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Anyone here ever had any funny business at immigration whilst travelling?

Basically I'm flying from NZ to Amsterdam in a week or two, and then in six weeks from Berlin to Edinburgh. My passport is a fucking shambles, the badge on the front page is faded, the corners are coming off on the photo page and to make things worse the picture looks totally different because I used to be a fat f**k and now I look totally normal.

If I got an emergency travel document it would cost a fair whack of cash, and that's not taking in to consideration the cost of travel/accomodation to get to Auckland a few days early. I'm not fancying it but I also don't fancy a hand up my arse at the connector airport in Hong Kong, nor do I fancy 24 hours of travel back from Amsterdam having already just travelled that far.

Anyone been in a situation like this, and if so did you take the hit or the YOLO approach? Just about got away with it on the way here and on a holiday from NZ to Australia, near misses each time though.

Assuming your passport is an EU one I don't think the above should be too much of a problem - if it were going out to NZ then perhaps. The Dutch probably operate a half-arsed border check for Western flights too. When going to the US the embassy informed me at the interview that they couldn't use my damaged passport for the visa process, picked up a new passport and had it couriered to London the next day.

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My brother's passport was in a right state as he took it everywhere he went in case he was asked to provide proof of age in pubs, and so on. They let him on the flight but only after his passport was passed around about half a dozen people and scrutinised endlessly. I reckon you'd probably be alright but maybe set out to arrive at the airport earlier than you usually would just in case they decide to spend ages looking at your passport.

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Thats tough shit. If I was an immigration officer and you pitched up in front of me with documents that looked like a dugs breakfast, I'd deffo be searching out the rubber gauntlets. :lol:

Get a new feckin' passport................. :rolleyes:

Can't get a new passport till I'm back. Just a ragingly expensive document I can only use one.

Nah, my mind is made up. #YOLO

It depends, do you look 'muslimy'?

Not but my family background is awfully timmish.

One of the most miserable experiences was a few years ago when I was flying out by myself to Vietnam for one of these 'pay a lot of money to travel with a group of dickheads for three weeks' tours. Mine was to start in Vietnam and then go through China to Hong Kong. Great so it was.

Anyway... on the way in, I had my single entry Chinese visa for the 'Nam-China border crossing in a weeks time and was flying to Hanoi via Beijing to start the trip. About an hour after leaving Heathrow, the flight attendant starts wandering about handing out landing forms for landing in Beijing and when I saw the 'visa number' section, I absolutely shat it thinking that my single entry visa would be stamped.

From this point I spent the rest of the flight worryingly pondering on whether I continue as usual and chance my luck at the Nam-China border (which had a 99% chance of being an epic fail) or whether I somehow travel the length of a huge country (where hardly anyone speaks English and I speak zero Chinese) and somehow meet the group on the Chinese side (where my return flight home was also from).

20173 hrs later, I'm at the arrivals hall in Beijing, awaiting being told my fate. Being at the peak of the whole swine flu thing, a couple of guards pick on me and I'm taken away to a medical room. Apparently my temperature was way above the permitted level for entry, most likely because I was shiteing it rather than carrying any virus, and being told that if I failed the test then I'd have to be taken to a hospital in Beijing itself, guaranteeing me missing my connecting flight even if I wanted to catch it and the start of my tour the next morning in Hanoi. That helped calm me down of course. <_<

After explaining the situation and being fed large volumes of water to cool me down, I passed my third and final test by a bawhair and was sent on my way to catch my flight which was due to leave in <15 mins. What I found however was an empty foreign arrivals 'hall' where all the staff had buggered off from the gates, such was the time I was detained. I had to drop all honour and just shout out until somebody turned up. In the end I explained again and the guy after much faff gave me a 24hr temporary visa and the opportunity to bomb it through the terminal to my gate where I just caught my flight to Hanoi.

To this day I still hate and get a great sense of dread when travelling on my own. :(

Ooft.

I've heard some horror stories with people going to the far east, don't think it'll be as bad as that even if I am going to Hong Kong airport.

Was it a puddle?

I've just remembered I didn't reply to a message you sent amount 8 months ago.

Apologies brah.

Assuming your passport is an EU one I don't think the above should be too much of a problem - if it were going out to NZ then perhaps. The Dutch probably operate a half-arsed border check for Western flights too. When going to the US the embassy informed me at the interview that they couldn't use my damaged passport for the visa process, picked up a new passport and had it couriered to London the next day.

Aye, cheers.

I was thinking myself that surely getting in to NZ (twice) is surely the hardest part done.

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Anyone here ever had any funny business at immigration whilst travelling?

Basically I'm flying from NZ to Amsterdam in a week or two, and then in six weeks from Berlin to Edinburgh. My passport is a fucking shambles, the badge on the front page is faded, the corners are coming off on the photo page and to make things worse the picture looks totally different because I used to be a fat f**k and now I look totally normal.

If I got an emergency travel document it would cost a fair whack of cash, and that's not taking in to consideration the cost of travel/accomodation to get to Auckland a few days early. I'm not fancying it but I also don't fancy a hand up my arse at the connector airport in Hong Kong, nor do I fancy 24 hours of travel back from Amsterdam having already just travelled that far.

Anyone been in a situation like this, and if so did you take the hit or the YOLO approach? Just about got away with it on the way here and on a holiday from NZ to Australia, near misses each time though.

Mine is in a similar state to yours with the faded badge and worn out corners due to water damage years ago and I was almost turned away before entering Poland as the guy grilled me for a good 15 minutes before letting me in. It also wouldn't scan when trying to enter through Shehyni but the guy just gave up trying and let me through.

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Been sat out in the sun all day. Bar was opened at 2 and all was going well until one of my unseen neighbours brought out a guitar and harmonica! Having not long moved here it looks like I've moved into a living set of Deliverance.

eta. Apart from the television, I have never seen a Partick Thistle strip in my life. Somebody just walked past my front window wearing one! I live on the east coast.

Edited by tinkerbelle
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I've had the same half dozen bottles of beer in the fridge for weeks now and the last few times I've been out of an evening or out for a meal I've been on soft drinks. Without meaning to I appear to have stopped drinking alcohol and I'm not really that fussed.

I must admit I like a drink but I seem to be getting fussy in my old age and am focused more on taste than whether or not 16 of them will give me heartburn.

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Walking home from my mates house and theres a 30 year old looking jakie taking a shit in the street, pulls up his trousers as he sees me and just casually walks away. What an absolute waste of space.

:lol: where the fcuk do you live?!

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