If your visa is refused, what happens to your money? Our answer in three lines

This is the question we are asked more than any other by people booking their first trip abroad, and it is the right question. Most operator websites answer it with either silence or a promise they cannot keep. Here is ours.

Our answer, in three lines

You do not get everything back, and you do not lose everything either.

The embassy keeps its fee. Missions do not refund an application fee when they refuse an application, and no operator anywhere can change that, because the money is not ours to return. Anything else already spent that cannot be recovered comes off too, most often an air ticket that has already been issued and carries the airline's cancellation charge. The rest is refunded to you. There is no separate penalty from us for a refusal.

What we will not do is print one figure here and let you assume it is yours. How much the embassy keeps depends on which mission you applied to, and how much is unrecoverable depends on how far your booking had gone when the decision arrived. Those two numbers are the whole answer, and neither is the same for every traveller.

So ask us for your figure before you pay a deposit, for the departure you are actually booking, and we will give it to you in writing with your booking reference on it. The full position is on the visa page, and our booking terms carry it too, along with the clauses we are still finalising.

If an operator tells you a refusal costs you nothing at all, ask them who is paying the embassy fee.

Why the answer is rarely one sentence

When someone asks "do I get my money back", they are usually picturing one pot of money. In practice the money has already gone to several different places by the time a decision arrives, and each part behaves differently.

• The deposit. Held by the operator, and what happens to it is the operator's own policy. This is the part a company can answer clearly, and the part you should get in writing.
• The visa fee and any application centre charges. Paid to the mission or the centre, not to the operator. Money paid to a government for considering an application is generally not returned when the answer is no.
• The air ticket. Depends on the fare and the airline, and group seats are not always held on the same terms as a ticket you buy yourself.
• The hotel. Depends on the hotel and how far out the cancellation lands.
• When the refusal arrives. A decision that comes before the balance is due is a different situation from one that arrives days before departure, when the bookings behind you have already been paid for.

An operator who answers "yes, full refund, no problem" to all of that in one breath either has an unusually generous policy that they should be happy to put in writing, or has not thought about it. Either way, get it in writing.

What to ask, before you pay anything

Send this to any operator you are considering, including us. Send it on WhatsApp or by email so that the reply is a written record rather than a memory of a phone call.

1. If the visa is refused, what happens to my deposit? Is any part of it returned, and how much?
2. Which costs are not returned if there is a refusal, and roughly what do they come to?
3. Does the answer change depending on when the refusal comes, for example after the balance is paid?
4. If I am refused, can I move to a later departure instead of taking a refund? Is there a charge for that?
5. If the group is cancelled or the dates change, what am I owed?
6. Can you send that to me in writing before I pay?

If a company will not answer those in writing, that is your answer.

What we can tell you today

Two more things, and they matter more than the refund arithmetic, because the best outcome is not being refused in the first place.

The first is that no operator anywhere can guarantee a visa. Anyone who promises you one is promising something they do not control. Missions refuse applications, they are not obliged to explain why, and a company that pretends otherwise is telling you something to close a sale.

The second is what we actually do to make a refusal less likely. Your file goes in as part of a group, with flights and hotels already booked, which is what several missions require before they will look at an application at all. We tell you exactly which documents your destination needs and we check them before the file is submitted, because a file that goes in incomplete comes back. That is described in full on the visa page.

Ask us now, not later

If you are close to booking, ask the question today. You will get a written answer with your booking reference on it, and a figure worked out for the mission you are applying to rather than a number improvised on a phone call.

Ask us what happens to your money if your visa is refused

It is a fair question, it is the first one we would ask in your position, and it should never be awkward to ask it.