[SidTheChamp]

Originally Posted by mygodbole

Heh, most people have stories from distant lands, mine is from our neighborhood.
Went to Sri Lanka (Colombo and Yala) in December 2009, after the government of that day declared the country was 'safe' for tourism.

Well regarding Colombo airport, I had a 'heart in the mouth' moment there. Back in 2007 December, me and my wife had gone to Maldives via Sri Lankan airline so it had a stopover at Colombo. While coming back, we had a 7 hour gap so we decided to explore around after taking an arrival visa. Colombo was far away from airport, so we went to a nearby city Negombo, did sightseeing and came back within 3 hours.
The city bus that we took to travel back to airport was stopped at the airport entrance for routine security check. First an airport security guy with a machine gun came inside scanned around. There were around 4-5 passengers, he looked at me and went down without saying anything. I was a bit nervous being a foreigner. Then another guy came in and straight way signaled me to come down. I was now very nervous.
When I get down, 3 security persons were there. The senior guy asked me in a serious tone , 'from where you got this 3/4th'. I was wearing a military striped 3/4th, only the color was light blue, not the usual khaki. So I said , I bought it at Bangalore, India and I am from India. Then he said 'This is not allowed in Sri Lanka', only authorized to wear by Sri Lankan Airforce. My heart sank. The period was when LTTE conflict was in full swing and accordingly security was real tight. I was stunned. What if they detain me.
After a few tense moments and checking my Indian passport, they concluded its was just an unaware tourist and let me go. Man, what a relief.
After the bus started, my wife was laughing to cheer me up but I knew she was as nervous if not more when they called me down.

Originally Posted by 14000rpm

what a way to learn a crucial lesson - when you are not in your native land, Passport is your only Identity. Absolutely nothing else matters.

''In Passport we trust: The Ultimate travel mantra''

While carrying passport gives us the security of identity, but what happens when the dear passport is gone. Well that happened to me, my friend.

Back in 2018, I had gone to Chicago for 3 weeks on a company trip. I brought my family also at my own expense. We were staying in suburbs. I was driving the rental car everyday to office and kept my passport in car. The thought was in case cops ever caught me, I have a valid identity. The Indian driving license won't be recognized by US cops.

In the long weekend, we went for Chicago city sightseeing. I drove to Chicago city and after parking the car in a paid lot, i gave the passport to my wife to keep in our travel bag instead of keeping it in car at a public parking lot.
We enjoyed the weekend in full, and on coming weekday discovered that my passport is lost. (My wife and son's passport was in hotel and safe).Imagine the panic. We have to return in 1 and half weeks.

To cut long story short, the next 1 week went by multiple trips to Indian Consulate at Chicago, Chicago Police Departments- one station for reporting and the other station for collecting the report. Also revisited all places where the passport could have been lost and with a faint hope that its found.

I got the 'Emergency Travel Certificate' two days before flight from Indian consulate. That's kind of one time use Passport. The color is White to distinguish from usual passport. The guy at Indian consulate was doing show-off in all our visits. And unsurprisingly, he did a great mistake by writing the expiry date of temporary passport at an older date. Then he wrote on next page that please consider new expiry date(image attached), which wasn't that convincing. I pleaded with him to issue a new 'Emergency Travel Certificate'. But again he was too casual about it and said 'nothing will happen' and blah blah.

On the day of travel, at Chicago airport immigration, an elderly lady was reviewing my 'temporary passport'. She caught the mistake and said this is expired document and we cannot let you travel on this. I calmly pointed out where the correction was made and she wasn't that convinced. I was upset and was angry(at the consulate guy)

Anyway the lady was in a kind mood and seeing family with me let me travel. God, what a relief after exiting USA.
On arriving at Mumbai airport, there was again questioning as per procedure.

So please be very very careful with passport in foreign land. Else, its a lot more hassle. I was lucky that I was in Chicago, that time one of 5 US cities having Indian consulate. Else one has to travel to another city. Now there are 7, namely New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, Atlanta and Washington DC.

[mobike008]

Great thread Avinash. I can totally imagine the tense situation you must have been.

