How to Use IATA Travel Centre to Check Visa Requirements

When planning an international trip, the first thing you need to know is the visa requirements. If you need a visa, you must start planning from there. 

These days, the internet is littered with so many unofficial websites posing as authentic sources of visa information. Especially with the rise of AI, unofficial websites are popping up more rapidly than ever. 

Through this website, we provide as accurate information as possible. But my team and I haven’t been to every country in the world. So we can’t offer visa requirements and application guidelines for every country. I’m sure we will get there soon, but until then, you can rely on some trustworthy sources.

IATA Travel Centre is one of those trustworthy sources. You can use this website to check visa requirements for any country. 

In this article, I will walk you through how to check visa requirements using the IATA Travel Centre. 

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What is IATA Travel Centre?

IATA Travel Centre is a trusted source for the latest passport, visa and vaccination requirements of all countries. IATA Travel Centre is powered by TIMATIC, a database used by airlines to check visa requirements for its passengers during the check-in process. 

IATA (International Air Transport Association) is a global airline association. It has over 330 airlines as members, which accounts for about 83% of total air traffic. 

IATA maintains relations with governments and sources the latest visa information from foreign ministries, consular offices, immigration departments, border control offices and health ministries. 

IATA Travel Centre is free to use and the visa requirements are mostly accurate. 

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Should you trust IATA Travel Centre?

Yes. You can trust IATA Travel Centre. It’s powered by TIMATIC, a real-time database of visa requirements used by all major airlines. 

Even though it is powered by TIMATIC, I don’t think IATA Travel Centre data is real-time. I have run into situations where the information was outdated. But in most cases, the visa requirements were accurate and up to date. 

Even though the visa requirements are accurate, I still recommend cross-checking with official government sources to confirm. 

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How to check the visa requirements of a country?

To check the visa requirements for a specific country, follow the steps below. 

Go to the IATA Travel Centre homepage.

Enter the information mentioned in the following sections.

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01. Your journey

Enter the following in the “Your journey” section. 

• Round trip or One Way or Multicity [Instruction: Select “One Way” for better results]

• From [Instruction: Enter the city or airport where you will start your trip from]
• To [Instruction: Enter the city or airport where you will arrive in your destination country]
• Duration of stay [Instruction: Select “Up to 7 days” from the options]

Click on the red “NEXT” button.

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02. About you

Enter the following in the “About you” section. 

• Country/Territory of nationality [Instruction: Select your country of passport]
• Country/Territory of residence [Instruction: This will auto-populate from “nationality”, but you can change it if you reside somewhere else]
• I am traveling as/on [Instruction: Select “Tourist/Vacation” from the options]

Click on the red “CHECK” button.

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03. Entry Requirements

Within the “Entry Requirements” section, you will see the visa and passport requirements for the destination country.

Pay close attention to the “Visa and other border measures” section.

If there is a RED WARNING, it means a visa is REQUIRED. If there are any exceptions, they will also be listed there. 

If there is a GREEN CHECK, it means a visa is NOT required. You are VISA-FREE or Visa Exempted.

In the above screenshot, the destination is Japan and the passport is Indian. There is a RED WARNING for the visa. This means, “Indian passport holders REQUIRE a visa to travel to Japan”. 

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How to check transit visa requirements?

If you have a stopover or transit in a country, you can use the IATA Travel Centre to check transit visa requirements as well. 

You will enter all information as you would to check visa requirements for a destination country, but here you will also add your transit information.

In the “Your journey” section, you will enter the following information. 

• Round trip or One Way or Multicity [Instruction: Select “Multicity” for transit visa requirements]

• From [Instruction: Enter the city or airport where you will start your trip from]
• To [Instruction: Enter the city or airport where you will transit or stopover]
• Duration of stay [Instruction: Select “Transit” from the options]

Click on the “+ Add another flight” link. Then enter your final destination details.

• From [Instruction: This will be auto-populated as your transit airport]
• To [Instruction: Enter the city or airport of your final destination]
• Duration of stay [Instruction: Select “Up to 7 days” from the options]

Click on the red “Next” button.

In the “About you” section, enter your country of nationality, residence and purpose. Then click on the “Check” button.

In the “Entry Requirements” section, you will see the visa requirements of the destination country along with the visa requirements of the transit country.

Example

Say, you hold an Indian passport, traveling to Japan with a 4-hour airside transit in Singapore. You want to know whether you would need a visa to transit in Singapore. 

Select Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) as your transit and select Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT) as your final destination, as shown in the above screenshot. Continue with the rest of the steps.

In the “Entry Requirements”, along with visa requirements for Japan, you will also see the transit visa requirement for Singapore as shown in the screenshot below. 

In the above screenshot, it says that Indians do not need a transit visa for Singapore. And this does not apply to budget airlines such as AirAsia. In that case, you would need a transit visa. 

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How to check visa requirements for special cases and exceptions?

Not all visa requirements are straightforward. There are some special cases and exceptions. To check such special cases and/or exceptions, you must query the IATA Travel Centre slightly differently. I have provided a few examples below.  

Mexico: 180-day VISA-FREE entry for certain visa holders

This one is straightforward. You will simply query the IATA Travel Centre with an airport in Mexico as your destination. 

If you require a visa for Mexico, the result will say so. But right there, you will see an exception that you are visa-exempt with if you hold a substitute visa such as the US, UK, Canada, Schengen and Japan. 

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South Korea: 30-day VISA-FREE entry for transit passengers holding certain visas

This one is a bit tricky. Even though this is a transit visa requirement, you will query the IATA Travel Centre with South Korea as your destination country.

If you require a visa for South Korea, the result will say so, but it will also show the special case where you can get a visa exemption with a substitute visa if you are in transit to a third country. 

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Singapore VFTF: 96-hour VISA-FREE entry for transit passengers of certain countries holding certain visas

Singapore VFTF is a transit visa requirement that allows you to leave the airport for up to 96 hours while transiting through Singapore. 

To check whether you are eligible for VFTF, you must query the IATA Travel Centre with Singapore as your transit country. The duration of stay must be “Less than 1 day”.

We will select “Less than 1 day” because the next available option is “Up to 7 days”, which wouldn’t work since this requirement allows you to stay only up to 4 days (96 hours).

Selecting “Transit” will not work either, as the system will assume you will remain airside and not leave the airport. 

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UK TWOV: 24-hour VISA-FREE entry for transit passengers holding certain visas

The UK TWOV allows passengers transiting through the UK holding a visa from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to leave the airport for up to 24 hours. 

To check whether you are eligible for 24-hour entry, you must query the IATA Travel Centre with the UK as a stopover country with the duration of stay of “Less than 1 day”.  

If eligible, the result will say that you can make a “landside” transit (meaning, you can leave the airport), provided you have a connecting flight before 11.59 pm the following day.