I had a fun weekend last weekend so thought I’d share a story. I am a very seasoned traveller, but I am spontaneous and maybe that’s not the best thing in a post pandemic world.
I’d spent 6 weeks living and working in Central Asia, and intended to do another 4-8 weeks when I realised my passport was all but full - I had visas on top of visas. So I had to make the trip back to Australia to get a new one (and also pick up some stuff I needed).
I had two full pages of my passport left and took a circuitous route home with the plan of Dubai, Bahrain, Singapore, Australia. Singapore didn’t stamp my passport on entry though and I now had one full page left so I just did a quick poll on Instagram and let my friends decide where I’d go next and spend the weekend - Phillipines or Papua New Guinea. New Guinea won narrowly. Aside from the poll, my insurance had expired the day before and Singapore required travel insurance for pandemic reasons, so I was probably not technically meant to be in Singapore.
So on the Thursday around lunch time I hire a Grab and left my lovely suite at the Marina Bay Sands to head to Changi airport. I had a few thousand dollars in my account. The prior weekend had been Easter Weekend (and the upcoming weekend was also a long weekend) and I had a lot of money that was moving between accounts - I had paid off my credit cards and the money had left my savings account but not posted on the credit cards yet. I had just enough money to book a business class direct flight from Singapore to Port Moresby so that’s what I did - whilst sitting at the Burger King in the airport.
I had done a cursory check of visa requirements and C19 requirements before departure and I’d previously entered PNG (though not Port Moresby) so wasn’t particularly worried about anything. My flight was due to leave Singapore at 8PM that day (Thursday) and arrive at 5AM Friday morning, so I figured I’d get a good nights sleep on the plane, land in Port Moresby, get to my accommodation and work for a bit.
Immediately after booking the flight I transferred money from my savings account to my everyday transaction account. These accounts are with different banks and the transfer usually takes overnight. I figured the money would clear by the time I landed in Port Moresby. I figured that I would book an onward flight to Australia at my leisure after arrival in Port Moresby, as well as pay for the on-arrival visa and RAT test.
After I’m finished working at 5PM, I leave Burger King and go check in for my flight. There were some delays to my check in thanks to some Americans who had some oversized luggage but everything was going smoothly. Then the check in guy asks for my visa.
”I will get it on arrival” I say.
”They don’t do that anymore, not since C19.” is his response. “You won’t be travelling today. Next”.
I talk to his colleagues, they are more sympathetic. They call Air Niugini management in Port Moresby, they call immigration in Port Moresby. They confirm that I will be deported back to Singapore as soon as I touch down in Moresby. I am denied boarding.
I plead for them to let me on the plane anyway - I told them I swear I could talk my way into New Guinea on arrival, that I’d done it before. They rightly laugh me out of there.
At this point I was mostly resigned to finding a cheap hotel for the night, waiting for money to transfer and the fly to the Phillipines, or maybe apply for a PNG Visa and travel in a couple of days. Then I figure I’ll just apply for a visa online and even though there was no chance of it actually being approved, I could try and use that as leverage to get on the plane. When I was filling out the eVisa form, it asked for an onward flight. I used the last of my usable money and booked a flight from Port Moresby to Brisbane, Australia for the next Tuesday.
By this time it was 730PM but the flight had been delayed to 2AM so time was kind of on my side now. I went back to the check in agent, to the lady who I got along well with and I showed her my onward flight and my visa application. I told her that I could just expedite the visa process on arrival, and that worst case I would be deported to Australia not Singapore and I would just live in the airport until my flight. She tried to call Port Moresby and thankfully she could not get through so she acquiesced and after some kerfuffling with the computer she gave me a boarding pass. This was not a short conversation - by this point it was past midnight.
I went through immigration when I realised that my boarding pass was for Economy class. The aircraft had been swapped for a smaller plane and I’d been downgraded - and instead of travelling overnight with a decent bed I would likely be up all night. The delay meant I’d miss work anyway but still, if I’d known I would’ve booked economy and kept the cash.
With no lounge access and all food outlets closed (I did have a food voucher to make up for the delay) I wasn’t in a great mood when I got on the plane - I’d been in the airport 14 hours at that point, but I was happy that I was at least on the plane.
One surprisingly comfortable albeit sleepless flight later I’d touched down in Port Moresby. I just had to do an on arrival RAT test ($70AUD) and I was expecting to have to pay another visa application fee (also about the same). I wasn’t thrilled when I checked my account and saw $1. Its also worth mentioning I had a cold - so worse case scenario I had no visa, no money or proof of funds, was C19 positive, had no insurance and couldn’t be deported to Singapore as I no longer met the entry requirements. Immediately I had to pay for the test so started texting friends, family. None of my transfers to my credit cards or transaction account had posted. I looked up instant cash advance services and took an advance of $500. A friend with an account at the same bank also lent me $200. Then I ran out of mobile data so I couldn’t see if the money had actually gone through.
I tapped my card to pay for the C19 test and thankfully it approved. And very thankfully the test result was negative. All I had to do now was talk my way through immigration without a visa.
Thankfully the Port Moresby immigration staff were the most professional I’ve ever encountered. I walked to the counter and explained that I didn’t have a visa. An officer escorted me to collect my bags and then I was put in an interview room. The officer asked me questions, I answered truthfully - that I thought it was visa on arrival, that I would just be here for the long weekend to do some scuba diving, to relax, to check out Port Moresby. I explained that my accommodation, transfers and onward flight were all paid for and that I posed no flight risk. She checked my visa application, told me that it had not been approved. She left.
Then the officer returned with her supervisor who was warm and friendly. She asked me the same questions, where I was staying. She started making recommendations on where to eat which got my hopes up, made small talk about the location of the Airbnb I was booked at, She took my passport and then left.
She came back 10-15 minutes later without my passport, but with a photocopy of it and a note. She said that because my flight was so delayed I missed the connecting flights to Australia so I could not be deported to Australia that day. She handed me the note, which read:
Passenger missed transit/connecting flight to Brisbane due to delay from Singapore hence POI will be remaining in PNG for 2 days before return flight to Brisbane.
I was advised that that was the official story and that my passport would be taken custody of by immigration and that I would be allowed into the country. I thanked the officers profusely and entered without clearing immigration.
Sorry for the long read, I just thought it was good story and I’ve told it a lot recently, probably good to have a written copy. PNG has since updated their website to make it clear that visa on arrival is suspended. I guess the moral of the story is that essential travel documents are actually completely optional 😂
Also, ironically, since I never officially entered or exited Papua New Guinea, I didn’t get a stamp or visa and I still have the blank page in my passport that spurred the impromptu trip.
Submitted April 30, 2022 at 07:59AM by mcwobby https://ift.tt/xy20hCo
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