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A warning has been sent out to travellers after a man says he was deported from a country after his passport was damaged. Matt Vandenberg went on Twitter to share his experience when he was flying from Sydney to Bali for a friend’s wedding.
© PA
A British passport
However, it turned into a disaster when he arrived at Indonesia. Customs officers noticed that his passport had a small tear in the corner of the page.
As a result, it wasn’t considered as valid and officers would not let him into the country.
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Taking to Twitter, Matt wrote: “One of my best mates is getting married on Friday in Bali, so obviously all the lads and I have flown over. I take the 6am flight out, Jetstar – everyone well behaved, staff were great.
“So I arrive at DPS, pay my visa, present my passport, get brought over to the immigration office who alerts me I have a 1cm tear on my passport page. To be fair, he’s correct (I had no idea until he bent it all the way back, and it stood out. You couldn’t see it any other way.)
“Get brought into an office to be told that my passports tear isn’t acceptable and I won’t be allowed into the country – and my passport will be confiscated until I get on a flight home tonight.”
For Matt, that meant spending 12 hours at the airport – with two airport workers by his side “the whole day” – not to mention that it left him £800 down.
He added: “I’ve had two airport police by my side the whole day – to be fair they are the nicest people you could have stuck by my side, feel very very very sorry for me – rules are rules. So flying home tonight and I have an emergency meeting tomorrow about my passport tomorrow morning, so hopefully can get a new one and get back over.
“Probably a good warning for people travelling to Indonesia – they do not mess around!”
Still, all is well that ends well as Matt shared a later update, revealing he was able to get an emergency passport and make it to his friend’s wedding, after what was “probably the most interesting week of my life”.
According to Royal Mail, HM Passport Office classes a passport as damaged if:
- Details are indecipherable
- The laminate has lifted enough to allow the possibility of photo substitution
- There’s discolouration of the bio-data page
- There’s chemical or ink spillage on any page
- There are missing or detached pages
- The chip or antenna shows through the end paper on the back cover for the new style e-passports
- The chip has been identified as damaged after investigation
