Avoid Passport Panic: Keep a Few Pages Blank
(An SA Blog Beta post from Your Correspondent)
- The moral of this post is: Ensure there are a few blank pages in your passport before travelling to South Africa, or you may be refused entry!
Spare a thought for Sean Keener today, who was prevented from boarding a flight from Nairobi to Jo’burg because he is an international fugitive from justice.
Actually, not true: it’s much, much worse. You see, when Sean presented his passport to the Kenya Airways authorities, it was discovered that he had failed to keep any of the pages in his perfectly valid and 100% legal travel document blank. Gasp!
Sean fell foul of one of the more inspiredly obtuse rules devised by South Africa’s inscrutable department of Home Affairs, which regulates who enters and exits the country. The rule is - and I am not kidding - YOU MAY NOT ENTER SA WITHOUT BLANK PAGES IN YOUR PASSPORT. Brilliant! Congratulations all ’round to the Nobel Prize winners at Home Affairs.
The first thing on your list when planning a visit here should thus be to check whether, indeed, there is enough paper pasture in your little travel book for the small but territorial Home Affairs stamp to roam around in.
If you’re coming here from a third country (i.e., not your home), and your passport is getting dangerously full, visit your nearest consulate or embassy, which knows the rules and will add pages. US consulates add 25 pages at a time, for free, and often within the hour - as Sean has now discovered.
Sean, as you will know, is a founder of the BootsnAll.com Travel Network, of which this humble blog is the most recent addition. He has got his extra pages and will be on the next flight out. We’ll see you soon, buddy!
Meanwhile, the most famous utterance on the Home Affairs rule comes from one Jack Schwager, an American hedge fund manager, who was denied entry only after his 16-hour flight to our shores, right at the gates of immigration control. SA Blog reproduces what Jack said for your reading pleasure:
“It’s the most exasperating run-in I’ve had with bureaucratic stupidity and rank indifference in my entire life.”
Here, here!
By Ben | Permalink
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Comments
I just had the EXACT same thing happen to me. An American citizen, living in Paris France, became a victim of these ubsurd rules and regulations with no recourse in sito. After 16 hours of flights (Paris-Amsterdam-Cape Town), arriving at 11:00 pm, I was refused entry because of the lack of two blank pages, and it was impossible to discuss anything with the head of the office (November 28th 2007). He was verbally abusive and at one point became physically abuse when I refused to sign the documents showing that I accepted their refusal. He threatened me, saying that either I sign it, or I go to the holding cell overnight. In the interim the KLM head officer arrived and agreed to board me personally on the outgoing flight, so that I wouldn’t have to spend the night there. I managed to call the US consulate night service in Cape Town and the woman on duty tried to speak to the customs agents on my behalf but he hung up the phone twice and refused to allow her to BRING me the missing pages.
I do believe that American citizens must have some rights that are not being respected in this ‘Republic’ and would love to find out what I can do at this find to get some justice.
Their violent treatment of me was uncalled for and certainly must violate some international codes of conduct, in light of the fact that I have no criminal record and was just a victim of misinformation by the travel agency that booked my trip and the airline that allowed me aboard in this case. My vacation was ruined, I was forced to fly for over 30 hours needlessly and at great expense, and I was abused by these customs agents.
Any ideas about our rights, or do they not exist at all in South Africa?
Glenn Cooper
Hi Glen
Very sorry to hear about your experience…
What can I say?, we have some high people in low places in this country!
Is a absolutely absurd rule, that cost you (and others) time aggravation and your holiday.
My apologies on behalf of South Africa and the retards at Home affairs.
Philip
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You described what happened better than I could Ben. Nice one. It was super easy to get them added…I was leaving the airport at about 7 am - and by 845 am I already re-checked into the hotel and had new pages in my passport.
No worries - gotta be flexible when travelling! Cu in 24 hours or so.