Dummy ticket (flight reservation) for Canada visa: the itinerary IRCC recommends

What the Canada checklist asks for

• Flight details showing when you arrive in Canada and when you leave.
• Proof of accommodation, such as hotel bookings or details of the relatives you will stay with.
• Registration for an event, if an event such as a conference is the reason for your trip.
• Everything on the personalised checklist the IRCC portal generates from your answers.
• Biometrics at a VFS Global centre, and later your passport for the counterfoil, when IRCC asks.

Canada: the options side by side

What IRCC’s page says about your itinerary

IRCC’s visitor visa page has a heading for “Recommended documents”, and under it an item called “Itinerary”. It asks for documents that show how long you plan to stay and what you will do in Canada, and names three examples: “flight details, proof of accommodation, registration for an event.” The portal then builds a personalised checklist from your answers, so read yours as well.

The point of the item is to show the length of your stay, and return flight details are the clearest way to show it. Unlike the US and New Zealand pages, IRCC’s page does not warn you against buying tickets early. A held reservation gives the officer those return flight details without any fare being paid.

Timing your reservation with IRCC processing

IRCC’s weekly estimate for visitor visas from India was 29 days on 16 September 2026, down from roughly 83 to 99 days in January and February 2026. The figure moves, so check the processing-times tool in the week you apply, and add time for submitting your passport at VFS and getting it back with the counterfoil.

You upload the itinerary with the online application, and an officer may open it weeks later. The PNR will usually have lapsed by then, because the airline sets the hold and does not wait for IRCC. IRCC asks for documents that show how long you plan to stay; its page does not say the booking must still be live when the file is assessed. Order the reservation on the day you submit the IRCC application, or the evening before at most, check the names and dates before you upload it, and choose a departure date comfortably beyond the processing estimate.

Visiting family in Canada from Punjab

For families in Punjab visiting children or relatives in Toronto, Brampton, Vancouver or Surrey, the nearest VFS centres include Chandigarh and Jalandhar. IRCC’s visa offices in India are in New Delhi, Chandigarh and Bengaluru. Amritsar and Chandigarh airports connect through Delhi to the non-stop flights to Toronto and Vancouver.

For a family visit, the dates that matter most are those in any invitation from your relatives in Canada and in your leave letter. Make the reservation match them exactly, list every traveller by the name in their passport, and use the same reservation for everyone applying together, so that each file tells the same story.

No more automatic 10-year visas

Since 6 November 2024 the 10-year multiple-entry visa is no longer the default. Officers decide case by case whether to issue single or multiple entry, and for how long.

So describe the visit you are actually making now, with an itinerary for that trip. If you plan to return next year, do not assume this visa will cover it: check the entries and expiry date printed on your counterfoil before you book a second visit. Because each decision is made case by case, members of one family applying together can receive different validity, so check every counterfoil separately.

Flying from India to Canada

Your reservation should follow a route you could realistically fly. These are common options; schedules change, so the desk confirms what is bookable for your dates.

Mistakes to avoid with a Canada application

• Uploading a booking PDF with names spelled differently from the passports in the application.
• Choosing a departure date inside the processing estimate, with no time left for your passport to come back.
• Itinerary dates that differ from your family’s invitation or your employer’s leave letter.
• Assuming you will get a 10-year multiple-entry visa. Since November 2024 that is decided case by case.
• Forgetting the CA$85 biometrics fee, which is separate from the CA$100 visa fee.
• Uploading an edited booking PDF. A fabricated document in a Canadian application is misrepresentation.

Dummy ticket and hotel bookings, matched to your itinerary

We do not send one loose document. The desk matches the flight reservation and every hotel booking to your itinerary: the same dates, the same cities, and no night left uncovered. These are the real documents of one order for a Switzerland visa file, issued on 5 November 2026: one flight reservation and four hotel bookings that cover all 9 nights between the two flights. Personal details are blacked out; everything else is as issued.

• Flight reservationEtihad, Hyderabad (HYD) to Zurich (ZRH), status Confirmed
• Hotel booking, ZurichMEININGER Hotel Zürich Greencity, 3 nights
• Hotel booking, GenevaB&B HOTEL Geneva Airport, 3 nights
• Hotel booking, LucerneSeminarhotel Romerohaus, 2 nights
• Hotel booking, Zurich AirportLeonardo Hotel Zurich Airport, 1 night

Open the full documents and the day-by-day table: flight and hotels matched date by date

How to get your Canada flight reservation

Canada questions, answered