Bali tourist spends 24 hours in transit, refused entry over tiny passport tear

Matt Vandenberg, right, spent 12 hours in Bali Airport with police chaperone. Photo / Matt Vandenberg via Twitter; M1D3V

Having made the six-hour and 4600km journey to Bali, a seemingly insignificant 1cm mistake cost this Aussie tourist his holiday.

Last Tuesday, tourist Matt Vandenberg was denied entry on arrival to Indonesia for a tiny defect in his passport. And he was remarkably calm about it.

Having caught the early, 6am Jetstar service to Denpasar, the trip was seemingly off to a great start. “Everyone well behaved, staff were great” wrote the social media manager from NSW who was travelling to attend a friend’s wedding.

“So I arrive at DPS, pay my visa, present my passport, get brought over to the immigration office who alerts me I have a one cm tear on my passport page,” the disheartened shared to Twitter.

To his horror the officials brought the tiny cut on the details page to his attention. It was so small that it had been completely overlooked in Sydney when he was allowed to board the Jetstar service.

The traveller was told he would not be able to depart the airport and his passport would be held until he boarded a plane back to Australia.

He spent 12 hours in Bali Denpasar with police chaperones before boarding the six-hour flight back to Sydney.

“All I can do is laugh,” he said.

Sharing photos of his two police escorts, who he called “the nicest people”, he said that they spent the whole day by his side and were very sympathetic.

Vandenberg said he was able to arrange a meeting back in NSW to get an emergency travel document, in order to fly back in time for the wedding.

Remarkably, the 29-year-old traveller was able to obtain an emergency passport and a new flight back for the weekend ceremony, which he joked he would have to “sell a kidney” to afford.

Against all odds and three flights later, he was able to make it to the wedding avoiding another 24 hours in transit.

Vandenberg said it was “the most interesting week of my life” and a lesson for all passengers to check their passports.

“Probably a good warning for people travelling to Indonesia - they do not mess around!”

When is a passport invalid?

Passports allow travellers to enter another country and are a valuable form of identity.

The Kiwi passport was recently ranked the 6th ‘most powerful’ in the world by the Henley Passport Rankings, granting visa-free entry to 188 countries.

However there are many reasons why your passport might be rejected by an airline or border officials.

Damages - even seemingly superficial marks - may stop your passport being valid. This depends on the discretion of the border agents checking your travel document.

“If your passport is water damaged, ripped, or in bad condition, you may be refused entry to a country,” says the Identity and Passports office - Te Mata Uruwhenua.

It is the responsibility of the traveller to look after the integrity of their passport and to check that the travel document is in date.

Another reason for passports not being accepted for travel is the expiry date, with many countries requiring a minimum of six months’ validity for passports.

“If your passport is due to expire in less than a year, you may need to renew your passport before you travel,” says Te Mata Uruwhenua.

Likewise you must have enough pages in your passport for entry and exit stamps. If you do not have at least one empty visa page or space for an exit stamp you travel may be refused.

One of the more common reasons for passports being refused is holders forgetting to sign the documents.

If your passport is damaged or due to expire within the next 12 months, you are encouraged to apply for a new passport as soon as possible.

Delays in passport processing meant that it can take over a month, or four weeks plus delivery time, for new documents to be delivered.