As you know, I also travel quite a bit and it's usually domestic within the US. I have never carried passport ever and there is absolutely no need for it. A valid drivers license is more than enough to - Catch a Flight/Rental Car/Hotel Accommodation in any of the 50 states in the US.

But, you are travelling to different countries (not states of same country) so it's a big wonder that you even thought of travelling without a passport (irrespective of having a Schengen).

I know sales people love to take risks and what a way to learn a lesson.

Cheers Mate !!

[14000rpm]

Wow. I really didn't expect this post to garner so many eyeballs and responses over a weekend. Thanks to all that replied.

Seems like each have their 'same-same-but-different' episodes eventually circling around the same Paranoia of 'Identity Crisis in Foreign Land'.
Glad this post raked much memory.

Originally Posted by Samurai

This sounds like a super tense scene from an action movie.

If they had caught you....

Attachment 2573493

This is truly Hilarious.

I believe this is what would happen. They would figure out eventually, mostly because I would have told them, that I am a sales-guy and they'd probably avoid me like the plague and leave me alone.

Hopeless Optimist I am.

Originally Posted by hrman

You sir, should seriously consider writing thriller novels. The outcome was keeping the passport at all times, which was known. But the way you narrated this was nothing short of a Netflix Thriller. Thanks for sharing, made my day with the desired ending!

you are far too kind with your comments. I am merely narrating facts from my experience. Glad you found it interesting.

Originally Posted by SidTheChamp

Gone are the old relaxing days of less scrutiny in flights. Refugees continue to pour in and there are other threats of smuggling, trafficking etc. The world is turbulent, and relaxed flight in foreign land is probably a thing in the past.

True. The extended state of vigilance is here to stay. Identity needs to be intact.

Originally Posted by SidTheChamp

You had a close save. Had they reached you, they might have just released you. But in all probability you would have been detailed and only after intervention from Embassy would be released. Because a refugee can also produce a letter(forged) in his device. Authorities wont buy it without background checks.

True that.

Originally Posted by sid18

My experience in Europe was straight out of Nat Geo series: Airport Security

It was late 2019 and we (me and my wife) wanted to do a backpacking trip to Europe. Plan was Blr -> Rome -> Venice -> Athens -> Istanbul - Blr. We were aware of the baggage delays and decided to carry only minimal clothing to last for 10 days that could fit in the cabin luggage.

We were a couple in our early 30's with minimal baggage with us and were on a 10 days trip across Europe; little did we know this fits the perfect profile for narcotic traffickers

We were stopped twice in Athens and Istanbul and they took our Backpack to run it through a Narcotic swab test. They would use a swab drenched in some chemical, run it all over our backpack and insert it in a machine that would detect any Narcotic residue found on it! Though we knew that nothing would come out, it was really nerve wracking to go through this in a foreign country with non-English speaking population, 1000s of kilometers away from your home.

This is more common now in most airports. Some times in the name of 'Random Check'. I used to think it is profiling but it is not really the case. I've seen many Europeans having their bags opened and checked.

Originally Posted by AudiFan

Hi, this is a very interesting thread, and I hereby request to clarify a simple doubt of mine.
I hold Indian passport and had obtained a Schengen Visa from Spain Embassy to tour Spain and Portugal for 15 days with my wife during March 2023. My visa is valid up to March 2025 with 90 days of stay permitted.
I have now booked another 20 nights travel package with Trafalgar Tours to visit East Europe, my port of entry shall be Vienna, Austria through Frankfurt and exit is from Salzburg transiting through Frankfurt again.
Please tell me whether the same schengen visa issued by Spain is good enough for my proposed travel? I will not be entering Spain during this visit to Austria.
Thanks in advance.

You may want to be very careful about it. It is best practice to fly into the Visa-Issuing country and then go all around Shengen region. I would suspect you will have a lot to answer in the airport in Vienna.

Originally Posted by Mance Rayder

Great thread!
I've an anecdote to share from last year. I was scheduled to participate in a pitching competition at Carnegie Mellon University. This was my second domestic trip by air in the US. I showed up at Newark airport and during the security line, I realised I didn't pack the only valid US ID that I possessed, my passport!

Could've easily been the most Harrowing experience too.

