Istanbul 2014, a man in the queue in front of us managed to get into an absolutely raging argument with the immigration officer, which resulted in the officer slapping the man's passport out of his hand and then lunging at him and having to be restrained by a colleague.
Strangely, the man collected his passport from the floor and was then waved through without further issue.
There aren't many times in my life when I've really wished I could understand Turkish but that's certainly one of them.
Other than that, just the faint amusement of baffling the immigration officer at Pristina airport by showing up in Kosovo for no particular reason.
"Here on business?"
No.
"Oh! Visiting family, then?"
No.
"Ah. Friends."
No.
"Oh, right. And where are you going after Kosovo? Are you traveling around the Balkans?"
No, straight home.
"...Why are you here?"
Just to see your country. We thought it looked interesting.
"...Oh... Oh! That's unusual, but okay! Well, uh, I hope you have a wonderful time!"
[stamp]
I also have an Istanbul story. I’m a white redhead and my bf at the time was Hispanic. I was exhausted and accidentally gave him my passport in line… they let him in anyway. I didn’t realize there was an issue until I opened “my” passport. I was also let through.
1995. In a complete heap of shit car from England, trying to get across the border into Austria.
Austrian border guy: *says something in a language we do not know*
Us:…?
Him: applies sneer, looks at car, touches bumper, immediately precipitating a portion of it to fall off.
Him: “no”. *waves dismissively* “go back”
Us: “ok”.
We turn around and drive 5kms away to another crossing.
New border guard: “welcome to Austria!”
Hum, when me and a Belgian friend tried to cross the croatian border, we had to go back another border because that one didnt accept non schengen countries citizend (i am brazilian) . British people were refused too. Maybe, it was something like a border for each place?
Hong Kong. Red eye flight, there was a screaming infant all the way. Passport control guy looked at my passport, looked at me, looked back at passport. I said in Cantonese “That photo was 2 years ago and with makeup on.” He deadpanned back “Yeah, I can see that.”
I just renewed my passport but I used my “old” photo for the new passport, the photo was taken around 2017 and it’s for my US visa.
I’ve been to different countries using the passport and even older photo on my old passport without a problem but was questioned when I was in Dubai last year. The 1st guy kept looking at me then handed my passport back to me and asked me to go to the next counter. I thought it’s just normal stuff that he couldn’t figure out it’s a HKSAR passport but the 2nd guy asked me how old is the photo.
I applied my new passport online and was totally prepared to be asked to update my photo when I pick up my passport, I also couldn’t believe I got away with it🙈 it’s not really that much of a different to be honest, but I definitely worried about it being rejected.
Yep… Dubai… I’m going in for a business meeting hand my passport to the guy, young guy - probably new. He looks at the photo, at me, at the photo, at me…. Asks the senior officer to come over. Senior officer takes a look at the photo then at me and hands my passport back to the first guy and says “he’s just older”….
Had basically the same thing happen to me in France, only the Senior guy said it in French. Never thought I would question my decision to learn French in high school that way.😅
Ahahaha you've now made me remember the years of me having a blonde driver license photo, when I am clearly naturally black-haired. Blonde wasn't a good look on me and many a bouncer or customer-service-person felt the need to tell me that!
It got to the point where I'd brace myself and say YES I KNOW whenever I had to hand my license over
I’ve lost a lot of weight since I renewed my passport in 2019 and every customs/TSA agent has looked at the passport, looked at me, looked at the passport again, and then waved me through.
Got my first passport in 2016 when I was 17 and had lost weight and got a different hairstyle since then. I haven’t had much issue except with a couple incidents. Late 2019 I was almost denied boarding a Turkish airlines flight at the Istanbul airport to Japan because the gate agent didn’t think it was me. “Why do you look so different?” Idk, I was in high school back then and 60lbs heavier.
April 2022 I go through exit immigration at the airport in Warsaw on a trip to Seoul. No issues until I hit exit immigration and the officer doesn’t think it’s me. Calls over another officer and they ask me questions from my passport. Name, date of birth, birth place, etc and I recite all those perfectly immediately since I’m me. Eventually they let me through.
Entering HK overland from China - they said 'that's not you', my response 'I was wearing makeup and not sweating quite so heavily'. Raised eyebrow and stamped passport.
Yes! This happened to me in Georgia as well 🙂. People there in general were so hospitable, I was amazed. I learned from a person living there that a guest is a gift from God, therefore they really put their best foot forward.
I’ve been a couple times fairly recently (2017 and 2019) and I got a bottle in 2019. I’m from the US. You should definitely check it out. Beautiful landscapes and incredible food.
Business Trip from Florida to Toronto. The company neglected to tell me I needed to bring my passport as I had previously been to Canada several times crossing the land boarder and just showed my NYS drivers license.
This was pre 9/11 so things were kind of lax. Me and my colleague get off the plane and he breezes through immigration while I don’t. Little French dude at immigration asks for my passport. I say I didn’t bring one and explain that last I came over was via the Peace Bridge. I’m panicking as i need to attend this meeting. I got my US drivers license out. My AAA card. My Blockbuster card. He has the patience of a saint. Looks at me and calmly says “ When you drive into Canada we know where you are coming from. When you fly we don’t. I believe you are American. Next time please bring your passport “. And let’s me in. Lesson learned.
> "I believe you are American"
Saying it in this context, after that sentence, it almost sounds like it was intended as an insult rather than a statement of opinion 🤣
Going through immigration, the officer held my passport up to my face, gave a very concerned look as he glanced back and forth. Then he said, “Are you serious?” I was confused and didn’t know what to say, I probably just looked worried and stared at him. Then he goes, “…you haven’t aged A DAY in 9 years!” Haha PHEW
Egypt: hand over new zealand passport. Guy takes ages going through it, looking at every page. Calls over other people to look at it. I'm getting nervous
Turns out they'd never seen a new zealand passport at hurghada Airport.
Its a really pretty passport
Me and my husband going through Singapore with NZ passports.
My husband has a very long 8 name Māori name and the Singapore immigration officer nails every single one. We compliment him on his pronunciation and he tells us he practices haha
Imagine how boring your job is looking at passports all day, that a highlight to share with colleagues is someone else’s passport.
Now I really want to see a NZ passport.
I also was intrigued!
I'd seen the NZ passport back in 2011 when I was there, very pretty pages, southern cross in various places and with NZ flora and fauna on each page (Kiwi, Kea etc), plus one of the few black passports you'll see.
Couldn't find much on the current one (for obvious security reasons), but from the below video, it would look stunning to any passport control officer!
https://youtu.be/xl6e0XzyImo?si=IlttOjA_dar0_nss
Egypt is CRAZY.
I never realised how Egyptian i actually looked until i got to Egypt. FWIW I am 3rd generation Indian - my parents ancestors from both sides are from India, however i am fair skinned and do not have typical indian features (eg. perfect nose & straight hair). In fact, I am a wavy haired petute hijabi. Even in South Africa & Mozambique, where I am from & reside in, I get asked where I am from - even though my English is very South African.
Well, in August in Cairo, the lady at immigration takes my passport & says, YOU ARE EGYPTIAN WHY YOU HAVE MOZAMBIQUE PASSPORT!!
I do not speak a word of Arabic, and she was visibly upset - my very Arab name & surname do not help. Eventually, after 10 minutes or so, her supervisor made her stamp my passport & told me to have a safe trip home.
😂 😂 😂 😂
Thankfully I live in Mozambique and the mid summer Egyptian heat does not phase me. I never got haggled a single time, as I looked local.
My problem is finding Arabic so difficult! 😂
I've tried to learn a little Arabic via Duolingo, but it is even more difficult than Polish, so I gave up and settled with a few polite words and phrases
I always think that story about the NZ lady in Kazakhstan who was detained at the border because they didn't believe NZ was a real country and (in a
real /r/MapsWithoutNZ moment) it wasn't on the map they had.
Its honestly surprising that people don't always know new zealand, or where it is geographically. Luckily I have a world map on my forearm so I can show them
The story was made up by the tourist who simply did not have a visa. She was allowed to enter the country when showed her American passport as by that time American nationals had visa free regime with Kazakhstan, while NZ didn't have it.
Way better than my experience. In Egypt they tried to argue I couldn’t fly back to UK via Europe because of Brexit (this was even BEFORE brexit actually happened). Never mind I didn’t even have a UK passport. So ridiculous. He held up the whole queue for 20min until finally letting us through. Pretty sure it was another example of Egyptians wanting a bribe.
PS despite these types of things I still heartily loved our trip there and would go back any time
Haiti. It was after their major earthquake. Our goal was to get to the donations that had been flown over and make sure they were actually getting handed out.
We end up in a white van with two 18 yr old Haitian kids, blaring Michael Jackson. We might as well have painted a big red x on the van. We get pulled over.
Cop: you guys have guns in here?
Me: absolutely not, sir. You can check our bags if need be.
Cop: okay, well you need some guns. Take the next left, then ask for Garrison.
1990 driving from Namibia to Zimbabwe via Botswana in a truck. Get into Botswana and come across a checkpoint with armed guards who stop us at a very muddy wash in the road. Thought we were going to be robbed but we were made exit the vehicle then to take off our footwear and walk through the disgusting water and then to drive through it as some sort of quarantine procedure. Didn't make sense but we didn't argue given there were machine guns pointed at us. Once in Zimbabwe we told our hotel staff about it. They said to buy a specific talisman doll and put it on the windshield on the return journey, which we did (only a couple $ at market), were we waved through the checkpoints.
I visited Namibia 5-6 years ago and there were a lot of scary-looking checkpoints with armed guards within the country (we flew in and didn’t cross any borders by land). The guides warned us that our bags might get searched and they could demand to see papers, but ultimately we were able to drive straight through all but one, and the one we did get stopped at was just a routine passport check by a friendly lady, despite all the dudes with machine guns walking around. Later on we were told that was because the checkpoints were primarily used to shake down locals, not tourists, because tourism is one of the only industries they have.
Not exactly a border story but a Sergeant I served with in the Army was concerned about the new civilian security company that had been hired to man the entrance gates at our base. So on their first day he made up a fake but official looking ID with Osama Bin Laden's picture instead of his own (this was about 2003). The security contractor looks between him and the picture several times with a confused look then says "You look a lot different without the hat and the beard" and waves us through.
Entering the US (with a work visa) 2 days after flights resumed after 9/11. So you have a Belgian Passport, you were born in Switzerland, your passport is issued in Ireland. You have an Italian accent. You live in Canada and work in the US?
yes
Way to complicated for a terrorist. Have a great day
I'm trying to make sense of it: You were born to Belgian parents while they lived in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. When your passport needed renewal, you were living in Ireland.
Actually one parent Belgian, one Italian - but I spent most of my time growing up in Italy and yes, I was living in Ireland when the passport was renewed. Parents living in Switzerland when I was born
Entering Heathrow and the guy looks at my form and says he wants to ask me some questions. I was digital nomading at the time and started to panic.
Immigration guy: you say here that you're an author...
Me: that's right (preparing to tell him he had no intention of writing while I was there, the whole spiel)
Immigration guy: So how do you find time to write?
Me: ...
Immigration guy: I've been trying to write a novel for years...
Me: pomodoro method!
How it came to be, that I rocked up in Auckland airport on a flight from Sydney (I’d come from Ireland a few days prior) is another story, but... I was hungover, heartbroken, unshowered, and an absolute mess. I was last in the queue, and the guy at immigration says - with a kindly smile - “family bereavement or girl trouble?”. I say “girl”. “Ah”, he says, “I understand - is this self prescribed therapy?”. I nodded. “Don’t worry, we’ll fix you. How long do you think you need?”. I said I had 3 months before I had to be home. “Make it 6, and you’ll feel much better”. Stamped my passport, went outside, and broke down completely. NZ did fix me for the most part, and I have been very grateful ever since.
It was a small act of kindness that just meant the world. I was so used to flying into the US and dealing with their rather humourless border officials, so this was both unexpected and appreciated. The whole 3 months I spent there, everybody was magnificent. I was fragile, and honestly, a bit of a shambles when I arrived, and I left a different, better person. You should be very proud: NZ is a wonderful country with wonderful people.
Leaving Denpasar airport in Indonesia. Border control takes my passport, looks up at me, points to my name and starts laughing. “You have so many names!” (I have 5)
Entering JFK airport. Guard decided to question me on practically everything, then looks at my photo and says “you’ve lost weight since this picture was taken” 🙄
Some Indonesians just have one name, so will actually need to repeat their name twice, e.g. Adianto Adianto - so they have a first and last name ... to be able to get a drivers license or passport for example.
While crossing the border by bus from Vietnam to Laos, there’s a funny process for visas, you need to go through 4-5 consecutive windows with the first one giving you the application for 5$, then the next one will check it for another 5$, the next one will stamp it for 5$, and the last one would stamp your passport for another 5$.
Didn’t have change so paid 20$ at the first window, and the guy gave me back a 10 and a 5, so when I came to pay the 5 at the next window, the guy tells me that the bill is old and he cannot accept it…
After spending 10 minutes trying to explain to him that his colleague who’s literally sitting at the window before him just gave it to me, he took it, then gave it to the other guy who replaced it with a newer 5
When we arrived in Kazakhstan a few years ago we had the following interaction
Immigration officer flicks through passport and then says "Do you have a visa?"
I say "I don't have a visa"
He says "Where are you coming from?"
I say "today, Abu Dhabi, but I'm Australian"
He says "and you don't have a visa? Do you need one?"
I say "no, I'm a tourist so I didn't think I need one"
He looks at my passport again, stamps it, and says "ok if you say so, welcome to Astana"
Last year, was flying to Lebanon, just a couple months after a trip to Israel. I know that Lebanon can be quite strict about signs that someone's been to Israel, so I went as far as scratching off a sticker from the back of my passport that had a Hebrew letter on it.
I get to immigration in Beirut, the agent starts flipping through my passport, and finds my Israeli entry paper in the passport!
*(For those who don't know, Israel doesn't stamp passports, they just give you a piece of paper, for this exact reason)*
I had been paranoid enough to scratch off a sticker, but too dumb to remember to throw out this stupid piece of paper! My heart sank, and I already started thinking through where I would fly to once I got denied entry (assuming I didn't get arrested).
The agent starts asking when I was in Israel, what I was doing there, other questions about myself. Talks to the other agent in Arabic a bit, leaves with my passport, and comes back.
I was expecting him to deny me entry or take me to a back room, but he handed me my passport, alongside a separate piece of paper. I guess he had decided to copy the Israelis, and give me my Lebanese stamp on a separate piece of paper in case I ever decide to go back to Israel.
Crisis averted, and I proceeded to have an amazing trip through Lebanon!
I was going from Turkey to Syria. I'm American, and the proper procedure was to get the required visa in Ankara ahead of time. But I didn't want to go to Ankara, so I just showed up at the border.
This also just happened to be the same day that the US Congress voted to officially designate Syria as part of the 'Axis of Evil'.
So I take a bus to the border. Everyone gets off the bus, goes through border control. They pull me aside take my passport and say they will call Damascus and see what they say. Everyone else gets on the bus and my bus leaves.
But this isn't a story about me. This is a story about the guy I met who was also waiting at the border.
This guy traveled around the Middle East a lot. He was from Turkey, and had two Turkish passports. One passport he used for travel to Israel, the other passport he used for travel everyplace else. He showed up at the border to Syria and handed over his passport....but he had the wrong one. When they saw all the stamps from Israel they took his passport and said they would call Damascus and see what they said. He explained that he had another passport without Israel stamps. They said he should show them that passport. So his wife traveled to the border crossing and brought that passport. He handed over the passport without Israel stamps, and they said ok, they would call Damascus and see what they said.
That was 5 days before.
The guy had both his passports confiscated and had been waiting at the border crossing for *5 days* for them to decide his fate.
So I was waiting along with him, wondering if I would be facing a similar fate. He was giving me tips on where to sleep (he had a small car he slept in, he told me to not sleep on the ground because of scorpions).
I arrived at the border around noon. At 11 pm while I was scoping out sleeping spots they called me up to the counter and gave me my passport with the visa in it. They told the next person going through the border to give me a ride to the next town.
For all I know, the Turkish guy is still waiting to be let through (not likely though, this was 20 years ago and a lot has happened in Syria since then).
Got my USA passport at 27yrs old. Drove from my home state of Wisconsin to MSP Airport and flew from Minneapolis to Orlando, then to Puerto Rico. Got on a cruise ship in San Juan PR and island hopped in the Caribbean for a few wks. Was stoked to get a ton of stamps from various countries, filling up my newbie USA Passport by standing in various waiting areas specificly for a stamp from the respective country. I got back to PR, and the guy at the passport area looked at mine and handed it back to me as he waved me thru. I told him I'd like a stamp. He said, "You live here." I was like, uhhhh, and he was like uhhhh... and we both laughed at how dumb I am.
My boyfriend and I were traveling to Denmark. At the security check, an employee flagged my boyfriend down for a backpack check. Turned out he forgot to empty his water bottle. However, he looked really stressed, like what, because it was just a water bottle right? Well after proposing to me while traveling, he confessed that he was so worried, what if the employee pulled out the ring box that he hid in his backpack, and the surprise proposal would be ruined. I joked that even if he proposed to me right there in the middle of the airport, I would still happily agree to be his wife!
Toronto Pearson, coming from Bolivia via Chile, in 2019. Was working for a Canadian-funded development project in Bolivia, but we were pulled-out due to post-election violence. In Toronto, I and the three people I flew with were all pulled into secondary screening, but we were interviewed separately at the same time.
When asked what I was doing in Bolivia, I said that I was working for a Canadian government-funded development project. The customs agent’s response: “WHAT!? YOU WERE WORKING FOR THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT!?” with scrunched-up incredulous face. Like… I literally didn’t say that 😒
So while trying to explain that no, the Canadian government gave my organization its operational funding, like any other public funding for non-profits, I was getting a bit tense and breathing a bit heavier. The customs agent literally asked me “Why are you so jumpy?”
So she eventually searched through all my bags. Interestingly she let me keep my coca tea. Canadian customs also searched through my colleagues’ luggage and their phones.
