A dummy ticket for a Poland visa is a flight reservation held in the airline's system without paying the fare, delivered as a PDF with a PNR you can check. Poland's Schengen checklist for India asks for "proof of intended means of transport and itinerary" (item 5) and does not ask for a purchased ticket. Dummy Tickets Visa (DTV) charges ₹699 per passenger.
- Item 5 of Poland's tourism checklist for India (February 2026) reads "proof of intended means of transport and itinerary". It does not ask for a paid ticket.
- The Embassy in New Delhi or the Consulate General in Mumbai decides your file, depending on the state you live in.
- New Delhi releases VFS appointment slots every Wednesday at 11:00; Mumbai releases them once a month, on the last working day, two months ahead.
- The Schengen visa fee is €90 for adults and €45 for children aged 6 to 11 (September 2026); the VFS service fee is capped at €45.
- Work and study (D) visas are registered on e-Konsulat, are decided within 15 days (extendable to 30) and cost INR 21,120 under the fee table effective 1 January 2026.
On this page
- What Poland's checklist asks for: transport and accommodation
- Poland visa jurisdiction in India: New Delhi or Mumbai
- Appointment slots, timing and processing
- Poland visa fee and service fee (September 2026)
- Other documents on Poland's tourism checklist
- National (D) visa for work and study in Poland
- Routing ideas from India to Warsaw
- Dummy ticket for Poland visa: ordering it for the right day
A dummy ticket for Poland visa applications is a flight reservation: a booking held in the airline's system in your name, with a PNR you can check on the airline's website, sent to you as a PDF. Poland's Schengen checklist for India asks for "proof of intended means of transport and itinerary" and does not ask for a purchased ticket. A flight reservation with a PNR is the usual way to show that itinerary. Dummy Tickets Visa (DTV) charges ₹699 per passenger.
The itinerary is item 5 of 13 on the checklist. It shows a concrete, checkable travel plan, and it does not decide the visa. Nobody can tell you how a particular officer will read your file.
What Poland's checklist asks for: transport and accommodation
Poland asks for proof of how you will travel and a plan of the trip, not a paid ticket. The tourism and family-visit checklist on the Poland in India website (dated 18.02.26 on the listing) gives item 5 the heading "Proof of intended means of transport and itinerary". Item 4, the cover letter, asks you to state your purpose, the length of the trip, who is travelling with you, and your "transport and accommodation details".
Item 10 covers the stay: a "document confirming the booking of appropriate accommodation for the intended period of stay in Poland / Member States". It accepts hotel reservations, a rented holiday home or campus residence, or, if you stay with family or friends, the host's proof of sponsorship or private accommodation. If you visit several Schengen states, the checklist asks for accommodation proof in each of them. A DTV hotel reservation voucher costs ₹699 per hotel, per passenger; for several cities or a long stay, ask on WhatsApp before you order.
EU guidance points the same way. The Visa Code Handbook tells consular staff that "A paid return ticket should not be required upon lodging", although one may be requested in exceptional cases after the visa is issued.
A flight reservation is a booking made in the airline's own reservation system, with a PNR you can look up on the airline's "Manage booking" page while the hold is live. It is not an edited PDF and not an e-ticket, and it cannot be used to board a flight. If an officer asks, describe it as a reservation.
Poland visa jurisdiction in India: New Delhi or Mumbai
Your file is decided by the Embassy in New Delhi or the Consulate General in Mumbai, depending on the state you live in. The Poland in India Schengen visa page splits India as follows.
| Office | Residents of | Also covers |
|---|---|---|
| Embassy of Poland, New Delhi | Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi (NCR), Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh | Afghanistan, Bhutan |
| Consulate General of Poland, Mumbai | Andhra Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andaman and Nicobar Islands | None listed |
Neighbouring countries are handled elsewhere. Poland's page sends citizens of Nepal to the Swiss Embassy in Kathmandu, citizens of Sri Lanka and the Maldives to the Swiss Embassy in Colombo, and citizens of Bangladesh to the Dutch Embassy in Dhaka.
You submit the application in person at a VFS Global visa application centre; the embassy does not accept forms by post, fax or email. We could not confirm from an official source which cities have a Poland centre today, or whether a centre will take a file from outside its jurisdiction, so check both on the VFS Poland site before you book. If you live outside India, you apply where you legally reside; our page for Indians living abroad covers ordering from there.
