I'd advise always to check before you fly - and in good time, the time spent checking could mean that you don't arrive at your destination, or part way there, and find that you need to obtain a form from the embassy in your country of origin - it might be a rubber stamp job, but if that rubber stamp is several thousand mile and two weeks away then you are well and truly stuffed.

It might mean a long delay at the airport - or worse, a return flight far sooner than you had planned for. There is even the amusing option of your luggage sitting at the hotel you ought to be at, and you being back in your own country without the keys to your car and house which you put into the case as you would not be needing them for some time, and with only foreign currency and travellers cheques.