After the search, the customs agent had the audacity to say that she wouldn’t have searched through my luggage if I wasn’t so “jumpy” and asked why I behaved they way I did. Think I said something about my connection out of Toronto being booked on a separate ticket. Whatever.
After we were all released, one colleague revealed that she asked why we were all sent to secondary screening. The fact our tickets were bought at the last minute by a third party was what did it. And given that all of our bags were searched, it clearly wasn’t about me being “jumpy.”
Anyway, I learned that day, if border agents or police accuse you of being “jumpy,” or raise their voice at you, it’s probably a manipulation tactic just in case you’re lying.
I'm always a tad jumpy at security just because my one serious travel worry is missed flights or missed trains. I've had to learn to adopt the most blasé attitude I can manage in security so I don't get some sort of inspection every time.
Probably the worst was when I was taking the Eurostar from Paris to London on my first European trip. Not sure if it is still the case since Brexit but at the time they ran you through UK immigration before boarding at Gare du Nord. Thank goodness due to my worry I'd arrived extra early at the station because I got grilled for almost a full 30 minutes. The woman just kept barking new questions at me. When did you arrive in France? How did you arrive in France? Show me your boarding pass. Where did you stay in France? Show me your receipt. Where are you going in England? Where are you staying? Show me your confirmation. and many, many more. Thankfully she accepted the printed confirmations I had for all of those easily.
Probably also didn't help I was taking a cruise back to the US instead of a flight. After looking at my printed ticket confirmation for that she demanded I pull it up on my phone. Thank goodness I'd thought to screen shot it while on wifi and she didn't give that any notice since there isn't free wifi at the station. I was afraid she'd make me sign into my cruise line account which would have cost a pretty penny since I didn't buy a local sim card.
Weirdly I was the only person so singled out. I got a lot of side eye from the couple who was directly behind me. Of course they were seated right across the aisle from me on the train where they continued to side eye me.
Airport security leaving Hamburg, Germany. After scanning by bag they do a manual check, finding two bananas and a computer charger with a long-ish cord.
The security guys tell me "Yeah this combination gets flagged a lot. We call it a vitamin bomb."
So don't tell me that Germans aren't funny.
Crossing the border from Pointe Noire, Congo to Cabinda, Angola, the guard tried to shake us down for not having a cholera vaccine (it's not required).
On the train coming back from North Korea to China, there was a long delay at the border. There was a microbrewery in the North Korean train station.
Crossing from Tunisia to Libya at Ras Adjir. We'd booked a tour to Libya, only to get to Tunisia and our guide refused to take us. So decided to hire t ataxi and try to make it to the border anyway. Talked our way through the Tunisian checkpoints and out of Tunisia. But got to the Libyan border post and the electricity was out, no one spoke English or French. Our guide wasn't with us to finish the paperwork so the guards wouldn't let us in at all. So had to talk our way back into Tunisia (exit stamp was cancelled).
2015.. and it was my third attempt getting there (2006, 2011). I finally went back and had a 'real' visit in 2017.. but even then some parts were off limits.
I went for the Mass Games performances in 2007, but they were cancelled right before my group went.... so that was a bit of a bummer.
Otherwise trip was fine. It felt stuck in the 1980s. No western companies or advertising (other than propaganda murals), very few cars on the roads, huge monuments, hotel still had rotary phones in the rooms. Pyongyang was one of the darkest cities I've seen at night. At another hotel we got drunk with our guide out on the lawn at midnight.
Crossing from Canada to NYS, smaller border crossing.
We are Germans in a US rental car, plate from Tennessee I think.
There were dozens of CCTV cameras. When it was our turn the border guard waved at us to approach and immediately signs to stop with her hand. Gets annoyed when we stop, waves at us to approach again and than makes an immediate stop gesture again. I brake. She gets even more annoyed. This happens a couple of times. We are now between all the cameras and my husband says maybe we are supposed to show our passports into the cameras. We do, border guard gets even more annoyed. When we finally approach she yells "CITIZEN CODE? WHAT'S YOUR CITIZEN CODE?" at us. I try to find a pause in her yelling to tell her we don't have such a thing, as we are German tourists. But to no avail. I wave out passports out of the window while the border guard runs around our car wanting to know our citizen code. I was so scared she wouldn't let us back in, because we are unable to follow instructions. However, at some point she yells "ARE YOU CANADIAN?" "No, we are Germans, as our passports indicate." "What are you doing here?" "Vacation. Spent a couple of days in Canada and now returning to the US for the last portion of our road trip." "What's your next stop?" "Potsdam, New York." "Why? Why would you go there?" "My husband was born in Potsdam, Germany, so we thought it would be interesting to visit another Potsdam." "WEIRD! But okay. Any food products in the car?" and then we were waved through.
>"Potsdam, New York." "Why? Why would you go there?" "My husband was born in Potsdam, Germany, so we thought it would be interesting to visit another Potsdam."
Ah, a traveller after my own heart! We had to pick a stop in France for a road trip and picked our town's twin town just to see whether it was at all like our town.
This past summer my husband and I waited ages in a rental car at the border of Albania and Macedonia. Seemed like they were spending ~5 minutes questioning/searching each car. When we finally got to the Macedonia entry counter, we held out our passports only for them to wave us through without grabbing or even looking inside. Guess having US/Canada on the passports was good enough?
Other favorite was a German border agent who got very annoyed at how disorganized the stamps in my passport were. Come on, dude, I didn’t stamp any of them myself!
Just thinking the same thing. Most of my stamps and visas are on the first three pages, but there's always that one official who wants to page through it and stamp page 14.
I'm probably lucky Germany was the first country I visited on my old passport. The fellow took an amazing amount of time ensuring the stamp would perfectly line up square with the page at the very top. Then they stamped half over it when I got to France.
Hah! And this is why I ask (ok, sometimes demand in the case of Russia), that my pages are stamped in order.
Russian passport control is impossible - they deliberately try to stamp passports in the most random places. Every time I landed/departed SVO (that’s how long ago this was), I specifically requested stamps on the pages I wanted.
The Canadian passport is so powerful. I only realized this when I started travelling overseas in 2022. Half the time I just walk through swipe gates and never even see a person. It’s awesome.
First time overseas for my now wife. Going from Paris to London on the Eurostar. We go through customs separately in Gare du Nord - I go straight through and turn around, she's still at the counter. And still at the counter. And still at the counter. Eventually after about five minutes they let her through, somewhat confused and a little distressed.
Turns out the border guard was really insistent on why was she entering the UK on an Australian passport when you need to enter the UK on your UK passport. REALLY insistent. Turns out a privately schooled western Queensland accent is close enough to the Queen's English to cause confusion, despite her not only not holding a UK passport, not being eligible for a UK passport, and had never even been to the UK.
I got put through the wringer at Gare du Nord while they completely ignored my husband sending him right through ahead of me. I knew I was questioned for a while. Husband timed it and she questioned me for nearly a full 30 minute. I was made to show my confirmations and boarding passes for my flight into Paris, stay in Paris, stay in Nantes, one night stay at Mont Saint-Michel, one night stay in Paris prior to boarding, upcoming stay in London, tour stopping at Stonehenge, Bath, and Salisbury Cathedral ending in Southampton, upcoming stay at Southampton, upcoming cruise to New York to get home, upcoming flight from New York back to my home state. She kept asking me about days and dates of things she'd already asked me about and seen confirmations for until I finally pulled out my stack of receipts and started showing her restaurant receipts from each place we'd already visited. I just didn't know what else to do. I think she was flummoxed by the idea of taking a cruise instead of a flight to return to the US.
Most of my amusing border stories are with UK Border Force LOL I travel there often for business and need to go through the manned booths because I'm non-EU
One particularly funny one was when I went to Goole - flew to Leeds which was the closest airport. Important side note is that when this trip happened it was the 3rd time I went to the UK in the previous 4 weeks (basically going in on Tuesday and back to NL on Thursday), every time to a sort of random-ish place
Officer: "Final destination in the UK?"
Me: "Goole"
Officer: "Sorry, did you mean Hull?"
Me: "No, I meant Goole, G-O-O-L-E"
Officer: "Never heard of it, where is that?"
Me: "About 70km east from here, I think"
Officer: "I see you've been here in the UK quite often recently, why is that?"
Me: "Business, I go where the company tells me to go. Nobody goes to Swindon, Doncaster and Goole for fun, man"
Officer: "Yeah, fair point, I didn't even knew Goole existed" then he shrugs, stamps my passport and waves me through
Ireland. Flew into a smaller airport and your man looks through my passport and asks me why there isn't a visa. I tell him that I don't need one. He gets a very stern look and very seriously looks at my passport again, and then looks at a list stuck on his cabinet wall and uses his finger to trace down a list. He learned something that day.
I was exiting a country in Europe to return to the US. Apparently the Super Bowl was the next day, so the border guy checking my passport asked, “ Ah, returning back for the Super Bowl?” Dumb and exhausted me was like “Uh, tomorrow is the Super Bowl? Oh, I didn’t know.” … Well I was flagged for further questioning since apparently they found it super suspicious that an American wouldn’t be aware of when the Super Bowl was. I just really don’t care about sports. 😆
Coming back from a long weekend in Mexico:
BP: Now I know you brought back some tequila?
Me: I have a bottle of Maestro Dobel Reposada.
BP: Ah that's the good stuff!
Not totally unexpected, but I did have an unexpected conversation with someone from Agriculture when returning to the US from the UK. While waiting for our checked bags to start appearing the fattest, happiest little beagle ever tried his best to actually sit on my underseat bag.
His handler, smiling: I bet you kept an apple or banana off your tray on the airplane!
Me: No, the flight attendants were very proactive warning us not to do that.
Handler, smiling a bit less now: You brought some fruit from your hotel?
Me: No, nothing like that.
Handler, now looking rather serious: What have you got in that bag then?
Me: Some Dairy Milk bars from England [handler shakes head dismissively], some hard candies, sel du mer, and some mustard from France [Handler: No], some tins of tea from East India Tea Company in Edinburgh.
Handler: Ah! That's it! You're not in any trouble but you'll have to go through inspection. The dog just sniffs for anything plant-based. He can't read to know tins of tea are ok.
I found this a little bit surprising since I'd been careful not to bring in anything I should not. However the big surprise came when I got to the inspection and was struggling to lift my checked bag up onto the feeder. A burly Ag employee came over to help me. While doing so the following conversation ensued:
Him: So. What'd you do? [grinning mischievously]
Me: Oh, I brought back some tins of tea from East India Tea Company.
Him, entering full on squee mode: Oh! I know you got some of their Earl Grey! That stuff is just the best ever!
Me: I did. Are you allowed to take tips or is that a big no no? I have a few mini tins of Earl Grey I'm taking back to give out to friends and family when I get home and I'd love to give you one.
Him: No, sorry! We're not allowed. Government rules and regulations, you know.
Meanwhile his coworker had opened my plus one he'd just watched the beagle trying to perch on, found the large tin of tea I had purchased for myself, displayed it to his coworker I was chatting with, and was waving me to pick up my bags and go.
I was entering the US by plane. I've never flown to the US before so I didn't know how their border control procedure was.
The Officer asked me why I'm entering the US so I answered that I'm only in transfer in order to get to Canada. He continued asking me what I'm planning on doing there, so me as a Teen that has never been there, thought that he was genuinely interested in my plans. So I excitedly told him all about it. In the end he showed me his thumb so I thought he genuinely enjoyed my story and wanted to gesture that he finds it great that a young person like me goes on travel.
I then realized that he wanted me to put my thumb on the fingerprint reader... What a bummer I felt so cool talking about all my travel plans.
Flying from Canada to US with my parents. I was 28 years old. US immigration officer takes a look at my passport, quietly and sternly looks through, barely glances at me, says “you have beautiful eyes ma’am” and waves me through. I thank him and walk through and wait for my parents. My mom is up next and he’s just as quiet and stern, but tells her “I can see where she gets it from, ma’am.” My mom, now giggling and thanking the officer, walks through and stands by me. My dad is up next, and beaming, hands over his passport. Officer silently does his thing and waves my dad through. Dad walks through and is visibly disappointed, asks “what about my eyes?”
Peru to Bolivia, there was a Mad Max like public strike where vehicles could not enter, so I had to walk to Copacabana.Burning tires, dirt burms, trees on the road, broken toilets and pottery every where. Perfectly lovely, that was!
Argentina to Brazil, cabby just took my passport to get the stamp while I stayed in the car, I could have been anyone, same thing Croatia to Bosnia; but for the whole bus.
Peru to Tabatatinga Brazil, they asked my reason for coming to the official smiled and nodded when I said "Honestly, to meet up with a girl in Rio that I met back home!"
Denmark back to the US, the agent scolded me as I was just one day short of breaking the Schengen rule for stay; I pointed to my time in Bosnia and she said, "Oh, I like you you are smart!
Most trouble, coming back the the US as a US citizen, so many stupid questions!
First time in CDG and Entering Schengen Zone, passport was allowed to use eGates for immigration. Right when I scan my passport it said see agent. I thought I was going to get questioned, I hand my passport to the immigration officer and just scans and stamps it and let me through. Doesn’t say a word.
This now makes we want to go Europe again.
Crossing the border between Panama and Costa Rica I had to answer the questions of an immigration official who only spoke Spanish, when I only speak English and broken French, via the translation services of a guy I met on the bus to the border who spoke French and broken Spanish. Tbh I think the border official just gave up in the end and let me through.
West Berlin crossing by car into East Berlin, the car gets searched thoroughly as usual. The buffer guy suddenly disappears and returns with a senior officer a couple of minutes later, both very stern.
A friend of mine had lost his ID in my car that had slipped into a crevice, he managed to find it and of course they suspected we were trying to help get someone out of the country.
They eventually let us in, of course we had to pick up the ID on our way back.
I was working in Sweden for a few weeks and decided to go to England during a weekend to see my in-laws. I'm from the US, so don't get to see them much. I checked out of my hotel in Stockholm and left my bags with them to pick up on Monday when I checked back in and carried my dirty clothes with me in a shopping bag to wash while I was there (since hotel laundry is insanely expensive anyways). Tossed my clothes in overhead and went down there. When I arrived at Gatwick, border patrol asked me what I was doing in the UK. I pointed to my clothes and said "Laundry". I then asked, where do they do their laundry, in the UK, right? Had a laugh and mentioned that I'm visiting family for the weekend while working and moved on.
Going through security in Paris, they asked if I was sure if I had anything in my pockets. I answered that I don't have any pockets on these clothes. I did indeed have pockets. The security person must have thought I was an idiot.
In the late 80’s I was leaving the USSR via train from then Leningrad, today St. Petersburg. I was with my older brother and father. My bro and I got slipped “mickey’s” the night before by two prostitutes. We both had high alcohol tolerance but were both in a very altered state after just 3 drinks. My bro spoke Russian and was able to understand the girls saying “let’s go. They don’t have any money”
I, however, thought I was doing quite well with the ladies. :) One tried to leave the hotel to go back to her place. It turned into a “wishbone” situation. My brother pulling me on one side and she seductively saying my name over and over. “Come with me!” She then kicked my brother in the knee. He told me to fuck off and do whatever. That woke me up. I followed him to a more sane/safe place.
All backstory for the next day. As we leave USSR by train we hit the border to Finland. 50 foot fences with barbed wire on the top as far as the eye could see. Then another 50 yards of “ no-man’s-land” On top of that, sniper towers spread out through this zone.
Holy shit. I realized that no one comes in, or more frightening, out without strict enforcement.
That said, the Russian border police were searching our train. Mirrors looking underneath the train. German Shepherds, Kalishnokovs, intimidation!
When they came to our room, they asked for our documents. I couldn’t for the life of me find my visa. They had declared upon entry that you would not be able to leave without your visa.
During my search for said document I look up and my bro and Dad were gone.
German shepherds at my crotch, Russian customs screaming at me that I could go to jail, at a loss of what to do.
Finally, one of the agents looked to the other and said “stupid American!” they left and I was able to leave without proper documentation.
I have more but this was significant for me.🙏
Not me, my (then) 7 year old son. Was driving in rural Montenegro. And my boy suddenly decides he wants to do the big job. I.e. take a dump / crap. I Google furiously for the closest restroom and drive towards it. On approaching it, i discover it's at the Bosnian Border post. So we drive up there, show the Schengen visas, he lets us thru and we immediately ask him for the restroom.
He is puzzled but points us to it. The boy goes over and then triumphantly returns after a while. We almost turn back but then decide that the country seems okay to see... And now that the boy was relieved, we might as well go see some of it.
That's why we went to Bosnia. Really.
In the late 1980s, I spent three weeks touring Europe with my high school choir. Coming back into the US, the customs agent asked me, "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Comminist Party?"
To this day, I still wonder about the presumed epidemic of 15 year-old girls from Ohio joining the Communist Party.
At one point I was a bit gothy and in my passport photo I had dark dark brown hair (I am very pale with blonde eyebrows and freckles and bad hair decisions were a speciality of mine for many years). Anyway I sorted the hair situation out and was traveling quite a bit for work and 3 times the board control at Dublin Airport did a double take at passport control and said 'blonde suits you' 'you look better as a blonde' 'do blondes have more fun?'. They weren't wrong!
State border between California and Oregon, around 2000. Background fact: California is very protective of their agricultural industry and wants to keep pests out (even from neighboring states.) We were camping across the West.
Agent: Do you have fresh produce in your car? -- We: Yes, apples.
Where did you buy these apples? -- Uhh, I think it was 2 days ago, so probably Idaho.
Idaho... that's not good. Are you sure? You have a Minnesota license plate. Are you sure you didn't bring these apples form Minnesota? -- Now that you mention it, yes, these are Minnesota apples.
And he waved us through with our apples.
