: some destinations move an approval to a new booklet, many make you apply and pay again.
- What is genuinely possible when you are late. Five ways to expedite an electronic visa application sets out which levers exist and which are marketing.
Payment and follow-through
- A card that will clear. Government gateways decline prepaid cards, cards without 3-D Secure, and cards an issuer has blocked for foreign transactions. Read what to do when an eVisa payment fails before retrying, because repeat attempts can create duplicate applications.
- The fee you expected. The consular fee is set by the government, and anything above it is a service charge, reasonable when it is stated plainly and worth questioning when it is not.
- The reference number, saved. Screenshot the confirmation before you close the tab, because portals seldom offer a second chance to see it.
- A copy of everything you sent. If a question arrives three weeks later, you need to know what you actually told them.
- The approval, carried two ways. Print it and keep a copy on your phone, since airline staff check the document at the desk.
Most refusals are not verdicts on you; they are formatting problems. A photo cropped a few millimetres wrong, a name entered as the airline spells it, a date read one way by the traveler and another by the form. Running this list once before you submit turns nearly all of them into two-minute corrections made at your own desk.