Originally Posted by astrodex

OP, your ordeal is fit to be a bollywood movie scene!

Thats funny.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

That's exactly what OP was doing, isn't it. The Schengen arrangement allows for visa-free travel within countries in Europe party to that agreement, but you still need official documentation to prove your identity (= citizenship / valid visa), when necessary.
The seamlessness with which you can travel within the Schengen countries makes you believe it is one big country, and you're just hopping between some districts of a city.

Yupp. That is exactly the bullish optimism I traveled with. For the most part Europe wasn't in it's heightened state of alert it is now in and hence it worked out ok till this episode. Heck, I have crossed Germany-Switzerland border by road once without a passport and without getting in trouble.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

I have a similar story, but without any drama.

Back when I was working in Switzerland, I'd decided to go to Stuttgart to visit the Mercedes museum.

I then had the option of booking another Blablacar, train or bus. Bus was ruled out because Flixbus categorically stated right on the booking page that carrying the passport was mandatory before boarding.

Right then. Train it is. Booked a DB train and hopped on. As you'd expected and anticipated during your journey, border control cops boarded at the station near the border and were walking through the aisles. They didn't check anyone's papers but did visually scan every passenger. The few minutes it took for this seemed excruciating - as you did, I was imagining every consequence, mentally working through tasks I'd have to do - call my boss, call HR, keep every possible proof of my education, employment and in general, not being an immigration-threat.

But then, the train started moving without much drama. And just like that, within a few hours, I was back in my "home" country / city.

Yikes. your story has an uncanny resemblance to mine. I can imagine those tense few moments.

Originally Posted by chennai-indian

Thanks for the thread. Let me narrate my 3 experiences of run-in with immigration:

1. Japan - By the time the interview was over, the airport had shut down, and there were no taxis available for me to go to the town. The immigration officer had to call a taxi and personally escorted me to the Taxi!! He even apologized for the delay !!

That's Japan for you. Love the country and the humility of the Japanese.

Originally Posted by chennai-indian

3. Mexico – Mexico allows one to visit Mexico if you have a valid US business visa without getting a Mexico visa. Since I had a valid US B1, I landed in Mexico City and was detained at the immigration as they were asking for a Mexican visa. Had to spend a couple of hours convincing them that their own immigration rules allow for a US B1 visa holder to visit without a Mexico visa. They let me go only after confirming with their higher-ups!!

I was to visit Mexicali in Mexico several times when I was on my US stint. I had the same rationale but good to know that not everybody in Mexico even know about it.

Originally Posted by splitinfinitive

Looks like a lot of folks have similar tales. Here's mine, mostly hilarious.

I explained my predicament, said sorry and that I would never never never even go outside to pick up the newspaper without my passport, and to please let me go home. One of the younger cops took pity and said okay go "and please do not do somesing like zis agayne".

And idiot that I am, I went right back to sleep. Woke drooling like an imbecile at Basel SBB (main station), and scrambled out just before the doors closed. Whew.

Gift of gab or pure luck. one of them has worked for you.

Originally Posted by SidTheChamp

While carrying passport gives us the security of identity, but what happens when the dear passport is gone. Well that happened to me, my friend.


I got the 'Emergency Travel Certificate' two days before flight from Indian consulate. ... I pleaded with him to issue a new 'Emergency Travel Certificate'. But again he was too casual about it and said 'nothing will happen' and blah blah.

On the day of travel, at Chicago airport immigration, an elderly lady was reviewing my 'temporary passport'. She caught the mistake and said this is expired document and we cannot let you travel on this. I calmly pointed out where the correction was made and she wasn't that convinced. I was upset and was angry(at the consulate guy)

Anyway the lady was in a kind mood and seeing family with me let me travel. God, what a relief after exiting USA.
On arriving at Mumbai airport, there was again questioning as per procedure.

So please be very very careful with passport in foreign land. Else, its a lot more hassle.

The callousness of some folk at the embassy is frustrating.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Great thread Avinash. I can totally imagine the tense situation you must have been.

I know sales people love to take risks and what a way to learn a lesson.

Cheers Mate !!

.
That's all we know to do well. Take Risks but this one was pushing it too much.