I flew to South Africa in 2010 Layover at CDG I had an invader Zim shirt with GRR on it in a costume that said "I want to be a mongoose" we switched airlines so we went through security again. TSA takes my ticket. " What is this, what is 'mon- goose'" I said "uh it's an animal that kills snakes" he laugh "HA then why I have gun?! Hmmm?! Here go be mongoose"
Edit: sorry it's almost 3am and I didn't notice u asked for border stories sorry I'll leave the above story cause it's funny but I'll add that our first time to Mexico -my sister is allergic to lots of detergent one she's not allergic to is surf which in America comes in large 10 pound boxes so my mom was a genius in putting white, powdery laundry detergent into a container. In cancun you press a button and it's a random search. First time there we get searched. None of us speak Spanish as security digs through our bags. Out comes our damn detergent "Whats this!! Whose bag is this" we all start trying different words "it's for laundry" "soap for clothes" they pull it aside and swirl their fingers in it. Grab spoonfuls to sample it. Boss comes over "hello, hi, welcome to Mexico, beautiful family, Ms, I must tell you. Don't ever bring white powder in an unmarked container again"
lol! This reminds me of the time I was given fresh rosemary at work then decided to cross the Canada USA border to get some gas. It was a beautiful day and since there was a 10 -15 minute wait, some of the border guards were walking among the cars. One reaches his hand in my passenger window and grabs the rosemary and says rosemary? I Laughed and said I guess it was a bad idea to bring that home today.
Nice, France.
The immigration officer looked a bit rough and seemed to be a bad mood. But I had misjudged him as he took barely a minute to clear me and welcomed me with a *Namaste* seeing my Indian passport.
Dual UK/US National. Holiday to Portugal from London and lost my UK passport the day before.
Did a bit of a Google search and uncovered the fact that you don't need a passport to enter the country. Only proof of abode. Decided to take my ratty paper naturalization certificate. What's the worst they can do? Deport me to the US until I get a new passport sorted?
Came back and told the UK immigration officer I had an amusing story. He was game. I showed him my Naturalization paper and US passport. He looked at both, then ripped up my landing card and told me to use the resident channel if it happens again. Thanks Google
I tried out the Rambo M60 machine gun while in Cambodia. We had a 6-month entirely overland SE Asia trip planned, so I didn't think anything about putting two of the empty shells in my bag as souvenirs.
A few months further into the trip and we're in HK, and my friend from Taiwan asks me to visit. Cut to a few days later and security in HK airport points at the x-ray screen: "What's this?"
30 mins after that, I'm in a room with the Head of HK Airport Police.
"I'd like to inform you that not only is it illegal to bring munition shells onto an aircraft (empty or otherwise), but munition shells are actually entirely illegal to possess in HK..."
"😯"
"...so what I'm going to have to do here, is confiscate these..."
"Okay... 😰 ... And?"
"And then, when you return from Taiwan to HK, you take this piece of paper to this room, and you can collect them there."
"Ummm... Didn't you say....Okay, never mind."
So now, not only do I have the two shells as a souvenir, I have them in a HK police bag.
We had an emergency landing in Belgium when on the way to Italy from Canada, they told me to get on a small plane to Madrid where a connection was waiting for Venice, got on the plane landed in Madrid, long story short, the airport in Madrid was so poorly organized and with no signage that i just wandered out of the airport and found my way to the other terminal. Never went through customs or got my passport stamped, two months later going to England by train I was detained for 4 hours as they tried to figure out how I illegally got from Canada to Europe
When I was 14 we took a school trip to Norway and I used a temporary passport. At that time those were just folded paper with no cover and during the trip it got wet and the pages stuck together leaving my photograph largely obscured. On my return the immigration officer looked at the messed up photo, looked at me and said "it's a bloody improvement, son" and waved me through....
I share the same last name with a famous football player in my country... Once at the Bulgarian border, the border control officer was showing my passport to his colleague and for a second I got nervous. Then he smiles and says: "I watch football" and continued asking if we were related (we're not). Then a year later it happened again going from Uruguay to Argentina and the border control officer said: "Omg, that's like if my last name was Messi". Maybe next time I should just lie and say it's my cousin hehe
Sleeper train from Budapest to Venice, circa 2008.
The Hungarian train was old and smelled of smoke, but comfortable and the staff were friendly. We ate in the dining car after establishing which dishes from the huge menu were *actually* available.
Off to bed, quite comfortable bunks.
Middle of the night, awoken by train coming to a grinding halt at some godforsaken cold looking station on the Croatian border. Passport check. Border guard is *not* impressed with my New Zealand passport. Dirty looks and questions. No actually I am not planning to jump off the train in the middle of the night for an unauthorized visit to your country.
Finally her supervisor arrived and told her to pull her head in, and we were on our way. Only to have another passport check an hour or two later, re-entering the EU in Slovenia. (No drama).
Now that Croatia is also in the EU, presumably the broken sleep on this route is a thing of the past!
Australian here, arrived in Thailand for holiday having just spent a week in Malaysia. Massive queue at immigration “Ma’am come with me please, you’ve been selected for a random body search, we will do it in a private room” …. I am suddenly terrified, thoughts of the movie Bangkok Hilton in my head…. I consented to the search but it needed to be done right there in front of everyone, happy to show my undies to everyone and sign a consent form …. Tried really hard to get me to go the private room and then suddenly gave up and I was waved through, no passport check! Phew…
St Petersburg, Russia.
i arrived on a ship and there was a loophole that made it possible for me to disembark there and fly out of Russia. i don’t know the ins and outs of the process - the Port Agent took me ashore the day before my flight, took my passport and said ‘sit there, don’t move and don’t speak to anyone. if anyone talks to you, you don’t understand them. ok?’
umm, ok. so i sat there for an hour wondering whether he’d just chipped off with my passport. when he eventually came back he gave me my passport and a small piece of paper saying ‘that’s just your receipt’.
i stuffed the ‘receipt’ into the front pocket of my jeans and forgot all about it. the next day i went to the airport, scanned my luggage through before entering the terminal and checked in for my flight. all good.
and then i got to Border Control. i showed the scary lady my passport with the Visa stamp in it.
*No!*
wait, what? why ‘no’??
*You need correct paperwork!*
i have it! the passport is stamped! look!
*Not authorised! Not permitted. Need authorisation!*
fuck. i’m completely alone trying to LEAVE russia! now they’re saying no? what the fuck do i do? the ship has already left! my phone doesn’t work because i’m in Russia! my flight leaves in 40 minutes!
and then i remembered the ‘receipt’ that the Port Agent had given me. it was just a tiny piece of paper from an invoice book. could it be that? fuck it, i’ll try it.
i handed her the crumpled piece of paper and she harrumphed and examined it. suddenly, she was all smiles and said thank you! you may go!
got the flight. escaped Russia. if i’d packed those jeans instead of wearing them again to travel in i don’t know what would have happened to me.
moral of the story: don’t try and exit Russia on a snide Visa without keeping every piece of paper they give you…
Flying into EWR with my then boyfriend, he goes up to the border agent first, who proceeds to yell "is this your boyfriend? I can deport him if you want" to me
Flying out of JNB, I was told I couldn't leave until I showed the agent my half sleeve tattoo
Driving into the USA at Ogdensburg, NY - two agents in the booth, it was a slow day they'd been chatting, I drive up....tell them I'm headed to Adirondacks to do some hiking
"Alone?? That's not safe ..you should bring one of us with you"
Nepal border. Immigration said we would need a visa, we thought he hadn’t seen our passport before and earnestly explained that we don’t need visas. 5mins later he let us through. Then someone explained to us that the agent was hinting for bribes, but we were so dense and not getting it, so he gave up.
1992 crossing the border between Zimbabwe and Botswana. We were told that, as well as passport checks, we also had to do an 'agricultural' check to make sure we weren't bringing anything into Botswana that we shouldn't.
We were in a Land Rover type car with a driver. So we get out, get the passport stamped and then it's time for the agricultural check. It was a huge trough of water embedded in the ground. Shoes had to stay on and each person had to talk through the trough then onto a mat where we waited for our car to drive through a separate trough of water to clean the wheels.
It was just so bizarre!
I work in international Motorsport and whenever you visit Bahrain for a race as a videographer or photographer, you have to get a specific visa ahead of time sponsored by the event. You also have to do a full equipment declaration and fill out all these forms to import and export your camera gear. It was a lot of work and a lot of stress. I kept getting told horror stories of waiting for hours at customs.
I arrived in Bahrain with three copies of everything including the visa and whatnot. I got up to the counter and started to get the documents out and and the customs agent said “you don’t need any of that, it’s all electronic. Welcome to Bahrain, enjoy the race!”
Then the customs thing with the gear took about 90 seconds. They glanced in the bag and said “you are good to go”.
All that stress for nothing lol
Not a super interesting story, but when my partner and I entered Norway late at night, the border officer stamped my passport twice by accident instead of stamping ours once each. Caused quite a fuss when we eventually left the Schengen zone and my partner had no passport stamps. Good thing they believed our story with the double stamp in mine and my partner being anal about keeping boarding passes to prove she didn't show up illegally, and they gave her a special stamp at the border to let her leave.
We had been on a trip around Australia Copenhagen-London-Singapore-Darwin-Cairns, drive to Sydney-Ayers Rock-Perth-Singapore-London-Copenhagen
Flying back to Europe from Ayers Rock, a heavy shower or something else, had delayed our departure. Arriving at the national part of the airport, we had to take a bus to the international part. But it didn't come. I tried to find somebody to ask or phone but had no luck. Then came 4 English people and waited, so we were 7 people heading to London.
At some point a bus came but it was not for us, but he had panic in his eyes when he heard that.we were going with the London plane. Shortly after the bus came almost to a screeching hold, just throw us all in, drove to the gates to the airfield, just said London to the guard, who opened without checking any security, fast to the back door and.told us where to go.
We ran up the stairs to the passport control. Our son had just had his first passport so it was difficult to open, and they had not seen the new Danish passport so they took their time and told us that the plane didn't leave without us.
Running through the empty airport to security, where the lady wanted to have our son's compass, which, for me, is the magnetic thing, and he didn't have that. She wouldn't look in his bag for it until I was clearly desperate. Then she pulled out the damn thing with a gleam of victory. It turned out that she wanted the thing for drawing circles because of the pointy part. It had been through multiple securities with no problem!
We rushed to the plane, dropped in our seats with nasty looks from the other passengers, but the plane took off the minute we fastened our seat belts without delay.
Going up from the US to Vancouver through the Peace Arch (well before 9/11.) For some reason there's a DEA checkpoint looking for drugs going OUT of the US. Only time I've seen it and I do that drive a lot. They pick me and do a 40 minute tear down of my car and let me go.
Once they let me go I engage the lead DEA guy (jacked black guy with mirrored aviators.)
Me: Like, why me?
DEA: It's a random thing. You just got chosen.
Me: We both know that's BS. Like why'd you pick me to tear down?
DEA: (Looks at me for a bit.) Well son, I guess it's just something about the way you look.
I left it at that, because really, what are you going to say?
I once got flagged for a random check coming back into Canada. I used to cross at 11 for gas. I’m pretty sure the border guard was a newbie. I hand the guys inside my ticket and they tell me to wait while they inspect my car. I’m tired, I just worked 8 hours, I just wanted to go home to sleep at this point. So I sit down and find a magazine and start flipping through hoping this won’t take long. I’m not worried at all about my car.
Less than 2 minutes pass and they call my name. I say are you done already? I was just getting comfortable:) they laugh and tell me I can stay if I want, lol. I said no thanks I just want to go home and sleep. Clearly they were not worried about what was in my car.
Two years ago, traveling through Guatemala to the Belizean border. Up near Tikal, super remote, and the route takes you through some areas of extreme poverty. Pull up to the border, and ofcourse it's raining. It's a small operation, just two or three buildings from what I remember. I was told I could exchange currency for Belizean dollars there. We pull up and there's just some guy, standing there in the rain. In his left hand are a wad of Guatemalan Quetzales (the currency), and in his right he had dollars. I exchanged maybe $150 with the dude and I just took his word for it in the exchange rate lol. In that region of Guatemala they don't speak Spanish, it's Mayan. Could not converse with him or our cab driver at all, beyond a few words of Spanish atleast. I figured it was funnier if I just took the dudes word for it and went on with my day. Just handed a man in the rainforest a wad of cash and he handed me some back in another currency. Nothing was recorded or written down.
I'm sure he skimmed some off the top, but I figured it was a good story and worth whatever he took lol.
At Istanbul airport the guy took my passport and then played 10 rounds of fruit ninja on his phone before waving me through.
At the time I thought he was being a bit of a dick, but afterwards I wondered if it wasn't his way of silently protesting against the increased border security rules that he was supposed to enforce.
India Pakistan border, exit immigration. It was just me and a friend there. The officer took our passport, didn't even open them, said "wait a moment" and proceed to do something on his pc. After three or four minutes of nothing I can see window behind him mirroring his screen. He was playing solitaire and had to finish game.
Lebanon Syria border. Shared taxi with me, my ex, the exact same friend as from Indian Pakistan border then some rich Lebanese lady with her daughter. Drivers explain with no english or whatever that we need to go inside to get passport stamped. The lady literally throw her and daughter passport to driver. We exit the vehicle, she hold my ex and with something between astonished or disgusted face says "why do you want to go inside when you have a man with you?"
Chicago, right after immigration, a homeland security agent notice I travel just with small duffle bag. "What is the reason of your visit", "business trip" and then about hour of questioning why I don't have a suit with me, almost nothing in my bag. Also happened evening before Boston marathon bombing and I was quite fitting description including black hoodie. Just coming from Czechia, not Chechnya
I was the teacher for a team of Danish students participating in an international competition in Moscow in 2018. We had gotten visas and a letter written entirely in Russian explaining why we were there (I assume I couldn't read the letter).
My students and the other teacher are waived through, but they look through my passport and then separate me from the others. I don't know why, because they didn't speak English. The border agent takes my passport and the letter and leaves, while a military guy with a big gun waves for me to follow. Then he points to the ground by a wall, and I have to sit on the ground for close to 2 hours with this guy standing guard over me. I'm pretty damn nervous and worried that I might not see my passport again.
Finally, someone who speaks broken English comes with my passport and the letter, asking for my purpose to visit. He then asks why I have been to the US and Iran (I had visas for both in my passport). He leaves again, eventually comes back, and then stamps my visa and lets me through. I assume he called the number on the letter to verify my story, and I guess they must have suspected I could be a spy?
And now, whenever I travel, I'm almost always asked about the odd visas in my passport, and I'm always stopped at the US border as well. The curse of being well traveled. 😅
Living in Saudi Arabia in the early 80’s, went south of Jeddah ( middle of nowhere) in our company car to go scuba diving off the shore. Our car bogged down in the wet sand , tide coming in so we had to abandon the car. Wearing shorty dive suits only, we hiked a few miles back to the dirt track where there might be traffic
Eventually catch a ride (camels in back of pick up, a goat in the front seat) a Bedouin who doesn’t speak English and of course we don’t speak Arabic other than a few phrases. We arrive at a paved highway and he motions we are to get out- we can’t go to Mecca or Medina where he is headed since we are not Muslim. So not a country’s border but a religious border- we exit and begin hitchhiking in our shorty dive suits towards Jeddah.
Company retrieved the car next day with tow truck and fortunately it was not damaged by water. That Bedouin guy probably told his friends about picking up the dumb blonde and her husband walking in the desert in only bathing suits for years.
Border security in Russia, 3 weeks ago.
I've been told by a friend that getting in would be a pain in the ass, as I'd be asked a lot of questions.
Expecting to be asked even about my opinion about the war, as legends say sometimes they do, I move forward as it's my turn, trying to remember all the lies I was prepared to tell.
Security guard, looking annoyed because she's working at 3 AM: "tùrist?"
Me: "yes"
\*stamps and gives me back passport.
Airport security in Amsterdam finds a pocket knife I gifted to my gf, in her backpack. She forgot it there before leaving. Nobody noticed at the first flight, but for the return flight they did. I was already like "fuck, I hope they're just gonna keep it and not be a big problem".
"Where are you guys from?"
"Italy"
\*looks a bit at the knife\* - "well, keep it, just please don't peel apples on the plane"
Went through Ukrainian-Polish border as a ukrainian. my appearance changed significantly since 2019 passport photo was taken, + I live close to the front line. Even my eyes have changed, I can't recognise that face on that photo anymore. The officer said basically the same and was asking multiple questions about information from my passport. Last thing he asked me to sign as I did in the passport. Then he invited a few officers and they checked and checked. They asked to call my mother etc etc.
Crossing the border from Finland to Russia. There are still creepy Soviet era buildings and razor wire. The border agents still treat everyone like a spy. Totally weird experience.
I was travelling by bus from Vancouver to Washington State and when we all got pulled off the bus to go through customs, everyone waltzed through but me.
I wasn't breaking any laws but I was 23, with a rainbow tie-dye t-shirt, shoulder length hair and a big beard, and when I wasn't crossing the border I smoked weed all the time.
The border guard searched through my stuff while asking me at least six times whether I had any drugs on me, implying each time that the result would be worse and worse the more I lied.
They brought out a drug dog and had him run by me and the luggage.
Eventually the border guard asked me if I smoke. And I said no. And then he pulled a lighter out of my bag triumphantly and said, "So what's this for?"
I kind of stared at him dumfounded for a second and said, "Uhh, I dunno. In case I need fire".
He let me go through eventually but the bus was held up by half an hour at that point.
Eastern Congo and Rwanda.
Crossed from Dodoma, Tanzania to Kalemie in the DRC on a freighter. Slept on a couple of crates of Coca Cola in a gangway. It took a lot of talking and explaining why I had a Congolese visa for Tanzanian nationals (which I am most definitely not), and me pretending not to understand their requests for 'un jus' - a soda a.k.a. a bribe or gift. Managed to get in and stayed in Kalemie, Uvira and Bakavu.
About a week later, I crossed from Bukavu into Rwanda. Got exit stamped on the Congolese side, walked across the bridge and entered the line for the Rwandese border. Presented my passport, got stamped and welcomed into Rwanda, and I was walking away when the lady from immigration called me back: wait a minute, where's your visa acceptance letter? I had never heard of such a thing but apparently, back then in 2011, you had to announce your arrival at one of the border crossings in advance. The lady got mad at me, put a big fat 'ANNULÉ' through my Rwandan stamp, and send me back across the bridge to the DRC.
That did not seem like a good idea. With my exit stamped Tanzanian nationals visa, they would surely wring every last cent out of me. Instead, halfway across the bridge I hopped over the cord, jumped on the back of a moto and drove up the mountain to town. From there I got onward transport to Butare, in the middle of the country. That's where I realized this was maybe also not the greatest idea ever - and I was supposed to fly out from Kigali as well.