Appointment slots, timing and processing
Poland releases VFS appointment slots on a fixed schedule, and the schedule depends on your office. The Schengen visa page says slots for the Embassy in New Delhi open "once a week, every Wednesday at 11:00", and slots for the Consulate General in Mumbai open "once a month, on the last working day, two months in advance". The page gives no average waiting time for a slot.
A worked example: say you live in Pune and plan to fly on 20 January 2027. Maharashtra falls under Mumbai, whose slots open two months ahead on the last working day of each month, which in late 2026 means Friday 30 October, Monday 30 November and Thursday 31 December. Check on the VFS site which appointment dates each release covers. If the date you need is gone, the next release is a month away, so start watching about three months before you fly. A Lucknow resident falls under New Delhi, where a missed release costs a week. Our guide to booking a VFS slot explains the booking screens.
| Point | Rule |
|---|---|
| Earliest you can apply | 6 months before the trip (9 months for seafarers) |
| Latest you can apply | As a rule, 15 calendar days before the trip |
| Decision | Within 15 calendar days of delivery to the Embassy or Consulate General |
| Extended decision | Up to 45 calendar days in individual cases |
| Your passport | Stays with the Embassy or Consulate General while the file is processed |
The last row matters if you have other trips planned: you cannot travel on that passport until it comes back. The checklist also warns that a file missing documents "might be refused by the Embassy/Consulate General", so collect everything before the appointment.
Poland visa fee and service fee (September 2026)
Poland charges the standard Schengen fee of €90 for an adult and €45 for a child aged 6 to 11; children under 6 pay nothing. The Poland in India page says the fee is "non-returnable, whatever the consul's decision". VFS adds a service fee, which EU law caps at half the visa fee, and the current figure is on VFS's Poland site. Poland's own consular fees table, effective 1 January 2026, lists two further amounts in rupees.
| Item | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Schengen visa fee, adult | €90 | EU Visa Code |
| Schengen visa fee, child 6–11 | €45 | EU Visa Code; "half of the visa fee" on Poland's page |
| VFS service fee | At most €45 | Legal cap; check VFS Poland for the figure charged |
| Reconsideration of a refused Schengen application | INR 9,504 | Poland's consular fees table, effective 1 Jan 2026 |
| National (D) visa application | INR 21,120 | Poland's consular fees table, effective 1 Jan 2026 |
Our Schengen visa fee guide covers fee waivers and how rupee amounts are worked out.
Other documents on Poland's tourism checklist
Besides the itinerary and accommodation, Poland's checklist asks for bank, tax and employment papers with specific details, and it wants the file in the checklist's order. The table picks out the items with Poland-specific wording.
| Item | What the checklist asks for |
|---|---|
| Passport | Issued within the last 10 years, valid 3 months after you leave the Schengen area, at least 2 blank pages; copies of the bio page and, for Indian passports, the last page |
| Photo | One colour photo, 35mm x 45mm, white background, face 70–80% of the frame, no more than 6 months old |
| Bank statement | Original, showing the last 3 months, stamped and signed by the bank |
| Income tax | ITR acknowledgment for the last two assessment years |
| If employed | Pay slips for 3 months, employment contract, and the employer's statement approving your holiday |
| If self-employed | Company registration with GST number, business bank statement, barcode-verifiable ITR |
| Insurance | Original certificate from an approved Indian insurer, at least €30,000, not handwritten |
The employer's statement is close to what Indian applicants call an NOC; our NOC letter guide has a format that covers the holiday approval. For the tax papers, our ITR guide explains which acknowledgment to download.
National (D) visa for work and study in Poland
A stay in Poland of more than 90 days, for a job or a degree course, needs a national (D) visa instead of a Schengen visa. The Poland in India national visa page says work and study applications are registered on the e-Konsulat system, with an extra VFS form on top. Dependants, vocational training and other D categories book an appointment on the VFS site instead. Every D application is still submitted in person at a VFS centre.
The page says a national visa is issued or refused within 15 days of submission, extendable to 30 in justified cases, and the fee table lists INR 21,120 for the application. The tourism checklist on this page does not apply to D visas, so read the checklist for your own category before you order anything. Our work visa page and student visa page cover one-way and return reservations for longer stays.
