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I'm going to Tokyo from London as a Norwegian citizen, it's a direct flight from Copenhagen to Tokyo. Do I need to apply for a transit visa to fly over Russia and reach Japan? Can an aeroplane company handle the visa procedure for me or do I have to apply for it myself through the embassy in London?

Shou
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    You do not need a transit visa unless you land. – phoog Jul 08 '15 at 06:30
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    See also: http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/49482/flying-over-country-from-which-you-are-deported - if being banned from a country doesn't stop you from flying over, then lacking a visa certainly shouldn't. – CMaster Jul 08 '15 at 08:40
  • Related: http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/49497/laws-governing-a-plane-in-flight – Karlson Jul 09 '15 at 02:49
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    Good thing Schengen visas exist, or flying over Europe would be a lot of trouble... – Superbest Jul 09 '15 at 03:41

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I've never heard of any situation in which you need a visa of any kind to fly over a country. You would only potentially need one if the flight was planning to land in Russia, in which case it would depend on your precise itinerary, citizenship, whether you needed to leave the transit area, etc.

Imagine the confusion if you had to apply for transit visas for every country you overflew - on a long flight there could be dozens. The international community is sensible enough not to demand that.

In theory, if your airline provided the passenger manifest to Russia before the flight, and the Russian authorities saw your name and decided they did not want you flying over their country, then they could refuse permission for the flight to enter their airspace with you on board. In that case the airline would most likely just refuse to let you board at all, so that they could fly over Russia as planned. But this is improbable; and if it did happen, having a visa wouldn't help.

If for some reason, your flight makes an unscheduled landing in Russia due to an emergency or other unexpected event, you'd either be kept on the plane, let off the plane but kept in a closed area like the airport lounge, or issued an emergency visa. You still wouldn't need to have applied for a transit visa in advance.

Nate Eldredge
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    Any source regarding the passenger manifest bit? Is it specific to Russia and a few other countries (US?) or are you saying that airlines everywhere transmit the full passenger manifest to all states a plane will fly over? – Relaxed Jul 08 '15 at 16:33
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    Note that most countries do not even require any advance information regarding the passengers on flights landing in the country and that such a requirement from the US necessitated a specific agreement and a long legal battle to be reconciled with the EU data protection law. I have read about exchanges with Australia and Canada but I seriously doubt EU-based airlines routinely communicate passenger lists to many other countries or whether it would even be legal for them to do so. – Relaxed Jul 08 '15 at 16:48
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    No, I have no source. I said "if your airline provided the passenger manifest". I don't know whether they routinely do so, and it's entirely possible that they don't. That's why I wrote "in theory"; I was trying to stretch as far as possible to find a scenario resembling what the OP has in mind. – Nate Eldredge Jul 08 '15 at 16:54
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    That bit about having to have a transit visa if your layover is, say, in Moscow - is it true? Because I'm pretty sure you can just not stamp out and stay in the transit zone until your next plane departs. Have done so dozens of times in different countries (mainly Europe, though) without having any visas for those countries. – Sergio Tulentsev Jul 08 '15 at 19:59
  • I didn't mean to claim that you always need a visa to transit in Russia, rather the converse. I reworded to clarify. – Nate Eldredge Jul 08 '15 at 20:18
  • While this is true and should be common sense for most of the international community - I once heard (maybe romours) that someone flying to Canada is required to have a US visa, just for the possibility of an emergency landing there ... Is there any substance to that? – Hagen von Eitzen Jul 08 '15 at 20:52
  • @SergioTulentsev When and where airport transit visas exist, the point is making sure the airline does not let the passengers who require one board the plane without a visa in the first place. Once they have reached the transit airport, they typically don't have to show that visa to anybody (although I have occasionally seen the police check passports right out of the gate, e.g. in Amsterdam). See http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/24298/what-are-transit-visas and http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/44647/are-the-schengen-airport-transit-visa-even-checked?lq=1 for more details. – Relaxed Jul 08 '15 at 21:05
  • @HagenvonEitzen: I've never heard of such a thing. I believe I did read a story recently about a flight bound for Canada, where a passenger was denied boarding because the US did not want him/her overflying their airspace. (I can't find the story now.) But I don't think there is a general visa requirement, and I don't think that having a visa would have necessarily helped the passenger in question. – Nate Eldredge Jul 08 '15 at 21:58
  • @HagenvonEitzen No, I don't think so. I have, however, heard of certain flights that require Canadian visas for flights from the U.S. to Asia, due to a stop in Canada. IIRC, the Cathay Pacific flight from JFK to Hong Kong used to have that requirement. – reirab Jul 09 '15 at 00:28
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    @SergioTulentsev I'm not sure about Russia, but that is true for the U.S. and some other countries. For example, you need a U.S. transit visa if you're flying from Asia to South America with a layover in LA. The reason for this is that many U.S. airports don't have a 'transit area.' International departures and domestic departures are all mixed together in the same concourses, so you must clear immigration before you can enter the departures area. Transiting passengers make up a very small percentage of passengers in the U.S., so it doesn't make any sense to design airports around them here. – reirab Jul 09 '15 at 00:31
  • @NateEldredge I would entirely remove that part, then. If you are not sure if anyone requires that anyway, why put it in the answer in the first place, where people might mistake for something real? – o0'. Jul 09 '15 at 08:15
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    @SergioTulentsev If you fly with let's say Aeroflot, have a transit in Šeremeťjevo and you stay within the connected international terminals you don't need a Russian transit visa, it is quite common. If you need to go to another airport or you use other airport where the international terminals are not connected, you need a visa. – Vladimir F Героям слава Jul 09 '15 at 08:40
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You do not need a visa for flying over a country. Even better, for connecting flights you can often even land at an airport and change the plane without a visa of the country the airport is in - although this does seem to depend on the airport and the terminals used by the flights in question and it's prudent to verify this with the carrier or the airport in advance on every flight. You obviously will need a visa for leaving the airport.

See Do U.S. citizens need a Russian transit visa?

Community
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Peter
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As the other answers make clear, you do not need a visa to over-fly a country. (By the way, you'll almost certainly also pass over Mongolia, China and South Korea.)

In cases where you do need a visa, it is always your responsibility to obtain it. The airline will never do that for you.

David Richerby
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If you were to land and connect to another flight a few days later you will in general need a visa, but in some cases even that is not necessary. If you land in Moscow, you can stay in the Novotel Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport Hotel without a visa:

The Novotel Sheremetyevo Airport is the only hotel available for transit passengers who do not wish to obtain a Russian visa, although they are accommodated in a separate part of the hotel and kept under constant supervision.

Count Iblis
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Transit visa is not necessary for Russian overflight

Jd Durga
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1.transit visa is not necessary for russian overflight. 2.you do not need a transit visa unless you land

deepti
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