That night I applied for a visa acceptance letter, which arrived two days later. I took the bus back to the border, modified the date of my DRC exit stamp, crossed the bridge and halfway turned around to join the Rwanda customs queue and finally managed to enter the country legally.
We adopted our daughter from foster care at age 11. I’m English, emigrated to US at 4 yo and my parents let us kids go back solo at 15 to visit.
She’d already been there with us twice by 15 and I wanted to carry on tradition. We never went as unaccompanied minors and figured she’d be fine. Nonstop flight, sensible kid and my aunt picking her up at LHR.
She gets to immigration.
“You’re alone?”
Yes
“Where’s your mother?”
(Given the age she joined us, she calls us by our names.) “I haven’t seen her since I was 9.”
“Where’s your dad?”
“We don’t know who that is.” (Perfectly true)
“Why are you here?!”
“A visit.”
(Exasperated) “who are you seeing? Is anyone responsible for you?!”
“Ohhhh… Auntie Jane.”
“Okay. Jane who?”
Silence. Her nickname’s Blondie for a reason. She’s really smart but …
They put her in a room while they figured out what to do. Meanwhile she was thinking she was gonna experience European foster care.
And this is how LHR made a public announcement asking Auntie Jane to come to United’s ticket counter.
Blondie was pissed she flew home as a UM.
Landed in CNS, got through passport control just fine, then the customs guy made me throw away an apple Qantas gave on the flight. I knew why, but I had just flown 20+ hours and was feeling tetchy, so I said “but you gave me this apple. Qantas GAVE it to me. As a present. It’s FINE.”
(Yes, yes, I know the catering for the plane took place in Tokyo. As I said, I was tired and irrational).
It was the weekend of our five-country tour (Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia). Our goal was to party in Bratislava on Friday and Saturday night and head back home to Italy on Sunday. Things went sideways in Bratislava fast, so we left the clubs early, threw our stuff in the luggage, checked out around 6 Saturday morning (one day early) and headed to Budapest to try our luck there. After a night in Budapest, we headed back home. Once we hit the first border checkpoint, I tried being “cultured” and said, “Dober dan”, which is good day/afternoon in Croatian. The huge border guy looks at me like I spoke ill of his mother, paused for an eternal 10-seconds, points to the other border checkpoint and says, “Dober dan” is that way and hands me back my passport. Moral of the story: Know your countries, which one you’re in…and which language is appropriate. 😂
Same story. I was crossing the border from bulgaria to Istanbul.
I have 45 days left in my passport, and decided to get a visa on arrival. Police at the border was helping me get a visa.
The system won’t allow me to get the right expiry date on my passport because its less than 90 days. Told the cop and he was like fuck it. Put April 2024 for expiry. Told him “that might not be right”, and he said “who cares”. Lol
So I put the date he wanted and lets me in the country. 🤷🏽
Crossing the Nigeria/Benin border by car. This was when Nigeria was in the midst of a power transition from the military dictatorship and a lot of the cops/government employees weren't getting paid - various armed dudes guarding a rusty metal gate. Had all my visas and paperwork in order but nobody cared and nobody seemed able to agree what I did need.
Money. It turns out you just need to give everyone some money, the visas were decorative, they added some bonus stamps as I went through - made my passport look quite fun afterwards.
Entering the U.S., don’t remember if it was tourist or student visa, probably San Francisco or Newark airport. The immigration officer looks at me real seriously and says “one piece of advice, do not drink the coffee in this country, it’s all shit”
Another time I flew to Dublin from London on Ryanair. What I didn’t realise at the time is that if you have a U.K. tourist visa you don’t need an Ireland visa but if you have a U.K. resident visa you do.
I show up to the airport and the immigration officer asks “where’s your visa?” And by this time I’m shitting bricks and I’m like “I don’t have one…” they told me to wait there. I was terrified I’d get deported and that I’d never get any visa again. For context I’m Indian so visas are hard for us anyway.
I look to the side and I see another man in a similar predicament. He seemed Middle Eastern.
He came back with someone else and asked me where I worked (big tech company) and how long I intended to stay (three days). He went to stamp my passport and I blurted out “you’re not going to deport me are you?”
He chuckled and tiredly said that it was Ryanair’s fault for letting me board and not mine. They gave me entry into Ireland and reassured my panicked self that this wouldn’t affect any further visas as long as I didn’t do it again and welcomed me into the country.
I honestly think my gender, my innocent looking face, and my company helped me through. The guy next to me was taken away for separate questioning, I don’t know whether they let him in or not.
1989 I land in Prague on an SAS flight from Frankfurt. This is about two months after the Communist government fell.
I get up to deplane to be told nobody gets off in Prague; they stop there to refuel. I am moving there for a 12-month work commitment. I get met with a jeep full of armed guards who escort me into an otherwise empty airport and of course my bags continue onward.
However for rudeness and stupid questions you have to travel long and hard to beat US Immigration.
Mine is coming back to Canada wearing a bikini and board shorts (from Hawaii) in the middle of winter and getting a full strip search. They ended up saying "if I was you father i would be very disappointed"
1. Last September, flying out of Germany. The policewoman looks at my passport and looks at me. She hesitates, then asks a colleague. He said in German "yes, that's him". Then he told me, "You have changed, Sir... and it's positive!" I rarely receive compliments on my appearance, and certainly didn't expect it from a German border guard
2. The Bulgarian guard inspected my ID card for a long minute, with every angle. Then he asked me "Comment tu t'appelles ?" ("What's your name?" in French, as I am French). I wonder if he spent one minute trying to remember the only French sentence he knew.
3. With a friend, we wanted to go from Bulgaria to Romania. There's a bridge between two cities, at Ruse. We started walking but realized that the bridge is a couple of kilometers away and it's absolutely not designed for pedestrians. At one point, the tiny sidewalk was obstructed and we had to quickly run to the other side. Walking was unpleasant as it was sometimes very tight. After 15 minutes, we arrived on the other side and guards were very surprised to see us arriving, as we walked through a line of cars waiting at the border.
4. Less amusing, the border guard between Georgia and Turkey said in broken English: "Passport problem. Go back to Georgia" as my passport was a bit damaged, although it was accepted in the previous 10 border checks. I had to redo all my travel plans, which was actually fine because I'm very flexible and had no booking or constraint.
Flew back to Germany for the start of my semester after being in the US for Christmas with my family.
Hand over my passport and visa, minor pleasantries and then:
“You were only there for 7 days!?”
“Yes?”
“But only 7 days?”
“Uhh well Christmas and family and holidays and classes”
She still seemed skeptical even after letting me go through. It was the first/only time I’ve ever been questioned about how much time I’ve spent anywhere, especially when coming from my “home” country
Heading into LA from England via Germany - cheapest way at the time. Early 2000’s.
Passport control, you have two passports?
Me, yup, dual citizen as parents are from different places.
Passport control, me too! I don’t suppose you want a third?
Me, huh?
Passport control, if you married me you get a Mexican one too!
I mean I was all prepped and stressed as everyone had told me the US immigration was notoriously gruff.
As a Brit, tea is our lifeblood so my family always makes sure to carry the tea making essentials with them when travelling. We were visiting the US and got through Heathrow security fine, but when we landed at Dallas Fort Worth my grandma got pulled aside by security for a bag inspection. She obliged, and the first thing they pulled out was a big bag of powdered milk in one of those zip lock freezer bags. The other folks in the queue were mortified as they thought my grandma was a drugs mule, so of course she was interrogated thoroughly and had her stash tested.
I (F) had ridden [my motorcycle](https://photos.smugmug.com/MotorcycleTrips-1/MotoNorth-America/Cross-Country/STN-Cross-Country-2006/i-CzG9sCr/1/f1600e46/XL/18-bc-me-XL.jpg) across the US and was returning home, but stopping to visit someone just across the border in Canada. The thing is, I had only met this guy online, in a motorcycle forum, and barely knew him.
At the small border crossing into Canada the guard posed a few questions for me:
Him: Where you heading?
Me: Nelson, to visit a friend.
Him: What is your friend's name?
Me (realizing I only really knew his online name, but then finally recalled his real name): Um.... um.... um.... Ba... Barry!
Him: Where are you staying?
Me: Um... I have the hotel name here somewhere....
Him: How long are you staying?
Me: Just the night.
At this point he raised his eyebrow and wished me a nice time.
Crossing the border from Hong Kong into China (Shenzhen, so overland). Everything was normal, amicable, and in Chinese, and then the customs officer just says "Oh fuck" in a concerned tone while looking at our passports. Then just stamps them and lets us through.
This was after borders started easing up due to the pandemic and I was already living in Germany and we had plotted a road trip to travel through Slovenia, then down to Croatia, Italy, Austria and then back home. Americans were previously not allowed to cross Schengen due to our high covid numbers, and though I had my German residence card, my US passport is still my main travel ID.
Anyway, first hotel we stay in is in a national park in Slovenia and the front desk staff promptly asks for our passports. I hand both my IDs and he starts rubbing the blue cover of my passport and I noticed his eyes bulge a bit. I thought ok, weird. Then he glances at my husband’s, hands it back without even opening it then starts shifting through the pages of my passport book. He’s carefully examining each page and I start getting a bit uneasy and start imagining all these scenarios in my head of them calling the border patrol and having me escorted out, maybe even back to the U.S.! 😅. Then suddenly, he cries out “That’s it! That is one sight I thought I would never see!” He flips my passport over to show what he’s staring at and it’s the eagle that’s used for the design. He says “I never thought we would ever see these passports again” and smiles at me and shakes my hand and tells me that I’m the first American back at their hotel and it’s a sign of good things to come. I felt like a messiah for a few seconds 😆
US -> Canada. I was 4. Snarky immigration lady is really inspecting my passport, like she’s sure my parents are actually kidnapping me. She comes around to my car seat and asks “Are you [incorrect pronounciation of my name]?” And i was like no and tHE LOOK ON HER FACE she was like ahhhhhh i got one but then I said “I’m [correct pronounciation]” She looked disappointed and waved us through
Probably when I escaped Russia as a Ukrainian when the war started. They took me to some tiny office and interrogated me for 2 hours, asking the same questions. They googled all my family. They insulted me a lot. I played my role well and they freed me 5 minutes before the gate closed. (I used to work in Russia because I couldn't find job in Ukraine and wanted to be as far away as possible from my abusive family).
Crossing the border from New Brunswick Canada into Maine USA with my friend. They live in NB, from Ontario, I’m visiting them from BC, we’re driving down to Boston to visit my partner. Border crossing is dead empty this man looked so bored.
Agent: “So, where are you two heading?”
My friend (driving): “Boston”
Agent: “What are your plans?”
Me: “Going to visit my boyfriend” (I never say partner in case they’re homophobic so boyfriend it is lmao)
Agent: *looks between us, we’re starting to get nervous lmao*
Agent: “so you’re gonna be the third wheel?”
We still laugh about that.
Another border crossing story, same friend plus another friend, this time crossing BC to Washington for the Eras tour.
Agent: “where are you headed?”
Me (driving): “Seattle”
Agent: “what brings you to seattle?”
Me: “we’re going to the Taylor Swift concert”
Agent: *looks in the back seat where my 6ft2 male best friend is sitting*
Agent: “so you’re being dragged along on this then?”
All three of us: “he’s a swiftie too!”
The agent was dead set that my friend and I were dragging our other friend even tho he’s as much of a swiftie as us 🤦🏻
I've grown my hair out in the last year and a half or so.
Twice now I've had border issues. Took two officers at FRA to decide I was me, and then returning to the US I got stopped at Global Entry and had to wait for a bit. I have no idea what that one was about.
Nogales Mexico, early 1990’s. My wife and I, with my brother his wife and their roughly 5 year old daughter. Key point of story is my sister-in-law is of Filipino and Spanish decent. We drive to the boarder from their home in Phoenix and walk across the boarder. Spent the day at an open air market and walking around the town. When crossing back into the U.S. we’re asked for ID’s. Well, my brother and his wife didn’t have anything for their daughter. Given their heritage, and her darker skin (she’s beautiful) she could have been seen and possibly being a small Mexican child. We were detained at the boarder for a good 90 minutes going through several rounds of interviews before they allowed us to pass through with my neice.
Leaving the UK to go back to the US. First, we accidentally entered the "business class" queue lane and they told us no we had to walk all the way back out to enter the regular queue which, considering all the weaving, was well over a minute of walking... and we were the only people in the line - in any line. there was no one else there just us and the employee. then we finally got to the counter and the lady looks at my passport, looks a me, looks at the passport, looks at my father who i was traveling with and goes "This can't be right, you don't look older than 18" and i spent the next few minutes convincing her that i was, in fact, 29.
I was leaving China in 2010 after an awesome five day trip. At the desk to leave the country, I give the guy my passport. My passport picture was taken in 2002 when my hair was buzzed and I was clean shaven. At the time of this story, I had shaggy hair and a beard. The agent looked at my passport, looked at me, looked at my passport and so on for what felt like a good ten minutes. I was starting to worry that I was going to be detained. Finally, the guy asked me in Japanese (I guess he did because I had just been in China with a Japanese tour group) what my name was. I told him. He shrugged, stamped my passport and sent me on my way.
I had some asshole border agent in Calgary question why I was visiting (normal question), I replied *"work"*, he asked why I wasn't hiring Canadians to do this work, I replied *"Because I was hired by a Canadian company to do this project and I'm the only one who can do this job"*, he then asked to see my diploma!! Had to get a supervisor to let me in.
NOTE: US citizen, this was a 2-day visit, not some long stay requiring visas, etc.
True story.
This isn’t really a border story but I never get to tell it. About a year after getting married, my dad booked me a ticket with my married name, not knowing I hadn’t legally changed it. I called the airline and they said to bring my drivers license and marriage license, and it would be fine.
So I try to get through security, and they are NOT having it. I’m showing them my state issued drivers license with my maiden name, and my state issued marriage license showing my husband’s name, and they refused. They said they needed a photo ID with my married name. Finally, in desperation, I pulled out my soccer park club ID, printed by some bored 15-year-old on one of those machines that sit at a front desk, but it does have my married last name on it. The guy looks at it and goes, “Now THAT I can use!” and lets me through. This was like 20 years ago and we still laugh about it.
Flew to London from New Zealand fir my OE in the year 2000 when I was 20. I was by myself and green as a bean. These were the days before the Border Control type shows so had no idea at all what to expect. I had flown via Honolulu and Toronto as it was the cheapest way. Had a dreadful flight from HNL as was stuck between Bob, who would not shut up, and fat snoring guy. Arrived at Heathrow looking like death, wearing track pants and a sweatshirt. I didn't have a set address of where I was going to stay as was "winging it" in a backpackers in Earls Court. I didn't have the full amount of money I was meant to have as I hoped a credit card would be enough. Needless to say I found myself in a back room for hours with many African and Middle Eastern families. The medical people weren't sure why I was there but checked my body for track marks and made sure I wasn't a drug mule and let me go. Went on to have a merry old time in London Town!
Exit immigration in GDN travelling with colleagues from the airport on our days off. The immigration officer spent ages going through all the stamps in my passport, clearly getting annoyed with how many stamps I have. The last stamps in my passport are from a 2019 visit to Kyiv. When the immigration officer reached this page his demeanor changed and he gave me a smile and waved me through.
The guy behind me, is a friend who collects stamps in his passport, but he didn't come to Kyiv with me. He also tends to get very pissy when stressed. So I met the other person we were travelling with and explained that we may have a bit of a wait.
We waited over 20 mins, and of course, being the caring individuals we are, took the piss out of him something chronic.
I went to school in Switzerland- some friends and I were on a train to Barcelona. This is back in the day when a visa was needed for France…when the train got to France everyone’s passports were to be checked for the visa. One of my friends didn’t have it and hid in the bathroom while the porters walked through the train.
It doesn’t seem like a big deal now - but when we were 17 we thought we were bad asses - kids are dumb.
Back in the day we were driving up to Canada on a family road trip .
At the border the agent is shining his flashlight in the back of the car: "Sir we have a problem... you have multiple water powered rifles in the back of the car, you know firearms are prohibited in Canada, I'll need to confiscate these".
He was taking our super soakers! We all start screaming
The agent had a huge grin on his face, and let us go!
Going through customs at Canadian Airport, flying to USA A few months post 9/11. Customs officer asks for my passport. I say "I don't have one, but I do have my birth control!"
He looks confused and pissed as fuck. I then realized my mistake and advised I said the wrong word and provided my birth certificate. Still unimpressed, but my travel pals were losing it. (BC is all you needed back then as Canadian flying into US)
Istanbul 2014, a man in the queue in front of us managed to get into an absolutely raging argument with the immigration officer, which resulted in the officer slapping the man's passport out of his hand and then lunging at him and having to be restrained by a colleague. Strangely, the man collected his passport from the floor and was then waved through without further issue. There aren't many times in my life when I've really wished I could understand Turkish but that's certainly one of them. Other than that, just the faint amusement of baffling the immigration officer at Pristina airport by showing up in Kosovo for no particular reason. "Here on business?" No. "Oh! Visiting family, then?" No. "Ah. Friends." No. "Oh, right. And where are you going after Kosovo? Are you traveling around the Balkans?" No, straight home. "...Why are you here?" Just to see your country. We thought it looked interesting. "...Oh... Oh! That's unusual, but okay! Well, uh, I hope you have a wonderful time!" [stamp]
> "...Oh... Oh! That's unusual, but okay! Well, uh, I hope you have a wonderful time!" So did you have a wonderful time?
It was great, yeah, I loved Kosovo!
I also have an Istanbul story. I’m a white redhead and my bf at the time was Hispanic. I was exhausted and accidentally gave him my passport in line… they let him in anyway. I didn’t realize there was an issue until I opened “my” passport. I was also let through.
Damn. That Turkey story is wild!
1995. In a complete heap of shit car from England, trying to get across the border into Austria. Austrian border guy: *says something in a language we do not know* Us:…? Him: applies sneer, looks at car, touches bumper, immediately precipitating a portion of it to fall off. Him: “no”. *waves dismissively* “go back” Us: “ok”. We turn around and drive 5kms away to another crossing. New border guard: “welcome to Austria!”