On a serious note, we have now made our little 'Grab and Go' Bag with passport and all ID's in it. This after Russia started to threaten Finland when it chose to join NATO.

Finland always assumes there is a possibility of bombing by Russia in Residential areas and hence there are bomb shelters in the vicinity of most dwellings. Going there would be priority 1 in case of an incident.

Assuming the worst outcome after this, we assume that Finland govt. would protect it's citizen leaving us 'Foreigners' 'unprotected' and hence the 'Grab and Go' bag with all Indian ID's and paperwork.

[benbsb29]

Logged in eagerly and came to this thread to post similar experiences from my life.

Quickly fired up the search engine of my memories with the right keywords, so the most efficient search mode is used. Tried different keywords but kept hitting the same old familiar error message.



Spent time debugging the reason for the error.

Oh well, never been to the US.
Never been to Europe.

That explains it.

Slinks back into my corner and clicks Thanks.

Great thread, 14000rpm, Thanks for sharing such anecdotes.

[kiku007]

That was a close shave man! Good that it ended well. As always, well narrated. Your misery served to us as entertainment.

Originally Posted by 14000rpm

After that incident, my passport has found a permanent place in my laptop bag. When on a flight, I keep my passport in my pocket all the time.

Keeping the passports safe during travel really stresses people out. Even after our best efforts it may get lost or stolen.



35K Australian Passports stolen in 2022-2023. 160,050 British passports were registered as either lost or stolen abroad between 2008 and the end of October 2013. These are all not small numbers. I don't know how many Indian passports are stolen.

It's OK we didn't get flying cars in 2024 as predicted some decades ago, but why can't we have digital passports in 2024? We have successfully migrated many things from paper to the digital format, and I really want the option to have digital passports along with the physical passport, so there's redundancy in case one of them gets lost or stolen. I wonder if bureaucracy is the main barrier and not so much the technology.

I am aware that Finland and Singapore are taking steps to digitize passports, and I hope more countries do this.

Source: https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/tra...06-p5ea9d.html

[StarrySky]

The thread reminded me of an experience I had posted in another thread some time ago:

Originally Posted by StarrySky

We were on a trip to the northernmost parts of Finland. Early one morning, we drove to the village of Utsjoki. We could see the Finland-Norway border in front of us. There was a building, probably customs, at the checkpoint, lane markings for vehicles with goods to declare etc. After taking a couple of pictures, we travelled another 35km towards Nourgam which has the northernmost point in the whole of Finland and EU. We spotted information boards indicating that we were approaching another border crossing between Finland and Norway. We thought we would go to that border as well, take couple of pictures and turn back. The road was great, weather nice, almost no traffic and we were enjoying the drive. And just like that, we started seeing information boards in Norwegian. We were confused:
- "Are we in Norway?"
- "No, we didn't cross any checkpoints."
- "Yeah, there should be a checkpoint like the one we saw in Utsjoki." (we could spot nothing resembling a border checkpoint for quite some distance ahead)
- "But all the boards are in Norwegian."
- "Maybe because it's a border area."
- "Huh, but there is nothing written in Finnish on most of them."
- "Yeah, they won't leave Finnish out of information boards in Finland."
- "So, we are in Norway?????"
- "Oh my God, we are in Norway!!!"
- "Oh my God, we are not carrying our passports "
- "Let's get out of here!!!"

We turned back at the next possible opportunity, driving frantically till we spotted the board saying "Suomi/Finland" and stopped when we were back in Finland. Turns out, there was a pole on either side of the road there with couple of cameras on them and a board there saying "National Border". This was just ahead of a curve, and I had missed it.

We took a few pictures at the monument erected at the northern most point in the EU and went back towards Utsjoki. We were relieved to have gotten away with travelling without passport, when just in front of us, we saw a parked police car and a policeman signalling us to stop. The policeman came to the driver side and said something in Finnish. I mumbled something back. I am sure my face had turned white, imagining that I was about to get busted for coming across the border without a passport. Then he produced a breath analyzer and told me in English that he is going to administer a test. I said Ok and blew into it. The policeman had a look at the machine, gave me a stare. To me, it looked like he was trying to work out why this guy is panicking. After a few seconds (seemed like an eternity), he showed me the reading on the machine and said, "It is 0. You can go."

