WILLEMSTAD – Recently the blogger for Yahoo! Travel Explorers, Jessica Festa was sent back on the same plane to New York, because her passport had expired. According to the blogger, the immigration service in New York did not even notice that her passport was not valid.
“Somehow, I managed to get through JFK International Airport using a passport that was, unknown to me, invalid. While I probably should have known what an invalid passport looks like, I feel TSA and JetBlue definitely should have. Multiple airport officials looked at the document — seeing the two hole punches that meant it was invalid — and let me board my flight abroad.”
The writer indicated in her blog that Curaçao Immigration did not want to hear her story. “I’d had happened to take a photo of the new passport with my phone and showed them trying to plead. I offered to pay some kind of fine for the mistake (and yes, I do admit my fault in this, as well). But no.”
“In my head I went back and forth from kicking myself (why didn’t I grab the other passport just in case??) to frustration with the passport renewal (why did they use a hole punch instead of a stamp or a note that says “invalid” on it?!?) to disturbance (how was it so easy for me to get through JFK with an invalid document?!!).”
“The entire situation was upsetting and frustrating and I feel could have been avoided if the US Bureau of Consular Affairs didn’t assume I spoke hole punch.”
Click here to read the blog
Bron; CuracaoChronicle