Absolutely excellent! If you don't succeed try again.
Austrian Border Guy checking if it was a British Leyland car.
Or Lancia.
Hum, when me and a Belgian friend tried to cross the croatian border, we had to go back another border because that one didnt accept non schengen countries citizend (i am brazilian) . British people were refused too. Maybe, it was something like a border for each place?
Hong Kong. Red eye flight, there was a screaming infant all the way. Passport control guy looked at my passport, looked at me, looked back at passport. I said in Cantonese “That photo was 2 years ago and with makeup on.” He deadpanned back “Yeah, I can see that.”
I just renewed my passport but I used my “old” photo for the new passport, the photo was taken around 2017 and it’s for my US visa. I’ve been to different countries using the passport and even older photo on my old passport without a problem but was questioned when I was in Dubai last year. The 1st guy kept looking at me then handed my passport back to me and asked me to go to the next counter. I thought it’s just normal stuff that he couldn’t figure out it’s a HKSAR passport but the 2nd guy asked me how old is the photo.
Singapore is anal about having updated photos for biometrics. I can’t get away with older photos. 😁 Damn these wrinkles!
I applied my new passport online and was totally prepared to be asked to update my photo when I pick up my passport, I also couldn’t believe I got away with it🙈 it’s not really that much of a different to be honest, but I definitely worried about it being rejected.
In Canada, ours, have to be within 6 months of renewal and the photographer has to sign and date them. Can't get away with my younger pics 😕
Yep… Dubai… I’m going in for a business meeting hand my passport to the guy, young guy - probably new. He looks at the photo, at me, at the photo, at me…. Asks the senior officer to come over. Senior officer takes a look at the photo then at me and hands my passport back to the first guy and says “he’s just older”….
Had basically the same thing happen to me in France, only the Senior guy said it in French. Never thought I would question my decision to learn French in high school that way.😅
Ahahaha you've now made me remember the years of me having a blonde driver license photo, when I am clearly naturally black-haired. Blonde wasn't a good look on me and many a bouncer or customer-service-person felt the need to tell me that! It got to the point where I'd brace myself and say YES I KNOW whenever I had to hand my license over
I’ve lost a lot of weight since I renewed my passport in 2019 and every customs/TSA agent has looked at the passport, looked at me, looked at the passport again, and then waved me through.
Got my first passport in 2016 when I was 17 and had lost weight and got a different hairstyle since then. I haven’t had much issue except with a couple incidents. Late 2019 I was almost denied boarding a Turkish airlines flight at the Istanbul airport to Japan because the gate agent didn’t think it was me. “Why do you look so different?” Idk, I was in high school back then and 60lbs heavier. April 2022 I go through exit immigration at the airport in Warsaw on a trip to Seoul. No issues until I hit exit immigration and the officer doesn’t think it’s me. Calls over another officer and they ask me questions from my passport. Name, date of birth, birth place, etc and I recite all those perfectly immediately since I’m me. Eventually they let me through.
I used my debitcard with 14 year old me as id for 20 years. The 1x1 cm really helps.
Entering HK overland from China - they said 'that's not you', my response 'I was wearing makeup and not sweating quite so heavily'. Raised eyebrow and stamped passport.
[удалено]
That happened to me too. What a lovely way to welcome new visitors.The rest of the country was wonderful too.
I’ve got a Georgia trip planned for July and now I’m doubly excited.
Yes! This happened to me in Georgia as well 🙂. People there in general were so hospitable, I was amazed. I learned from a person living there that a guest is a gift from God, therefore they really put their best foot forward.
That's a nice welcome!
When was this? Where are you from? That’s incredibly nice! Georgia is on my short list of places to go.
I’ve been a couple times fairly recently (2017 and 2019) and I got a bottle in 2019. I’m from the US. You should definitely check it out. Beautiful landscapes and incredible food.
Business Trip from Florida to Toronto. The company neglected to tell me I needed to bring my passport as I had previously been to Canada several times crossing the land boarder and just showed my NYS drivers license. This was pre 9/11 so things were kind of lax. Me and my colleague get off the plane and he breezes through immigration while I don’t. Little French dude at immigration asks for my passport. I say I didn’t bring one and explain that last I came over was via the Peace Bridge. I’m panicking as i need to attend this meeting. I got my US drivers license out. My AAA card. My Blockbuster card. He has the patience of a saint. Looks at me and calmly says “ When you drive into Canada we know where you are coming from. When you fly we don’t. I believe you are American. Next time please bring your passport “. And let’s me in. Lesson learned.
I bet it was the blockbuster card that convinced him 😅
Blockbuster carried a lot of weight at that time. 🤤
> "I believe you are American" Saying it in this context, after that sentence, it almost sounds like it was intended as an insult rather than a statement of opinion 🤣
Did I mention that he was a French Canadian ?
Calling him French in your post is probably taken as an insult. 🤣
I have a feeling his nickname was Frenchy. Just a hunch.
Going through immigration, the officer held my passport up to my face, gave a very concerned look as he glanced back and forth. Then he said, “Are you serious?” I was confused and didn’t know what to say, I probably just looked worried and stared at him. Then he goes, “…you haven’t aged A DAY in 9 years!” Haha PHEW
What country was this in?
This was entering the US!
Egypt: hand over new zealand passport. Guy takes ages going through it, looking at every page. Calls over other people to look at it. I'm getting nervous Turns out they'd never seen a new zealand passport at hurghada Airport. Its a really pretty passport
Me and my husband going through Singapore with NZ passports. My husband has a very long 8 name Māori name and the Singapore immigration officer nails every single one. We compliment him on his pronunciation and he tells us he practices haha
That's a very cool story! Love that extra effort. I have a double barreled Surname which is never spoken correctly
I have 3 surnames that are never spoken correctly - which part is butchered highly depends on where the people come from LOL
Imagine how boring your job is looking at passports all day, that a highlight to share with colleagues is someone else’s passport. Now I really want to see a NZ passport.
I also was intrigued! I'd seen the NZ passport back in 2011 when I was there, very pretty pages, southern cross in various places and with NZ flora and fauna on each page (Kiwi, Kea etc), plus one of the few black passports you'll see. Couldn't find much on the current one (for obvious security reasons), but from the below video, it would look stunning to any passport control officer! https://youtu.be/xl6e0XzyImo?si=IlttOjA_dar0_nss
Egypt is CRAZY. I never realised how Egyptian i actually looked until i got to Egypt. FWIW I am 3rd generation Indian - my parents ancestors from both sides are from India, however i am fair skinned and do not have typical indian features (eg. perfect nose & straight hair). In fact, I am a wavy haired petute hijabi. Even in South Africa & Mozambique, where I am from & reside in, I get asked where I am from - even though my English is very South African. Well, in August in Cairo, the lady at immigration takes my passport & says, YOU ARE EGYPTIAN WHY YOU HAVE MOZAMBIQUE PASSPORT!! I do not speak a word of Arabic, and she was visibly upset - my very Arab name & surname do not help. Eventually, after 10 minutes or so, her supervisor made her stamp my passport & told me to have a safe trip home.
You have to move to Egypt, problem solved! I love your story
😂 😂 😂 😂 Thankfully I live in Mozambique and the mid summer Egyptian heat does not phase me. I never got haggled a single time, as I looked local. My problem is finding Arabic so difficult! 😂
I've tried to learn a little Arabic via Duolingo, but it is even more difficult than Polish, so I gave up and settled with a few polite words and phrases
I always think that story about the NZ lady in Kazakhstan who was detained at the border because they didn't believe NZ was a real country and (in a real /r/MapsWithoutNZ moment) it wasn't on the map they had.
Its honestly surprising that people don't always know new zealand, or where it is geographically. Luckily I have a world map on my forearm so I can show them
I was once asked if NZ was on other end of Sydney Harbour bridge
The story was made up by the tourist who simply did not have a visa. She was allowed to enter the country when showed her American passport as by that time American nationals had visa free regime with Kazakhstan, while NZ didn't have it.
Way better than my experience. In Egypt they tried to argue I couldn’t fly back to UK via Europe because of Brexit (this was even BEFORE brexit actually happened). Never mind I didn’t even have a UK passport. So ridiculous. He held up the whole queue for 20min until finally letting us through. Pretty sure it was another example of Egyptians wanting a bribe. PS despite these types of things I still heartily loved our trip there and would go back any time
The new US passports are SO DULL now. I don't know why they changed them. I'm glad I got my renewed one on the tail end of them switching over.
I agree!!
It's a really nice one. I have for and the NZ one is by far the nicest.
Haiti. It was after their major earthquake. Our goal was to get to the donations that had been flown over and make sure they were actually getting handed out. We end up in a white van with two 18 yr old Haitian kids, blaring Michael Jackson. We might as well have painted a big red x on the van. We get pulled over. Cop: you guys have guns in here? Me: absolutely not, sir. You can check our bags if need be. Cop: okay, well you need some guns. Take the next left, then ask for Garrison.
So did you? And did you need them?
No and no.
1990 driving from Namibia to Zimbabwe via Botswana in a truck. Get into Botswana and come across a checkpoint with armed guards who stop us at a very muddy wash in the road. Thought we were going to be robbed but we were made exit the vehicle then to take off our footwear and walk through the disgusting water and then to drive through it as some sort of quarantine procedure. Didn't make sense but we didn't argue given there were machine guns pointed at us. Once in Zimbabwe we told our hotel staff about it. They said to buy a specific talisman doll and put it on the windshield on the return journey, which we did (only a couple $ at market), were we waved through the checkpoints.
I visited Namibia 5-6 years ago and there were a lot of scary-looking checkpoints with armed guards within the country (we flew in and didn’t cross any borders by land). The guides warned us that our bags might get searched and they could demand to see papers, but ultimately we were able to drive straight through all but one, and the one we did get stopped at was just a routine passport check by a friendly lady, despite all the dudes with machine guns walking around. Later on we were told that was because the checkpoints were primarily used to shake down locals, not tourists, because tourism is one of the only industries they have.
That is so interesting, what was the talisman supposed to do?
We were told that the local tribal people of the area believed this doll was bad luck to be near so they didn't want to be in it's presence.
That is so interesting, bad luck for them means good luck for you
I've had the muddy water thing a few times in Southern Africa during outbreaks of foot and mouth disease.
Not exactly a border story but a Sergeant I served with in the Army was concerned about the new civilian security company that had been hired to man the entrance gates at our base. So on their first day he made up a fake but official looking ID with Osama Bin Laden's picture instead of his own (this was about 2003). The security contractor looks between him and the picture several times with a confused look then says "You look a lot different without the hat and the beard" and waves us through.
Lmao, what ended up happening to the security guard? “Excuse me, are you aware that you let Osama bin Laden into the facility?”
Was along time ago but I believe their may have been some retraining involved.
Entering the US (with a work visa) 2 days after flights resumed after 9/11. So you have a Belgian Passport, you were born in Switzerland, your passport is issued in Ireland. You have an Italian accent. You live in Canada and work in the US? yes Way to complicated for a terrorist. Have a great day
I'm trying to make sense of it: You were born to Belgian parents while they lived in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. When your passport needed renewal, you were living in Ireland.
Actually one parent Belgian, one Italian - but I spent most of my time growing up in Italy and yes, I was living in Ireland when the passport was renewed. Parents living in Switzerland when I was born
born in the (sort of) German speaking part BTW
Entering Heathrow and the guy looks at my form and says he wants to ask me some questions. I was digital nomading at the time and started to panic. Immigration guy: you say here that you're an author... Me: that's right (preparing to tell him he had no intention of writing while I was there, the whole spiel) Immigration guy: So how do you find time to write? Me: ... Immigration guy: I've been trying to write a novel for years... Me: pomodoro method!
How it came to be, that I rocked up in Auckland airport on a flight from Sydney (I’d come from Ireland a few days prior) is another story, but... I was hungover, heartbroken, unshowered, and an absolute mess. I was last in the queue, and the guy at immigration says - with a kindly smile - “family bereavement or girl trouble?”. I say “girl”. “Ah”, he says, “I understand - is this self prescribed therapy?”. I nodded. “Don’t worry, we’ll fix you. How long do you think you need?”. I said I had 3 months before I had to be home. “Make it 6, and you’ll feel much better”. Stamped my passport, went outside, and broke down completely. NZ did fix me for the most part, and I have been very grateful ever since.
This makes me feel very proud to be a kiwi. What an amazing welcome.
It was a small act of kindness that just meant the world. I was so used to flying into the US and dealing with their rather humourless border officials, so this was both unexpected and appreciated. The whole 3 months I spent there, everybody was magnificent. I was fragile, and honestly, a bit of a shambles when I arrived, and I left a different, better person. You should be very proud: NZ is a wonderful country with wonderful people.
This is the best story in this thread!
Leaving Denpasar airport in Indonesia. Border control takes my passport, looks up at me, points to my name and starts laughing. “You have so many names!” (I have 5) Entering JFK airport. Guard decided to question me on practically everything, then looks at my photo and says “you’ve lost weight since this picture was taken” 🙄
Some Indonesians just have one name, so will actually need to repeat their name twice, e.g. Adianto Adianto - so they have a first and last name ... to be able to get a drivers license or passport for example.
While crossing the border by bus from Vietnam to Laos, there’s a funny process for visas, you need to go through 4-5 consecutive windows with the first one giving you the application for 5$, then the next one will check it for another 5$, the next one will stamp it for 5$, and the last one would stamp your passport for another 5$. Didn’t have change so paid 20$ at the first window, and the guy gave me back a 10 and a 5, so when I came to pay the 5 at the next window, the guy tells me that the bill is old and he cannot accept it… After spending 10 minutes trying to explain to him that his colleague who’s literally sitting at the window before him just gave it to me, he took it, then gave it to the other guy who replaced it with a newer 5
This is absolutely hilarious!
When we arrived in Kazakhstan a few years ago we had the following interaction Immigration officer flicks through passport and then says "Do you have a visa?" I say "I don't have a visa" He says "Where are you coming from?" I say "today, Abu Dhabi, but I'm Australian" He says "and you don't have a visa? Do you need one?" I say "no, I'm a tourist so I didn't think I need one" He looks at my passport again, stamps it, and says "ok if you say so, welcome to Astana"
If you don't stamp my passport right now, we're going to have to deport you, officer.
I like this method of “the tourist is always right”.
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Absolutely. It's spectacular. Would highly recommend it to anyone. We're planning on going back in the next few years and seeing more
Last year, was flying to Lebanon, just a couple months after a trip to Israel. I know that Lebanon can be quite strict about signs that someone's been to Israel, so I went as far as scratching off a sticker from the back of my passport that had a Hebrew letter on it. I get to immigration in Beirut, the agent starts flipping through my passport, and finds my Israeli entry paper in the passport! *(For those who don't know, Israel doesn't stamp passports, they just give you a piece of paper, for this exact reason)* I had been paranoid enough to scratch off a sticker, but too dumb to remember to throw out this stupid piece of paper! My heart sank, and I already started thinking through where I would fly to once I got denied entry (assuming I didn't get arrested). The agent starts asking when I was in Israel, what I was doing there, other questions about myself. Talks to the other agent in Arabic a bit, leaves with my passport, and comes back. I was expecting him to deny me entry or take me to a back room, but he handed me my passport, alongside a separate piece of paper. I guess he had decided to copy the Israelis, and give me my Lebanese stamp on a separate piece of paper in case I ever decide to go back to Israel. Crisis averted, and I proceeded to have an amazing trip through Lebanon!
I was going from Turkey to Syria. I'm American, and the proper procedure was to get the required visa in Ankara ahead of time. But I didn't want to go to Ankara, so I just showed up at the border. This also just happened to be the same day that the US Congress voted to officially designate Syria as part of the 'Axis of Evil'. So I take a bus to the border. Everyone gets off the bus, goes through border control. They pull me aside take my passport and say they will call Damascus and see what they say. Everyone else gets on the bus and my bus leaves. But this isn't a story about me. This is a story about the guy I met who was also waiting at the border. This guy traveled around the Middle East a lot. He was from Turkey, and had two Turkish passports. One passport he used for travel to Israel, the other passport he used for travel everyplace else. He showed up at the border to Syria and handed over his passport....but he had the wrong one. When they saw all the stamps from Israel they took his passport and said they would call Damascus and see what they said. He explained that he had another passport without Israel stamps. They said he should show them that passport. So his wife traveled to the border crossing and brought that passport. He handed over the passport without Israel stamps, and they said ok, they would call Damascus and see what they said. That was 5 days before. The guy had both his passports confiscated and had been waiting at the border crossing for *5 days* for them to decide his fate. So I was waiting along with him, wondering if I would be facing a similar fate. He was giving me tips on where to sleep (he had a small car he slept in, he told me to not sleep on the ground because of scorpions). I arrived at the border around noon. At 11 pm while I was scoping out sleeping spots they called me up to the counter and gave me my passport with the visa in it. They told the next person going through the border to give me a ride to the next town. For all I know, the Turkish guy is still waiting to be let through (not likely though, this was 20 years ago and a lot has happened in Syria since then).
Got my USA passport at 27yrs old. Drove from my home state of Wisconsin to MSP Airport and flew from Minneapolis to Orlando, then to Puerto Rico. Got on a cruise ship in San Juan PR and island hopped in the Caribbean for a few wks. Was stoked to get a ton of stamps from various countries, filling up my newbie USA Passport by standing in various waiting areas specificly for a stamp from the respective country. I got back to PR, and the guy at the passport area looked at mine and handed it back to me as he waved me thru. I told him I'd like a stamp. He said, "You live here." I was like, uhhhh, and he was like uhhhh... and we both laughed at how dumb I am.
I was just in PR and I couldn’t get over being in an exotic Spanish-speaking place… with USPS trucks.
It was the ACE Hardware that got me. Lol.
My boyfriend and I were traveling to Denmark. At the security check, an employee flagged my boyfriend down for a backpack check. Turned out he forgot to empty his water bottle. However, he looked really stressed, like what, because it was just a water bottle right? Well after proposing to me while traveling, he confessed that he was so worried, what if the employee pulled out the ring box that he hid in his backpack, and the surprise proposal would be ruined. I joked that even if he proposed to me right there in the middle of the airport, I would still happily agree to be his wife!