Routing ideas from India to Warsaw
Book the reservation into Warsaw Chopin (WAW) if your trip starts in the capital, or into Kraków (KRK) if your first hotel night is there, so the arrival date matches the check-in date on your accommodation proof. From Indian cities, a Warsaw itinerary may be non-stop or connect through a Gulf or European hub, depending on the season and which airlines fly the route. The booking desk chooses the airline and routing; you can name a preferred airline in the notes box as a request.
Keep the whole trip within 90 days and match the return date to your insurance and hotel bookings. If you fly into Warsaw and home from Kraków, or Poland is one stop on a wider trip, a multi-city itinerary costs ₹699 per two flights, per passenger. Which country you apply to on a multi-country trip, and the other shared rules, are on our Schengen visa page.
Dummy ticket for Poland visa: ordering it for the right day
Order the reservation for the dates on your application form, ask for it to arrive the day before your VFS appointment, and check the PNR before you submit. How long a hold stays live depends on the airline, which is why the delivery date matters.
Fix your dates and route
Match them to your application form, cover letter, insurance and hotel booking, and to the airport where your stay begins.
Fill in the booking form
Enter names exactly as in the passport, the route and the dates on the booking form. You do not need a passport scan or an account.
Choose the delivery date
The form asks when you want to receive it. Pick the day before your appointment. Delivery is by email or WhatsApp, typically 10–20 minutes after payment is confirmed, with possible delays at weekends, on holidays and in busy periods.
Check the PNR
Look the booking up on the airline's own website before you go to VFS, using our PNR check guide.
Before the appointment, run through this list:
- Reservation dates match the form, cover letter, insurance and hotel dates
- Every passenger's name matches the passport
- The PNR opens on the airline's website
- Accommodation proof covers every Schengen country on the route
- The file is in the checklist's order, with nothing missing
Orders are final once the reservation is issued. DTV is not affiliated with the Polish Embassy, the Consulate General, VFS Global or any airline.
Frequently asked questions
Can one reservation cover my whole family's Poland applications?
Yes. One DTV order covers up to 9 passengers, all on one itinerary, at ₹699 per passenger. Each family member still needs a complete file of their own, so print a copy for each. Names must match each passport exactly. Our family bookings page explains how to enter several travellers.
Does Poland want a return flight, or is one-way enough for a tourist visa?
Item 5 of the checklist asks for your means of transport and itinerary without saying return. For a short tourist or family visit, a return itinerary shows both your arrival and your departure from the Schengen area and matches the dates in your cover letter. Our guide to one-way or return tickets for visas covers the cases where one-way makes sense.
What if my VFS appointment moves after I have ordered?
Send us your order ID on WhatsApp and we will tell you the quickest way to get a reservation for the new dates. Do not submit a reservation whose dates no longer match your form, cover letter and insurance. Our guide to changing dates on a dummy ticket covers the options.
What insurance does Poland's checklist require?
An original travel medical insurance certificate from a company on the approved list of Indian insurers used by Schengen consulates. It must cover at least €30,000, be valid across the Schengen area for the whole stay, and cover emergency treatment, hospitalisation and repatriation. Handwritten certificates are not accepted, and your name must be in the Latin alphabet. Our Schengen insurance guide covers the general rule.
Would a refundable ticket be better than a reservation for Poland?
Poland's checklist asks for proof of your means of transport and itinerary, not a purchased ticket, and the EU handbook for consular staff says a paid return ticket should not be required at application. A refundable fare also works, but it ties up the full fare until the refund arrives. Our comparison of reservations and refundable tickets sets out the costs.
Does a Poland Schengen visa let me visit other Schengen countries?
Normally yes. A Schengen C visa issued by Poland is valid across the Schengen area unless the sticker says otherwise, within 90 days in any 180. Our explainer on the 90/180-day rule shows how the days are counted.
- Poland in India: checklist for Polish Schengen visa, tourism and visiting family/friends (18.02.26, PDF)
- Poland in India: C-type Schengen visa (jurisdiction, appointments, processing)
- Poland in India: D-type national visa
- Poland in India: consular fees table, effective 01.01.2026
- VFS Global: Poland visa application, India
- European Commission: Visa Code Handbook I (supporting documents)
Last reviewed by the DTV Editorial Team. Visa requirements change, so confirm the current checklist with the embassy, consulate or official application centre before you apply. A reservation supports a visa file and cannot guarantee a visa decision.