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Flying to Canada with a European layover: when members say you need a transit visa

Canada • Visitor Visa • study 0 views
By VisaBuddies Communityvia community — compiled from public visa forums

Step-by-Step

A traveller flying to Canada via Zurich (with a plane change) asked whether they'd need a transit visa. Members shared their rule of thumb — note this is crowd advice, and transit rules genuinely depend on your nationality and the country you transit, so verify with the airline and the transit country's official rules before booking.

  1. Same terminal, single layover: members reported no transit visa needed. The consensus was that one layover where you stay airside in the same terminal generally didn't require a transit visa.

  2. A terminal change is the trigger. Members flagged that a transit visa becomes an issue when your connection requires moving between terminals (which can mean passing through immigration).

  3. Check your specific connection, not just the airport. For a London connection, a member's advice was concrete: confirm you land at Heathrow and depart from Heathrow, and recheck whether the terminal is the same — the same-airport assumption is where bookings go wrong.

  4. Verify before you pay. One member's first question was which site the booking was on — the practical point being to confirm the routing and terminal details with the airline before purchasing.

Dos, Don'ts & Tips

  • Do: Before booking a connecting itinerary, confirm both flights use the same terminal — terminal changes are what members flagged as triggering transit-visa requirements.
  • Tip: Transit-visa rules vary by nationality and transit country; treat this thread as a starting point and confirm with the airline or the transit country's official site.

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