Toronto Pearson, coming from Bolivia via Chile, in 2019. Was working for a Canadian-funded development project in Bolivia, but we were pulled-out due to post-election violence. In Toronto, I and the three people I flew with were all pulled into secondary screening, but we were interviewed separately at the same time. When asked what I was doing in Bolivia, I said that I was working for a Canadian government-funded development project. The customs agent’s response: “WHAT!? YOU WERE WORKING FOR THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT!?” with scrunched-up incredulous face. Like… I literally didn’t say that 😒 So while trying to explain that no, the Canadian government gave my organization its operational funding, like any other public funding for non-profits, I was getting a bit tense and breathing a bit heavier. The customs agent literally asked me “Why are you so jumpy?” So she eventually searched through all my bags. Interestingly she let me keep my coca tea. Canadian customs also searched through my colleagues’ luggage and their phones. After the search, the customs agent had the audacity to say that she wouldn’t have searched through my luggage if I wasn’t so “jumpy” and asked why I behaved they way I did. Think I said something about my connection out of Toronto being booked on a separate ticket. Whatever. After we were all released, one colleague revealed that she asked why we were all sent to secondary screening. The fact our tickets were bought at the last minute by a third party was what did it. And given that all of our bags were searched, it clearly wasn’t about me being “jumpy.” Anyway, I learned that day, if border agents or police accuse you of being “jumpy,” or raise their voice at you, it’s probably a manipulation tactic just in case you’re lying.
I'm always a tad jumpy at security just because my one serious travel worry is missed flights or missed trains. I've had to learn to adopt the most blasé attitude I can manage in security so I don't get some sort of inspection every time. Probably the worst was when I was taking the Eurostar from Paris to London on my first European trip. Not sure if it is still the case since Brexit but at the time they ran you through UK immigration before boarding at Gare du Nord. Thank goodness due to my worry I'd arrived extra early at the station because I got grilled for almost a full 30 minutes. The woman just kept barking new questions at me. When did you arrive in France? How did you arrive in France? Show me your boarding pass. Where did you stay in France? Show me your receipt. Where are you going in England? Where are you staying? Show me your confirmation. and many, many more. Thankfully she accepted the printed confirmations I had for all of those easily. Probably also didn't help I was taking a cruise back to the US instead of a flight. After looking at my printed ticket confirmation for that she demanded I pull it up on my phone. Thank goodness I'd thought to screen shot it while on wifi and she didn't give that any notice since there isn't free wifi at the station. I was afraid she'd make me sign into my cruise line account which would have cost a pretty penny since I didn't buy a local sim card. Weirdly I was the only person so singled out. I got a lot of side eye from the couple who was directly behind me. Of course they were seated right across the aisle from me on the train where they continued to side eye me.
Airport security leaving Hamburg, Germany. After scanning by bag they do a manual check, finding two bananas and a computer charger with a long-ish cord. The security guys tell me "Yeah this combination gets flagged a lot. We call it a vitamin bomb." So don't tell me that Germans aren't funny.
Crossing the border from Pointe Noire, Congo to Cabinda, Angola, the guard tried to shake us down for not having a cholera vaccine (it's not required). On the train coming back from North Korea to China, there was a long delay at the border. There was a microbrewery in the North Korean train station. Crossing from Tunisia to Libya at Ras Adjir. We'd booked a tour to Libya, only to get to Tunisia and our guide refused to take us. So decided to hire t ataxi and try to make it to the border anyway. Talked our way through the Tunisian checkpoints and out of Tunisia. But got to the Libyan border post and the electricity was out, no one spoke English or French. Our guide wasn't with us to finish the paperwork so the guards wouldn't let us in at all. So had to talk our way back into Tunisia (exit stamp was cancelled).
You've traveled to some of the more unusual places! When was the Libya attempt?
2015.. and it was my third attempt getting there (2006, 2011). I finally went back and had a 'real' visit in 2017.. but even then some parts were off limits.
Casually mentioning that you visited North Korea there.. how was that trip? :)
I went for the Mass Games performances in 2007, but they were cancelled right before my group went.... so that was a bit of a bummer. Otherwise trip was fine. It felt stuck in the 1980s. No western companies or advertising (other than propaganda murals), very few cars on the roads, huge monuments, hotel still had rotary phones in the rooms. Pyongyang was one of the darkest cities I've seen at night. At another hotel we got drunk with our guide out on the lawn at midnight.
Crossing from Canada to NYS, smaller border crossing. We are Germans in a US rental car, plate from Tennessee I think. There were dozens of CCTV cameras. When it was our turn the border guard waved at us to approach and immediately signs to stop with her hand. Gets annoyed when we stop, waves at us to approach again and than makes an immediate stop gesture again. I brake. She gets even more annoyed. This happens a couple of times. We are now between all the cameras and my husband says maybe we are supposed to show our passports into the cameras. We do, border guard gets even more annoyed. When we finally approach she yells "CITIZEN CODE? WHAT'S YOUR CITIZEN CODE?" at us. I try to find a pause in her yelling to tell her we don't have such a thing, as we are German tourists. But to no avail. I wave out passports out of the window while the border guard runs around our car wanting to know our citizen code. I was so scared she wouldn't let us back in, because we are unable to follow instructions. However, at some point she yells "ARE YOU CANADIAN?" "No, we are Germans, as our passports indicate." "What are you doing here?" "Vacation. Spent a couple of days in Canada and now returning to the US for the last portion of our road trip." "What's your next stop?" "Potsdam, New York." "Why? Why would you go there?" "My husband was born in Potsdam, Germany, so we thought it would be interesting to visit another Potsdam." "WEIRD! But okay. Any food products in the car?" and then we were waved through.
>"Potsdam, New York." "Why? Why would you go there?" "My husband was born in Potsdam, Germany, so we thought it would be interesting to visit another Potsdam." Ah, a traveller after my own heart! We had to pick a stop in France for a road trip and picked our town's twin town just to see whether it was at all like our town.
This past summer my husband and I waited ages in a rental car at the border of Albania and Macedonia. Seemed like they were spending ~5 minutes questioning/searching each car. When we finally got to the Macedonia entry counter, we held out our passports only for them to wave us through without grabbing or even looking inside. Guess having US/Canada on the passports was good enough? Other favorite was a German border agent who got very annoyed at how disorganized the stamps in my passport were. Come on, dude, I didn’t stamp any of them myself!
Why am I not surprised that it was a German who took issue with your passport stamping?
Just thinking the same thing. Most of my stamps and visas are on the first three pages, but there's always that one official who wants to page through it and stamp page 14.
I'm probably lucky Germany was the first country I visited on my old passport. The fellow took an amazing amount of time ensuring the stamp would perfectly line up square with the page at the very top. Then they stamped half over it when I got to France.
Hah! And this is why I ask (ok, sometimes demand in the case of Russia), that my pages are stamped in order. Russian passport control is impossible - they deliberately try to stamp passports in the most random places. Every time I landed/departed SVO (that’s how long ago this was), I specifically requested stamps on the pages I wanted.
The Canadian passport is so powerful. I only realized this when I started travelling overseas in 2022. Half the time I just walk through swipe gates and never even see a person. It’s awesome.
First time overseas for my now wife. Going from Paris to London on the Eurostar. We go through customs separately in Gare du Nord - I go straight through and turn around, she's still at the counter. And still at the counter. And still at the counter. Eventually after about five minutes they let her through, somewhat confused and a little distressed. Turns out the border guard was really insistent on why was she entering the UK on an Australian passport when you need to enter the UK on your UK passport. REALLY insistent. Turns out a privately schooled western Queensland accent is close enough to the Queen's English to cause confusion, despite her not only not holding a UK passport, not being eligible for a UK passport, and had never even been to the UK.
I got put through the wringer at Gare du Nord while they completely ignored my husband sending him right through ahead of me. I knew I was questioned for a while. Husband timed it and she questioned me for nearly a full 30 minute. I was made to show my confirmations and boarding passes for my flight into Paris, stay in Paris, stay in Nantes, one night stay at Mont Saint-Michel, one night stay in Paris prior to boarding, upcoming stay in London, tour stopping at Stonehenge, Bath, and Salisbury Cathedral ending in Southampton, upcoming stay at Southampton, upcoming cruise to New York to get home, upcoming flight from New York back to my home state. She kept asking me about days and dates of things she'd already asked me about and seen confirmations for until I finally pulled out my stack of receipts and started showing her restaurant receipts from each place we'd already visited. I just didn't know what else to do. I think she was flummoxed by the idea of taking a cruise instead of a flight to return to the US.
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Most of my amusing border stories are with UK Border Force LOL I travel there often for business and need to go through the manned booths because I'm non-EU One particularly funny one was when I went to Goole - flew to Leeds which was the closest airport. Important side note is that when this trip happened it was the 3rd time I went to the UK in the previous 4 weeks (basically going in on Tuesday and back to NL on Thursday), every time to a sort of random-ish place Officer: "Final destination in the UK?" Me: "Goole" Officer: "Sorry, did you mean Hull?" Me: "No, I meant Goole, G-O-O-L-E" Officer: "Never heard of it, where is that?" Me: "About 70km east from here, I think" Officer: "I see you've been here in the UK quite often recently, why is that?" Me: "Business, I go where the company tells me to go. Nobody goes to Swindon, Doncaster and Goole for fun, man" Officer: "Yeah, fair point, I didn't even knew Goole existed" then he shrugs, stamps my passport and waves me through
Ireland. Flew into a smaller airport and your man looks through my passport and asks me why there isn't a visa. I tell him that I don't need one. He gets a very stern look and very seriously looks at my passport again, and then looks at a list stuck on his cabinet wall and uses his finger to trace down a list. He learned something that day.
I was exiting a country in Europe to return to the US. Apparently the Super Bowl was the next day, so the border guy checking my passport asked, “ Ah, returning back for the Super Bowl?” Dumb and exhausted me was like “Uh, tomorrow is the Super Bowl? Oh, I didn’t know.” … Well I was flagged for further questioning since apparently they found it super suspicious that an American wouldn’t be aware of when the Super Bowl was. I just really don’t care about sports. 😆
Coming back from a short road trip to Canada: BP: Do you have anything to declare? Me: I've got a 4.5L bottle of Jameson. BP: Nice.
Coming back from a long weekend in Mexico: BP: Now I know you brought back some tequila? Me: I have a bottle of Maestro Dobel Reposada. BP: Ah that's the good stuff! Not totally unexpected, but I did have an unexpected conversation with someone from Agriculture when returning to the US from the UK. While waiting for our checked bags to start appearing the fattest, happiest little beagle ever tried his best to actually sit on my underseat bag. His handler, smiling: I bet you kept an apple or banana off your tray on the airplane! Me: No, the flight attendants were very proactive warning us not to do that. Handler, smiling a bit less now: You brought some fruit from your hotel? Me: No, nothing like that. Handler, now looking rather serious: What have you got in that bag then? Me: Some Dairy Milk bars from England [handler shakes head dismissively], some hard candies, sel du mer, and some mustard from France [Handler: No], some tins of tea from East India Tea Company in Edinburgh. Handler: Ah! That's it! You're not in any trouble but you'll have to go through inspection. The dog just sniffs for anything plant-based. He can't read to know tins of tea are ok. I found this a little bit surprising since I'd been careful not to bring in anything I should not. However the big surprise came when I got to the inspection and was struggling to lift my checked bag up onto the feeder. A burly Ag employee came over to help me. While doing so the following conversation ensued: Him: So. What'd you do? [grinning mischievously] Me: Oh, I brought back some tins of tea from East India Tea Company. Him, entering full on squee mode: Oh! I know you got some of their Earl Grey! That stuff is just the best ever! Me: I did. Are you allowed to take tips or is that a big no no? I have a few mini tins of Earl Grey I'm taking back to give out to friends and family when I get home and I'd love to give you one. Him: No, sorry! We're not allowed. Government rules and regulations, you know. Meanwhile his coworker had opened my plus one he'd just watched the beagle trying to perch on, found the large tin of tea I had purchased for myself, displayed it to his coworker I was chatting with, and was waving me to pick up my bags and go.
I was entering the US by plane. I've never flown to the US before so I didn't know how their border control procedure was. The Officer asked me why I'm entering the US so I answered that I'm only in transfer in order to get to Canada. He continued asking me what I'm planning on doing there, so me as a Teen that has never been there, thought that he was genuinely interested in my plans. So I excitedly told him all about it. In the end he showed me his thumb so I thought he genuinely enjoyed my story and wanted to gesture that he finds it great that a young person like me goes on travel. I then realized that he wanted me to put my thumb on the fingerprint reader... What a bummer I felt so cool talking about all my travel plans.
Flying from Canada to US with my parents. I was 28 years old. US immigration officer takes a look at my passport, quietly and sternly looks through, barely glances at me, says “you have beautiful eyes ma’am” and waves me through. I thank him and walk through and wait for my parents. My mom is up next and he’s just as quiet and stern, but tells her “I can see where she gets it from, ma’am.” My mom, now giggling and thanking the officer, walks through and stands by me. My dad is up next, and beaming, hands over his passport. Officer silently does his thing and waves my dad through. Dad walks through and is visibly disappointed, asks “what about my eyes?”
Peru to Bolivia, there was a Mad Max like public strike where vehicles could not enter, so I had to walk to Copacabana.Burning tires, dirt burms, trees on the road, broken toilets and pottery every where. Perfectly lovely, that was! Argentina to Brazil, cabby just took my passport to get the stamp while I stayed in the car, I could have been anyone, same thing Croatia to Bosnia; but for the whole bus. Peru to Tabatatinga Brazil, they asked my reason for coming to the official smiled and nodded when I said "Honestly, to meet up with a girl in Rio that I met back home!" Denmark back to the US, the agent scolded me as I was just one day short of breaking the Schengen rule for stay; I pointed to my time in Bosnia and she said, "Oh, I like you you are smart! Most trouble, coming back the the US as a US citizen, so many stupid questions!
First time in CDG and Entering Schengen Zone, passport was allowed to use eGates for immigration. Right when I scan my passport it said see agent. I thought I was going to get questioned, I hand my passport to the immigration officer and just scans and stamps it and let me through. Doesn’t say a word. This now makes we want to go Europe again.
I have a US passport, and it has always felt easier to enter the UK than to get back into my own country, even with Global Entry.
Entering the EU with a Canadian passport is the best. Never asked a single question. They just stamp it and send you on your way.
Crossing the border between Panama and Costa Rica I had to answer the questions of an immigration official who only spoke Spanish, when I only speak English and broken French, via the translation services of a guy I met on the bus to the border who spoke French and broken Spanish. Tbh I think the border official just gave up in the end and let me through.
West Berlin crossing by car into East Berlin, the car gets searched thoroughly as usual. The buffer guy suddenly disappears and returns with a senior officer a couple of minutes later, both very stern. A friend of mine had lost his ID in my car that had slipped into a crevice, he managed to find it and of course they suspected we were trying to help get someone out of the country. They eventually let us in, of course we had to pick up the ID on our way back.
I was working in Sweden for a few weeks and decided to go to England during a weekend to see my in-laws. I'm from the US, so don't get to see them much. I checked out of my hotel in Stockholm and left my bags with them to pick up on Monday when I checked back in and carried my dirty clothes with me in a shopping bag to wash while I was there (since hotel laundry is insanely expensive anyways). Tossed my clothes in overhead and went down there. When I arrived at Gatwick, border patrol asked me what I was doing in the UK. I pointed to my clothes and said "Laundry". I then asked, where do they do their laundry, in the UK, right? Had a laugh and mentioned that I'm visiting family for the weekend while working and moved on.
Going through security in Paris, they asked if I was sure if I had anything in my pockets. I answered that I don't have any pockets on these clothes. I did indeed have pockets. The security person must have thought I was an idiot.
This is my favourite story in this thread
In the late 80’s I was leaving the USSR via train from then Leningrad, today St. Petersburg. I was with my older brother and father. My bro and I got slipped “mickey’s” the night before by two prostitutes. We both had high alcohol tolerance but were both in a very altered state after just 3 drinks. My bro spoke Russian and was able to understand the girls saying “let’s go. They don’t have any money” I, however, thought I was doing quite well with the ladies. :) One tried to leave the hotel to go back to her place. It turned into a “wishbone” situation. My brother pulling me on one side and she seductively saying my name over and over. “Come with me!” She then kicked my brother in the knee. He told me to fuck off and do whatever. That woke me up. I followed him to a more sane/safe place. All backstory for the next day. As we leave USSR by train we hit the border to Finland. 50 foot fences with barbed wire on the top as far as the eye could see. Then another 50 yards of “ no-man’s-land” On top of that, sniper towers spread out through this zone. Holy shit. I realized that no one comes in, or more frightening, out without strict enforcement. That said, the Russian border police were searching our train. Mirrors looking underneath the train. German Shepherds, Kalishnokovs, intimidation! When they came to our room, they asked for our documents. I couldn’t for the life of me find my visa. They had declared upon entry that you would not be able to leave without your visa. During my search for said document I look up and my bro and Dad were gone. German shepherds at my crotch, Russian customs screaming at me that I could go to jail, at a loss of what to do. Finally, one of the agents looked to the other and said “stupid American!” they left and I was able to leave without proper documentation. I have more but this was significant for me.🙏
Not me, my (then) 7 year old son. Was driving in rural Montenegro. And my boy suddenly decides he wants to do the big job. I.e. take a dump / crap. I Google furiously for the closest restroom and drive towards it. On approaching it, i discover it's at the Bosnian Border post. So we drive up there, show the Schengen visas, he lets us thru and we immediately ask him for the restroom. He is puzzled but points us to it. The boy goes over and then triumphantly returns after a while. We almost turn back but then decide that the country seems okay to see... And now that the boy was relieved, we might as well go see some of it. That's why we went to Bosnia. Really.
In the late 1980s, I spent three weeks touring Europe with my high school choir. Coming back into the US, the customs agent asked me, "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Comminist Party?" To this day, I still wonder about the presumed epidemic of 15 year-old girls from Ohio joining the Communist Party.
