Got stung by a rookie mistake [passport < 6 months to expiry]

[Nank]

This happened to me also a number of years ago with my son. ....he was about 5 at the time and it was in the mid 90's.

What happened was that we only realised the day before we were due to depart that his passport was 3 days shy of the 6 months. I had a friend at DPS airport whom I contacted and they said that they would let them know of the situation

We went to the airport and convinced the airline to check us in on the basis that we had made arrangements locally. I also bought an additional bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label and 2 of those big Tobblerone chocolates.

When we got to the primary line in DPS I got dragged off into a private room to meet with the boss immigration dude of the day.

He sat down and pointing at the passport that was on the desk said "passport no good , not 6 months" . I said to him that I had spoken to my friend and that he told me that I would be meeting with him and that I had brought him a present at which point I plonked the duty free bag with scotch and the chocolates on the desk next to the passport.

With out a word the Passport and inbound immigration card were stamped and handed back to me , and I was pointed to the door.

That's Indonesia for you

I remember coming back from seeing my family in Sicily many years back, and because we were flying to LHR the no fruits or veggies etc. thing applied. Unfortunately my uncle had sent us along with a nice bag of blood oranges fresh from his farm and he (along with the rest of our rather large (as usual) Sicilian family) watched on as we checked in. One of the blokes promptly told us that we couldn't take the oranges with us as there might be disease in the skin. Hearing this, my uncle marched over, pulled out his pocket knife, proceeded to peel all the oranges, put the skins in a bag and then handed it to the officer saying "here you go, there's the peels now let them through". Sure enough the officer shrugged and let us go on our way. Unbelievable...... just one of the many insanities I witnessed as a young 9 year old boy, along with driving so fast the speedometer couldn't keep up (only to slow down when approaching a police car but then speeding up again after we passed), never wearing seatbelts (its seen as an insult to the driver), sitting in a bus going down the mountains driven by a crazy guy called Giuseppe who somehow managed to maintain control of the speeding bus whilst blasting Italian music, singing and playing the tambourine STANDING UP and much more ;D Good times

 

[chillbaby]

Travelled to Bali late last year for work with one of my employees (also an experienced traveller). Got to Bali and I had gone through immigration and I saw her being taken away by immigration officials. I managed to get back through immigration and was taken to where she was being interviewed - her passport was 2 days short of 6 months. I politely but firmly indicated that the airline should not of let her on the plane and that we were here for business and not on holiday showing our return tickets. All handled very politely but firmly. The officer decided to let her through and handled the situation very well. Suspect it was because we were there on business and not just holidaying - only in country for 2 nights. Also feel it was because it was handled respectfully and calmly. It is what it is and when you are at the mercy of any decision maker getting angry/upset definitely doesn't help when basically you are at their mercy. Potentially stressful experience handled well by Indonesian officials

 

[Ekka]

Yep, the 6 month rule is HARD and FAST.
This is another reason to book directly with the airline - they may have had some compassion (especially if you hold some status).

Good grief.

The old "status" thing.

So much for egalitarianism in Australia.

 

[mannej]

Good grief.

The old "status" thing.

So much for egalitarianism in Australia.

Hardly isolated to airlines in Australia I would have thought...

 

[dxwell]

egalitarianism in Australia

Status is ok - you can get status from working the system, nothing to do with birthright or property.

Very good show on ABC at the moment with Tony Robinson (Baldrick from Blackadder) on Australia.
Egalitarianism was never a thing in Aus, from the first settlers and on.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Do people generally pre-fill out their passport details when choosing seats etc?

I was fortunate enough that the SQ website flagged my passport had <6 months when filling out details online (exp Dec 18 for travel in August 18). Lucky it did though as I probably would have overlooked it too.

Could be because SIN has the 6 month rule.

Travelled to Bali late last year for work with one of my employees (also an experienced traveller). Got to Bali and I had gone through immigration and I saw her being taken away by immigration officials. I managed to get back through immigration and was taken to where she was being interviewed - her passport was 2 days short of 6 months. I politely but firmly indicated that the airline should not of let her on the plane and that we were here for business and not on holiday showing our return tickets.

All handled very politely but firmly. The officer decided to let her through and handled the situation very well. Suspect it was because we were there on business and not just holidaying - only in country for 2 nights. Also feel it was because it was handled respectfully and calmly. It is what it is and when you are at the mercy of any decision maker getting angry/upset definitely doesn't help when basically you are at their mercy. Potentially stressful experience handled well by Indonesian officials

Lucky it ended well but could easily have backfired as you can't obtain business visas on arrival for Indonesia. It could've easily gone the other way when you said you were there for business ending with both of you being frogmarched back on the plane.

 

[Buzzard]

I worked for someone who, about five years ago, was also going to Bali and had a passport due to expire in c.five months.
\
Unlike the OP, however, he went to the Melbourne passport office and had the new one in his hand by that afternoon. I'm not sure how he obtained the birth certificate, but instead of his early morning SQ flight he was able to be rebooked on the midnight one.

So it can be possible to obtain an express renewal on the same day.

Different rules apply for Child Passports.

 

[Buzzard]

You can get a 10 year passport from 16 years and older. Have done this last year. Nothing to do with your son's birthday, you just didn't tick the 10 year option.

You can now but I'm pretty certain you couldn't back in 2013.

 

[iRate]

You can now but I'm pretty certain you couldn't back in 2013.

My passport expires in 2023, having been issued in April 2013.

The bonus is that by 2023 I suspect it will be my only valid photo id where I still have a full head of hair.