International Air Transport Association (IATA), Travel Information Manual
Template documentation{{Visa policy link| destination=XX}}
Parameter
- destination: Country code of destination.
This template uses 263 country codes, comprising:
- all 249 codes officially assigned in ISO 3166-1 alpha-2;
- 4 codes exceptionally reserved in ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 (EU, AC, TA, CP);
- 10 user-assigned codes, for the remaining countries with limited recognition and dependent territories:
- XB Abkhazia
- XR Artsakh
- XK Kosovo
- XN Northern Cyprus
- XS Somaliland
- XO South Ossetia
- XT Transnistria
- XA Akrotiri and Dhekelia
- XM Ashmore and Cartier Islands
- XC Coral Sea Islands
Usage
This template serves to centralize the references used in articles on visa requirements and visa policies, to facilitate updates in their large number of occurrences. The template cites a link to a government website showing the visa policy of the selected destination, or IATA's Travel Information Manual if a government website is not listed for that destination.
History
This template started as a generator of links to Timatic through airline websites. Due to the high popularity of Wikipedia articles using these links, the airlines selected in the template received unusually high numbers of Timatic searches and corresponding charges by IATA, which maintains the system. As a result, IATA asked Wikipedia editors to remove these links and suggested IATA Travel Centre, which is also based on Timatic, as a replacement. However, while that website is useful to check travel documents individually, it is not suitable as a visa policy reference because each search is limited to very specific traveler data.
Therefore, this template was changed to refer mostly to government websites showing the visa policy of each destination. For destinations that do not provide this information online, the template cites the Travel Information Manual, which is the monthly printed version of Timatic. The information can still be accessed through airlines and other websites, such as Olympic Air, Gulf Air, Air Berlin, and Pearl Law Group, but their links should not be added to this template.