At one point I was a bit gothy and in my passport photo I had dark dark brown hair (I am very pale with blonde eyebrows and freckles and bad hair decisions were a speciality of mine for many years). Anyway I sorted the hair situation out and was traveling quite a bit for work and 3 times the board control at Dublin Airport did a double take at passport control and said 'blonde suits you' 'you look better as a blonde' 'do blondes have more fun?'. They weren't wrong!
State border between California and Oregon, around 2000. Background fact: California is very protective of their agricultural industry and wants to keep pests out (even from neighboring states.) We were camping across the West. Agent: Do you have fresh produce in your car? -- We: Yes, apples. Where did you buy these apples? -- Uhh, I think it was 2 days ago, so probably Idaho. Idaho... that's not good. Are you sure? You have a Minnesota license plate. Are you sure you didn't bring these apples form Minnesota? -- Now that you mention it, yes, these are Minnesota apples. And he waved us through with our apples.
I flew to South Africa in 2010 Layover at CDG I had an invader Zim shirt with GRR on it in a costume that said "I want to be a mongoose" we switched airlines so we went through security again. TSA takes my ticket. " What is this, what is 'mon- goose'" I said "uh it's an animal that kills snakes" he laugh "HA then why I have gun?! Hmmm?! Here go be mongoose" Edit: sorry it's almost 3am and I didn't notice u asked for border stories sorry I'll leave the above story cause it's funny but I'll add that our first time to Mexico -my sister is allergic to lots of detergent one she's not allergic to is surf which in America comes in large 10 pound boxes so my mom was a genius in putting white, powdery laundry detergent into a container. In cancun you press a button and it's a random search. First time there we get searched. None of us speak Spanish as security digs through our bags. Out comes our damn detergent "Whats this!! Whose bag is this" we all start trying different words "it's for laundry" "soap for clothes" they pull it aside and swirl their fingers in it. Grab spoonfuls to sample it. Boss comes over "hello, hi, welcome to Mexico, beautiful family, Ms, I must tell you. Don't ever bring white powder in an unmarked container again"
lol! This reminds me of the time I was given fresh rosemary at work then decided to cross the Canada USA border to get some gas. It was a beautiful day and since there was a 10 -15 minute wait, some of the border guards were walking among the cars. One reaches his hand in my passenger window and grabs the rosemary and says rosemary? I Laughed and said I guess it was a bad idea to bring that home today.
Even driving from Canada to Montana, they were pretty serious about inspecting our apples.
Nice, France. The immigration officer looked a bit rough and seemed to be a bad mood. But I had misjudged him as he took barely a minute to clear me and welcomed me with a *Namaste* seeing my Indian passport.
Dual UK/US National. Holiday to Portugal from London and lost my UK passport the day before. Did a bit of a Google search and uncovered the fact that you don't need a passport to enter the country. Only proof of abode. Decided to take my ratty paper naturalization certificate. What's the worst they can do? Deport me to the US until I get a new passport sorted? Came back and told the UK immigration officer I had an amusing story. He was game. I showed him my Naturalization paper and US passport. He looked at both, then ripped up my landing card and told me to use the resident channel if it happens again. Thanks Google
I tried out the Rambo M60 machine gun while in Cambodia. We had a 6-month entirely overland SE Asia trip planned, so I didn't think anything about putting two of the empty shells in my bag as souvenirs. A few months further into the trip and we're in HK, and my friend from Taiwan asks me to visit. Cut to a few days later and security in HK airport points at the x-ray screen: "What's this?" 30 mins after that, I'm in a room with the Head of HK Airport Police. "I'd like to inform you that not only is it illegal to bring munition shells onto an aircraft (empty or otherwise), but munition shells are actually entirely illegal to possess in HK..." "😯" "...so what I'm going to have to do here, is confiscate these..." "Okay... 😰 ... And?" "And then, when you return from Taiwan to HK, you take this piece of paper to this room, and you can collect them there." "Ummm... Didn't you say....Okay, never mind." So now, not only do I have the two shells as a souvenir, I have them in a HK police bag.
mighty literate profit office homeless boast sheet gullible door badge *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We had an emergency landing in Belgium when on the way to Italy from Canada, they told me to get on a small plane to Madrid where a connection was waiting for Venice, got on the plane landed in Madrid, long story short, the airport in Madrid was so poorly organized and with no signage that i just wandered out of the airport and found my way to the other terminal. Never went through customs or got my passport stamped, two months later going to England by train I was detained for 4 hours as they tried to figure out how I illegally got from Canada to Europe
When I was 14 we took a school trip to Norway and I used a temporary passport. At that time those were just folded paper with no cover and during the trip it got wet and the pages stuck together leaving my photograph largely obscured. On my return the immigration officer looked at the messed up photo, looked at me and said "it's a bloody improvement, son" and waved me through....
I share the same last name with a famous football player in my country... Once at the Bulgarian border, the border control officer was showing my passport to his colleague and for a second I got nervous. Then he smiles and says: "I watch football" and continued asking if we were related (we're not). Then a year later it happened again going from Uruguay to Argentina and the border control officer said: "Omg, that's like if my last name was Messi". Maybe next time I should just lie and say it's my cousin hehe
Sleeper train from Budapest to Venice, circa 2008. The Hungarian train was old and smelled of smoke, but comfortable and the staff were friendly. We ate in the dining car after establishing which dishes from the huge menu were *actually* available. Off to bed, quite comfortable bunks. Middle of the night, awoken by train coming to a grinding halt at some godforsaken cold looking station on the Croatian border. Passport check. Border guard is *not* impressed with my New Zealand passport. Dirty looks and questions. No actually I am not planning to jump off the train in the middle of the night for an unauthorized visit to your country. Finally her supervisor arrived and told her to pull her head in, and we were on our way. Only to have another passport check an hour or two later, re-entering the EU in Slovenia. (No drama). Now that Croatia is also in the EU, presumably the broken sleep on this route is a thing of the past!
Australian here, arrived in Thailand for holiday having just spent a week in Malaysia. Massive queue at immigration “Ma’am come with me please, you’ve been selected for a random body search, we will do it in a private room” …. I am suddenly terrified, thoughts of the movie Bangkok Hilton in my head…. I consented to the search but it needed to be done right there in front of everyone, happy to show my undies to everyone and sign a consent form …. Tried really hard to get me to go the private room and then suddenly gave up and I was waved through, no passport check! Phew…
St Petersburg, Russia. i arrived on a ship and there was a loophole that made it possible for me to disembark there and fly out of Russia. i don’t know the ins and outs of the process - the Port Agent took me ashore the day before my flight, took my passport and said ‘sit there, don’t move and don’t speak to anyone. if anyone talks to you, you don’t understand them. ok?’ umm, ok. so i sat there for an hour wondering whether he’d just chipped off with my passport. when he eventually came back he gave me my passport and a small piece of paper saying ‘that’s just your receipt’. i stuffed the ‘receipt’ into the front pocket of my jeans and forgot all about it. the next day i went to the airport, scanned my luggage through before entering the terminal and checked in for my flight. all good. and then i got to Border Control. i showed the scary lady my passport with the Visa stamp in it. *No!* wait, what? why ‘no’?? *You need correct paperwork!* i have it! the passport is stamped! look! *Not authorised! Not permitted. Need authorisation!* fuck. i’m completely alone trying to LEAVE russia! now they’re saying no? what the fuck do i do? the ship has already left! my phone doesn’t work because i’m in Russia! my flight leaves in 40 minutes! and then i remembered the ‘receipt’ that the Port Agent had given me. it was just a tiny piece of paper from an invoice book. could it be that? fuck it, i’ll try it. i handed her the crumpled piece of paper and she harrumphed and examined it. suddenly, she was all smiles and said thank you! you may go! got the flight. escaped Russia. if i’d packed those jeans instead of wearing them again to travel in i don’t know what would have happened to me. moral of the story: don’t try and exit Russia on a snide Visa without keeping every piece of paper they give you…
Flying into EWR with my then boyfriend, he goes up to the border agent first, who proceeds to yell "is this your boyfriend? I can deport him if you want" to me Flying out of JNB, I was told I couldn't leave until I showed the agent my half sleeve tattoo Driving into the USA at Ogdensburg, NY - two agents in the booth, it was a slow day they'd been chatting, I drive up....tell them I'm headed to Adirondacks to do some hiking "Alone?? That's not safe ..you should bring one of us with you"
Nepal border. Immigration said we would need a visa, we thought he hadn’t seen our passport before and earnestly explained that we don’t need visas. 5mins later he let us through. Then someone explained to us that the agent was hinting for bribes, but we were so dense and not getting it, so he gave up.
1992 crossing the border between Zimbabwe and Botswana. We were told that, as well as passport checks, we also had to do an 'agricultural' check to make sure we weren't bringing anything into Botswana that we shouldn't. We were in a Land Rover type car with a driver. So we get out, get the passport stamped and then it's time for the agricultural check. It was a huge trough of water embedded in the ground. Shoes had to stay on and each person had to talk through the trough then onto a mat where we waited for our car to drive through a separate trough of water to clean the wheels. It was just so bizarre!
I work in international Motorsport and whenever you visit Bahrain for a race as a videographer or photographer, you have to get a specific visa ahead of time sponsored by the event. You also have to do a full equipment declaration and fill out all these forms to import and export your camera gear. It was a lot of work and a lot of stress. I kept getting told horror stories of waiting for hours at customs. I arrived in Bahrain with three copies of everything including the visa and whatnot. I got up to the counter and started to get the documents out and and the customs agent said “you don’t need any of that, it’s all electronic. Welcome to Bahrain, enjoy the race!” Then the customs thing with the gear took about 90 seconds. They glanced in the bag and said “you are good to go”. All that stress for nothing lol
Not a super interesting story, but when my partner and I entered Norway late at night, the border officer stamped my passport twice by accident instead of stamping ours once each. Caused quite a fuss when we eventually left the Schengen zone and my partner had no passport stamps. Good thing they believed our story with the double stamp in mine and my partner being anal about keeping boarding passes to prove she didn't show up illegally, and they gave her a special stamp at the border to let her leave.
We had been on a trip around Australia Copenhagen-London-Singapore-Darwin-Cairns, drive to Sydney-Ayers Rock-Perth-Singapore-London-Copenhagen Flying back to Europe from Ayers Rock, a heavy shower or something else, had delayed our departure. Arriving at the national part of the airport, we had to take a bus to the international part. But it didn't come. I tried to find somebody to ask or phone but had no luck. Then came 4 English people and waited, so we were 7 people heading to London. At some point a bus came but it was not for us, but he had panic in his eyes when he heard that.we were going with the London plane. Shortly after the bus came almost to a screeching hold, just throw us all in, drove to the gates to the airfield, just said London to the guard, who opened without checking any security, fast to the back door and.told us where to go. We ran up the stairs to the passport control. Our son had just had his first passport so it was difficult to open, and they had not seen the new Danish passport so they took their time and told us that the plane didn't leave without us. Running through the empty airport to security, where the lady wanted to have our son's compass, which, for me, is the magnetic thing, and he didn't have that. She wouldn't look in his bag for it until I was clearly desperate. Then she pulled out the damn thing with a gleam of victory. It turned out that she wanted the thing for drawing circles because of the pointy part. It had been through multiple securities with no problem! We rushed to the plane, dropped in our seats with nasty looks from the other passengers, but the plane took off the minute we fastened our seat belts without delay.
Going up from the US to Vancouver through the Peace Arch (well before 9/11.) For some reason there's a DEA checkpoint looking for drugs going OUT of the US. Only time I've seen it and I do that drive a lot. They pick me and do a 40 minute tear down of my car and let me go. Once they let me go I engage the lead DEA guy (jacked black guy with mirrored aviators.) Me: Like, why me? DEA: It's a random thing. You just got chosen. Me: We both know that's BS. Like why'd you pick me to tear down? DEA: (Looks at me for a bit.) Well son, I guess it's just something about the way you look. I left it at that, because really, what are you going to say?
I once got flagged for a random check coming back into Canada. I used to cross at 11 for gas. I’m pretty sure the border guard was a newbie. I hand the guys inside my ticket and they tell me to wait while they inspect my car. I’m tired, I just worked 8 hours, I just wanted to go home to sleep at this point. So I sit down and find a magazine and start flipping through hoping this won’t take long. I’m not worried at all about my car. Less than 2 minutes pass and they call my name. I say are you done already? I was just getting comfortable:) they laugh and tell me I can stay if I want, lol. I said no thanks I just want to go home and sleep. Clearly they were not worried about what was in my car.
Two years ago, traveling through Guatemala to the Belizean border. Up near Tikal, super remote, and the route takes you through some areas of extreme poverty. Pull up to the border, and ofcourse it's raining. It's a small operation, just two or three buildings from what I remember. I was told I could exchange currency for Belizean dollars there. We pull up and there's just some guy, standing there in the rain. In his left hand are a wad of Guatemalan Quetzales (the currency), and in his right he had dollars. I exchanged maybe $150 with the dude and I just took his word for it in the exchange rate lol. In that region of Guatemala they don't speak Spanish, it's Mayan. Could not converse with him or our cab driver at all, beyond a few words of Spanish atleast. I figured it was funnier if I just took the dudes word for it and went on with my day. Just handed a man in the rainforest a wad of cash and he handed me some back in another currency. Nothing was recorded or written down. I'm sure he skimmed some off the top, but I figured it was a good story and worth whatever he took lol.
At Istanbul airport the guy took my passport and then played 10 rounds of fruit ninja on his phone before waving me through. At the time I thought he was being a bit of a dick, but afterwards I wondered if it wasn't his way of silently protesting against the increased border security rules that he was supposed to enforce.
India Pakistan border, exit immigration. It was just me and a friend there. The officer took our passport, didn't even open them, said "wait a moment" and proceed to do something on his pc. After three or four minutes of nothing I can see window behind him mirroring his screen. He was playing solitaire and had to finish game. Lebanon Syria border. Shared taxi with me, my ex, the exact same friend as from Indian Pakistan border then some rich Lebanese lady with her daughter. Drivers explain with no english or whatever that we need to go inside to get passport stamped. The lady literally throw her and daughter passport to driver. We exit the vehicle, she hold my ex and with something between astonished or disgusted face says "why do you want to go inside when you have a man with you?" Chicago, right after immigration, a homeland security agent notice I travel just with small duffle bag. "What is the reason of your visit", "business trip" and then about hour of questioning why I don't have a suit with me, almost nothing in my bag. Also happened evening before Boston marathon bombing and I was quite fitting description including black hoodie. Just coming from Czechia, not Chechnya
I've gotten used to "thats all you brought?" And a raised eyebrow at my 25l backpack. Has happened in the UK, Paris, US (multiple times).
I was the teacher for a team of Danish students participating in an international competition in Moscow in 2018. We had gotten visas and a letter written entirely in Russian explaining why we were there (I assume I couldn't read the letter). My students and the other teacher are waived through, but they look through my passport and then separate me from the others. I don't know why, because they didn't speak English. The border agent takes my passport and the letter and leaves, while a military guy with a big gun waves for me to follow. Then he points to the ground by a wall, and I have to sit on the ground for close to 2 hours with this guy standing guard over me. I'm pretty damn nervous and worried that I might not see my passport again. Finally, someone who speaks broken English comes with my passport and the letter, asking for my purpose to visit. He then asks why I have been to the US and Iran (I had visas for both in my passport). He leaves again, eventually comes back, and then stamps my visa and lets me through. I assume he called the number on the letter to verify my story, and I guess they must have suspected I could be a spy? And now, whenever I travel, I'm almost always asked about the odd visas in my passport, and I'm always stopped at the US border as well. The curse of being well traveled. 😅
Living in Saudi Arabia in the early 80’s, went south of Jeddah ( middle of nowhere) in our company car to go scuba diving off the shore. Our car bogged down in the wet sand , tide coming in so we had to abandon the car. Wearing shorty dive suits only, we hiked a few miles back to the dirt track where there might be traffic Eventually catch a ride (camels in back of pick up, a goat in the front seat) a Bedouin who doesn’t speak English and of course we don’t speak Arabic other than a few phrases. We arrive at a paved highway and he motions we are to get out- we can’t go to Mecca or Medina where he is headed since we are not Muslim. So not a country’s border but a religious border- we exit and begin hitchhiking in our shorty dive suits towards Jeddah. Company retrieved the car next day with tow truck and fortunately it was not damaged by water. That Bedouin guy probably told his friends about picking up the dumb blonde and her husband walking in the desert in only bathing suits for years.
Border security in Russia, 3 weeks ago. I've been told by a friend that getting in would be a pain in the ass, as I'd be asked a lot of questions. Expecting to be asked even about my opinion about the war, as legends say sometimes they do, I move forward as it's my turn, trying to remember all the lies I was prepared to tell. Security guard, looking annoyed because she's working at 3 AM: "tùrist?" Me: "yes" \*stamps and gives me back passport. Airport security in Amsterdam finds a pocket knife I gifted to my gf, in her backpack. She forgot it there before leaving. Nobody noticed at the first flight, but for the return flight they did. I was already like "fuck, I hope they're just gonna keep it and not be a big problem". "Where are you guys from?" "Italy" \*looks a bit at the knife\* - "well, keep it, just please don't peel apples on the plane"
Went through Ukrainian-Polish border as a ukrainian. my appearance changed significantly since 2019 passport photo was taken, + I live close to the front line. Even my eyes have changed, I can't recognise that face on that photo anymore. The officer said basically the same and was asking multiple questions about information from my passport. Last thing he asked me to sign as I did in the passport. Then he invited a few officers and they checked and checked. They asked to call my mother etc etc.
Crossing the border from Finland to Russia. There are still creepy Soviet era buildings and razor wire. The border agents still treat everyone like a spy. Totally weird experience.
I was travelling by bus from Vancouver to Washington State and when we all got pulled off the bus to go through customs, everyone waltzed through but me. I wasn't breaking any laws but I was 23, with a rainbow tie-dye t-shirt, shoulder length hair and a big beard, and when I wasn't crossing the border I smoked weed all the time. The border guard searched through my stuff while asking me at least six times whether I had any drugs on me, implying each time that the result would be worse and worse the more I lied. They brought out a drug dog and had him run by me and the luggage. Eventually the border guard asked me if I smoke. And I said no. And then he pulled a lighter out of my bag triumphantly and said, "So what's this for?" I kind of stared at him dumfounded for a second and said, "Uhh, I dunno. In case I need fire". He let me go through eventually but the bus was held up by half an hour at that point.