We later joked that given the Finns' fondness for drinking, the policeman was confused when analyzer showed 0 alcohol level early in the morning and the stare was because he was trying to work out if I had cheated the test somehow or if the analyzer was broken.

[14000rpm]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Oh well, never been to the US.
Never been to Europe.

That explains it.

. It is a Europe-only problem.

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Great thread, 14000rpm, Thanks for sharing such anecdotes.

Thanks for the kind words.

Originally Posted by kiku007

That was a close shave man!

Originally Posted by kiku007

Good that it ended well. As always, well narrated.

Glad you liked it.

Originally Posted by kiku007

Your misery served to us as entertainment.

Don't you worry. I have a habit of getting in trouble and laughing at them later and eventually posting it here.

Originally Posted by kiku007

I am aware that Finland and Singapore are taking steps to digitize passports, and I hope more countries do this.

I'm far away from getting a Finnish passport. Moreover, even if the passport is digitized, it serves limited purposes as best I understand. mostly easy immigration with Biometrics scanners instead of seeing an immigration officer. Could be wrong.

Originally Posted by StarrySky

The thread reminded me of an experience I had posted in another thread some time ago:

This can easily happen. There many regions within Finland where, if the general populace has majority Swedish speakers, there are no Finnish boards at all. Such a situation can easily happen all along the Finnish/Swedish border like you had with Norway.

Crossing into Norway from Sweden is also unmanned like what you saw.

[handsofsteel]

One chilling incident from my archives.
I had gone to China and decided to stop by Beijing on the way back to meet an old friend posted at the embassy. I stayed there for a few days and had a whale of a time taking in the sights. On the penultimate day, we were waiting for someone near the Tian-an-men square (to be precise, at the Qianmen Gate). With the weather turning squally, the entire place was beautiful so I happily took out my phone and started clicking in the night mode. A Chinese backpacker ambled across to me and said something. Thinking he was being polite, I smiled and said I do not know Chinese. He started gesticulating and increasing his volume while continuously demanding something. My friend (from the embassy) was standing a short distance away. I started to walk towards him to ask what was being said when suddenly this guy started shouting at the top of his voice. It quickly became a commotion. My friend ran up to us and asked the guy what was wrong. Turns out that the guy suspected me for indulging in espionage and wanted me to come with him to a police station for a detailed check. My friend quickly hailed a policeman, brandished his diplomatic credentials, feigned ignorance as to the man's intentions and complained (in his pretend pidgin Mandarin) that the man was pestering us and trying to sell something to us. The policeman, after verifying my friend's diplomatic passport, asked us to leave and accosted the man, frisking him, making him empty his bag and whatnot. We quickly left the place into the warren of subways emerging on the other side of the square. Later we got to know that the rules regarding prohibition on photography of a few monuments had been expanded to include the gates. I also got to know from my friend that the recent anti-espionage laws that had been promulgated there gave everyone a free hand in reporting a suspect with the onus of proving one's innocence resting with the individual (in case of being a foreigner, it was a lengthy and convoluted process). Considering I was due to leave the next morning, this was actually an escape by the skin of my teeth. While the rest of India celebrated the landing of Chandrayaan later that evening, I thanked my stars and celebrated my near-miss.

[SR-71]

Interesting thread, and I have an anecdote to share where I still had the passport on me. This is about a decade back, on a return trip from California I decided to take a short break in Hong Kong. Got my visa on entry without any fuss and the next day took a boat to Macau. On returning around 2AM, the immigration officer at the jetty decided the passport wasn't mine. To his credit the photo in my passport was from 8 years ago when I was still young. Thanks to the poor quality of the photo and the poor lighting in the immigration area at the jetty it's not a surprise I was detained. Had a tough time convincing his superiors it was indeed me. Eventually what helped was as my US and UK visa in the passport. Both had a good photo, and the UK visa had a more recent photograph. With passport numbers and data-of-birth in them matching with my passport, they reluctantly let me leave after stamping my passport. Came back home and got a new passport issued before the next travel.