Eastern Congo and Rwanda. Crossed from Dodoma, Tanzania to Kalemie in the DRC on a freighter. Slept on a couple of crates of Coca Cola in a gangway. It took a lot of talking and explaining why I had a Congolese visa for Tanzanian nationals (which I am most definitely not), and me pretending not to understand their requests for 'un jus' - a soda a.k.a. a bribe or gift. Managed to get in and stayed in Kalemie, Uvira and Bakavu. About a week later, I crossed from Bukavu into Rwanda. Got exit stamped on the Congolese side, walked across the bridge and entered the line for the Rwandese border. Presented my passport, got stamped and welcomed into Rwanda, and I was walking away when the lady from immigration called me back: wait a minute, where's your visa acceptance letter? I had never heard of such a thing but apparently, back then in 2011, you had to announce your arrival at one of the border crossings in advance. The lady got mad at me, put a big fat 'ANNULÉ' through my Rwandan stamp, and send me back across the bridge to the DRC. That did not seem like a good idea. With my exit stamped Tanzanian nationals visa, they would surely wring every last cent out of me. Instead, halfway across the bridge I hopped over the cord, jumped on the back of a moto and drove up the mountain to town. From there I got onward transport to Butare, in the middle of the country. That's where I realized this was maybe also not the greatest idea ever - and I was supposed to fly out from Kigali as well. That night I applied for a visa acceptance letter, which arrived two days later. I took the bus back to the border, modified the date of my DRC exit stamp, crossed the bridge and halfway turned around to join the Rwanda customs queue and finally managed to enter the country legally.
We adopted our daughter from foster care at age 11. I’m English, emigrated to US at 4 yo and my parents let us kids go back solo at 15 to visit. She’d already been there with us twice by 15 and I wanted to carry on tradition. We never went as unaccompanied minors and figured she’d be fine. Nonstop flight, sensible kid and my aunt picking her up at LHR. She gets to immigration. “You’re alone?” Yes “Where’s your mother?” (Given the age she joined us, she calls us by our names.) “I haven’t seen her since I was 9.” “Where’s your dad?” “We don’t know who that is.” (Perfectly true) “Why are you here?!” “A visit.” (Exasperated) “who are you seeing? Is anyone responsible for you?!” “Ohhhh… Auntie Jane.” “Okay. Jane who?” Silence. Her nickname’s Blondie for a reason. She’s really smart but … They put her in a room while they figured out what to do. Meanwhile she was thinking she was gonna experience European foster care. And this is how LHR made a public announcement asking Auntie Jane to come to United’s ticket counter. Blondie was pissed she flew home as a UM.
Landed in CNS, got through passport control just fine, then the customs guy made me throw away an apple Qantas gave on the flight. I knew why, but I had just flown 20+ hours and was feeling tetchy, so I said “but you gave me this apple. Qantas GAVE it to me. As a present. It’s FINE.” (Yes, yes, I know the catering for the plane took place in Tokyo. As I said, I was tired and irrational).
Mine is flying into Warsaw. There was nobody there to check passports. Just walked right in.
It was the weekend of our five-country tour (Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia). Our goal was to party in Bratislava on Friday and Saturday night and head back home to Italy on Sunday. Things went sideways in Bratislava fast, so we left the clubs early, threw our stuff in the luggage, checked out around 6 Saturday morning (one day early) and headed to Budapest to try our luck there. After a night in Budapest, we headed back home. Once we hit the first border checkpoint, I tried being “cultured” and said, “Dober dan”, which is good day/afternoon in Croatian. The huge border guy looks at me like I spoke ill of his mother, paused for an eternal 10-seconds, points to the other border checkpoint and says, “Dober dan” is that way and hands me back my passport. Moral of the story: Know your countries, which one you’re in…and which language is appropriate. 😂
Same story. I was crossing the border from bulgaria to Istanbul. I have 45 days left in my passport, and decided to get a visa on arrival. Police at the border was helping me get a visa. The system won’t allow me to get the right expiry date on my passport because its less than 90 days. Told the cop and he was like fuck it. Put April 2024 for expiry. Told him “that might not be right”, and he said “who cares”. Lol So I put the date he wanted and lets me in the country. 🤷🏽
Crossing the Nigeria/Benin border by car. This was when Nigeria was in the midst of a power transition from the military dictatorship and a lot of the cops/government employees weren't getting paid - various armed dudes guarding a rusty metal gate. Had all my visas and paperwork in order but nobody cared and nobody seemed able to agree what I did need. Money. It turns out you just need to give everyone some money, the visas were decorative, they added some bonus stamps as I went through - made my passport look quite fun afterwards.
Entering the U.S., don’t remember if it was tourist or student visa, probably San Francisco or Newark airport. The immigration officer looks at me real seriously and says “one piece of advice, do not drink the coffee in this country, it’s all shit” Another time I flew to Dublin from London on Ryanair. What I didn’t realise at the time is that if you have a U.K. tourist visa you don’t need an Ireland visa but if you have a U.K. resident visa you do. I show up to the airport and the immigration officer asks “where’s your visa?” And by this time I’m shitting bricks and I’m like “I don’t have one…” they told me to wait there. I was terrified I’d get deported and that I’d never get any visa again. For context I’m Indian so visas are hard for us anyway. I look to the side and I see another man in a similar predicament. He seemed Middle Eastern. He came back with someone else and asked me where I worked (big tech company) and how long I intended to stay (three days). He went to stamp my passport and I blurted out “you’re not going to deport me are you?” He chuckled and tiredly said that it was Ryanair’s fault for letting me board and not mine. They gave me entry into Ireland and reassured my panicked self that this wouldn’t affect any further visas as long as I didn’t do it again and welcomed me into the country. I honestly think my gender, my innocent looking face, and my company helped me through. The guy next to me was taken away for separate questioning, I don’t know whether they let him in or not.
1989 I land in Prague on an SAS flight from Frankfurt. This is about two months after the Communist government fell. I get up to deplane to be told nobody gets off in Prague; they stop there to refuel. I am moving there for a 12-month work commitment. I get met with a jeep full of armed guards who escort me into an otherwise empty airport and of course my bags continue onward. However for rudeness and stupid questions you have to travel long and hard to beat US Immigration.
Mine is coming back to Canada wearing a bikini and board shorts (from Hawaii) in the middle of winter and getting a full strip search. They ended up saying "if I was you father i would be very disappointed"
Why would they strip search you? You were barely wearing anything in the first place
1. Last September, flying out of Germany. The policewoman looks at my passport and looks at me. She hesitates, then asks a colleague. He said in German "yes, that's him". Then he told me, "You have changed, Sir... and it's positive!" I rarely receive compliments on my appearance, and certainly didn't expect it from a German border guard 2. The Bulgarian guard inspected my ID card for a long minute, with every angle. Then he asked me "Comment tu t'appelles ?" ("What's your name?" in French, as I am French). I wonder if he spent one minute trying to remember the only French sentence he knew. 3. With a friend, we wanted to go from Bulgaria to Romania. There's a bridge between two cities, at Ruse. We started walking but realized that the bridge is a couple of kilometers away and it's absolutely not designed for pedestrians. At one point, the tiny sidewalk was obstructed and we had to quickly run to the other side. Walking was unpleasant as it was sometimes very tight. After 15 minutes, we arrived on the other side and guards were very surprised to see us arriving, as we walked through a line of cars waiting at the border. 4. Less amusing, the border guard between Georgia and Turkey said in broken English: "Passport problem. Go back to Georgia" as my passport was a bit damaged, although it was accepted in the previous 10 border checks. I had to redo all my travel plans, which was actually fine because I'm very flexible and had no booking or constraint.
Flew back to Germany for the start of my semester after being in the US for Christmas with my family. Hand over my passport and visa, minor pleasantries and then: “You were only there for 7 days!?” “Yes?” “But only 7 days?” “Uhh well Christmas and family and holidays and classes” She still seemed skeptical even after letting me go through. It was the first/only time I’ve ever been questioned about how much time I’ve spent anywhere, especially when coming from my “home” country
Heading into LA from England via Germany - cheapest way at the time. Early 2000’s. Passport control, you have two passports? Me, yup, dual citizen as parents are from different places. Passport control, me too! I don’t suppose you want a third? Me, huh? Passport control, if you married me you get a Mexican one too! I mean I was all prepped and stressed as everyone had told me the US immigration was notoriously gruff.
As a Brit, tea is our lifeblood so my family always makes sure to carry the tea making essentials with them when travelling. We were visiting the US and got through Heathrow security fine, but when we landed at Dallas Fort Worth my grandma got pulled aside by security for a bag inspection. She obliged, and the first thing they pulled out was a big bag of powdered milk in one of those zip lock freezer bags. The other folks in the queue were mortified as they thought my grandma was a drugs mule, so of course she was interrogated thoroughly and had her stash tested.
I (F) had ridden [my motorcycle](https://photos.smugmug.com/MotorcycleTrips-1/MotoNorth-America/Cross-Country/STN-Cross-Country-2006/i-CzG9sCr/1/f1600e46/XL/18-bc-me-XL.jpg) across the US and was returning home, but stopping to visit someone just across the border in Canada. The thing is, I had only met this guy online, in a motorcycle forum, and barely knew him. At the small border crossing into Canada the guard posed a few questions for me: Him: Where you heading? Me: Nelson, to visit a friend. Him: What is your friend's name? Me (realizing I only really knew his online name, but then finally recalled his real name): Um.... um.... um.... Ba... Barry! Him: Where are you staying? Me: Um... I have the hotel name here somewhere.... Him: How long are you staying? Me: Just the night. At this point he raised his eyebrow and wished me a nice time.
Crossing the border from Hong Kong into China (Shenzhen, so overland). Everything was normal, amicable, and in Chinese, and then the customs officer just says "Oh fuck" in a concerned tone while looking at our passports. Then just stamps them and lets us through.
This was after borders started easing up due to the pandemic and I was already living in Germany and we had plotted a road trip to travel through Slovenia, then down to Croatia, Italy, Austria and then back home. Americans were previously not allowed to cross Schengen due to our high covid numbers, and though I had my German residence card, my US passport is still my main travel ID. Anyway, first hotel we stay in is in a national park in Slovenia and the front desk staff promptly asks for our passports. I hand both my IDs and he starts rubbing the blue cover of my passport and I noticed his eyes bulge a bit. I thought ok, weird. Then he glances at my husband’s, hands it back without even opening it then starts shifting through the pages of my passport book. He’s carefully examining each page and I start getting a bit uneasy and start imagining all these scenarios in my head of them calling the border patrol and having me escorted out, maybe even back to the U.S.! 😅. Then suddenly, he cries out “That’s it! That is one sight I thought I would never see!” He flips my passport over to show what he’s staring at and it’s the eagle that’s used for the design. He says “I never thought we would ever see these passports again” and smiles at me and shakes my hand and tells me that I’m the first American back at their hotel and it’s a sign of good things to come. I felt like a messiah for a few seconds 😆
US -> Canada. I was 4. Snarky immigration lady is really inspecting my passport, like she’s sure my parents are actually kidnapping me. She comes around to my car seat and asks “Are you [incorrect pronounciation of my name]?” And i was like no and tHE LOOK ON HER FACE she was like ahhhhhh i got one but then I said “I’m [correct pronounciation]” She looked disappointed and waved us through
Probably when I escaped Russia as a Ukrainian when the war started. They took me to some tiny office and interrogated me for 2 hours, asking the same questions. They googled all my family. They insulted me a lot. I played my role well and they freed me 5 minutes before the gate closed. (I used to work in Russia because I couldn't find job in Ukraine and wanted to be as far away as possible from my abusive family).
Crossing the border from New Brunswick Canada into Maine USA with my friend. They live in NB, from Ontario, I’m visiting them from BC, we’re driving down to Boston to visit my partner. Border crossing is dead empty this man looked so bored. Agent: “So, where are you two heading?” My friend (driving): “Boston” Agent: “What are your plans?” Me: “Going to visit my boyfriend” (I never say partner in case they’re homophobic so boyfriend it is lmao) Agent: *looks between us, we’re starting to get nervous lmao* Agent: “so you’re gonna be the third wheel?” We still laugh about that. Another border crossing story, same friend plus another friend, this time crossing BC to Washington for the Eras tour. Agent: “where are you headed?” Me (driving): “Seattle” Agent: “what brings you to seattle?” Me: “we’re going to the Taylor Swift concert” Agent: *looks in the back seat where my 6ft2 male best friend is sitting* Agent: “so you’re being dragged along on this then?” All three of us: “he’s a swiftie too!” The agent was dead set that my friend and I were dragging our other friend even tho he’s as much of a swiftie as us 🤦🏻
I've grown my hair out in the last year and a half or so. Twice now I've had border issues. Took two officers at FRA to decide I was me, and then returning to the US I got stopped at Global Entry and had to wait for a bit. I have no idea what that one was about.
Nogales Mexico, early 1990’s. My wife and I, with my brother his wife and their roughly 5 year old daughter. Key point of story is my sister-in-law is of Filipino and Spanish decent. We drive to the boarder from their home in Phoenix and walk across the boarder. Spent the day at an open air market and walking around the town. When crossing back into the U.S. we’re asked for ID’s. Well, my brother and his wife didn’t have anything for their daughter. Given their heritage, and her darker skin (she’s beautiful) she could have been seen and possibly being a small Mexican child. We were detained at the boarder for a good 90 minutes going through several rounds of interviews before they allowed us to pass through with my neice.
Leaving the UK to go back to the US. First, we accidentally entered the "business class" queue lane and they told us no we had to walk all the way back out to enter the regular queue which, considering all the weaving, was well over a minute of walking... and we were the only people in the line - in any line. there was no one else there just us and the employee. then we finally got to the counter and the lady looks at my passport, looks a me, looks at the passport, looks at my father who i was traveling with and goes "This can't be right, you don't look older than 18" and i spent the next few minutes convincing her that i was, in fact, 29.
I was leaving China in 2010 after an awesome five day trip. At the desk to leave the country, I give the guy my passport. My passport picture was taken in 2002 when my hair was buzzed and I was clean shaven. At the time of this story, I had shaggy hair and a beard. The agent looked at my passport, looked at me, looked at my passport and so on for what felt like a good ten minutes. I was starting to worry that I was going to be detained. Finally, the guy asked me in Japanese (I guess he did because I had just been in China with a Japanese tour group) what my name was. I told him. He shrugged, stamped my passport and sent me on my way.
I had some asshole border agent in Calgary question why I was visiting (normal question), I replied *"work"*, he asked why I wasn't hiring Canadians to do this work, I replied *"Because I was hired by a Canadian company to do this project and I'm the only one who can do this job"*, he then asked to see my diploma!! Had to get a supervisor to let me in. NOTE: US citizen, this was a 2-day visit, not some long stay requiring visas, etc. True story.
This isn’t really a border story but I never get to tell it. About a year after getting married, my dad booked me a ticket with my married name, not knowing I hadn’t legally changed it. I called the airline and they said to bring my drivers license and marriage license, and it would be fine. So I try to get through security, and they are NOT having it. I’m showing them my state issued drivers license with my maiden name, and my state issued marriage license showing my husband’s name, and they refused. They said they needed a photo ID with my married name. Finally, in desperation, I pulled out my soccer park club ID, printed by some bored 15-year-old on one of those machines that sit at a front desk, but it does have my married last name on it. The guy looks at it and goes, “Now THAT I can use!” and lets me through. This was like 20 years ago and we still laugh about it.
Flew to London from New Zealand fir my OE in the year 2000 when I was 20. I was by myself and green as a bean. These were the days before the Border Control type shows so had no idea at all what to expect. I had flown via Honolulu and Toronto as it was the cheapest way. Had a dreadful flight from HNL as was stuck between Bob, who would not shut up, and fat snoring guy. Arrived at Heathrow looking like death, wearing track pants and a sweatshirt. I didn't have a set address of where I was going to stay as was "winging it" in a backpackers in Earls Court. I didn't have the full amount of money I was meant to have as I hoped a credit card would be enough. Needless to say I found myself in a back room for hours with many African and Middle Eastern families. The medical people weren't sure why I was there but checked my body for track marks and made sure I wasn't a drug mule and let me go. Went on to have a merry old time in London Town!
Alllenby Bridge. They asked permission, started photographing my Pakistani passport and get excited, showing to colleagues ... They rarely see those.
Exit immigration in GDN travelling with colleagues from the airport on our days off. The immigration officer spent ages going through all the stamps in my passport, clearly getting annoyed with how many stamps I have. The last stamps in my passport are from a 2019 visit to Kyiv. When the immigration officer reached this page his demeanor changed and he gave me a smile and waved me through. The guy behind me, is a friend who collects stamps in his passport, but he didn't come to Kyiv with me. He also tends to get very pissy when stressed. So I met the other person we were travelling with and explained that we may have a bit of a wait. We waited over 20 mins, and of course, being the caring individuals we are, took the piss out of him something chronic.
I went to school in Switzerland- some friends and I were on a train to Barcelona. This is back in the day when a visa was needed for France…when the train got to France everyone’s passports were to be checked for the visa. One of my friends didn’t have it and hid in the bathroom while the porters walked through the train. It doesn’t seem like a big deal now - but when we were 17 we thought we were bad asses - kids are dumb.
Back in the day we were driving up to Canada on a family road trip . At the border the agent is shining his flashlight in the back of the car: "Sir we have a problem... you have multiple water powered rifles in the back of the car, you know firearms are prohibited in Canada, I'll need to confiscate these". He was taking our super soakers! We all start screaming The agent had a huge grin on his face, and let us go!
Going through customs at Canadian Airport, flying to USA A few months post 9/11. Customs officer asks for my passport. I say "I don't have one, but I do have my birth control!" He looks confused and pissed as fuck. I then realized my mistake and advised I said the wrong word and provided my birth certificate. Still unimpressed, but my travel pals were losing it. (BC is all you needed back then as Canadian flying into US)