William S

Just wondering if anyone here have been denied entry to some country.
Can start off with my self and NO I have never been denied entry to any country I have visited.

shocky

Yes Anguilla. Although technically British, up until a year or two ago there was no need for a visa, but that changed after they had some bad experience with someone from my country.
It could have been a much worst situation as my friend that I was traveling with couldn't go back to USVI where the flight originated from as his US Visa was lost. Ended up at St. Martin instead.

snaffled

Saudi Arabia one time. The business I was visiting screwed up the visa and I found out about it when I arrived at immigration. They were polite but said I have to buy a ticket on the return BA flight back to London as soon as they turned the plane around. It left about 90 minutes later with me on it, and I got my passport back as soon as we left Saudi airspace (or so they told me).

Every time I left Saudi, I was amused by the line of ladies for the bathroom so they could change out of the abaya and into something a bit more revealing. I was also quite happy every time I left Saudi, not one of my favourite destinations.

sethweinstein

Twice, both because entry regulations changed between when I did research for the trip and when I attempted the border crossing.

In 1997 I took buses from Kathmandu to Kodari on the Tibetan border, accepted a ride up the 8 km or so to the Chinese checkpoint, and found out that you could no longer enter Tibet with only a Chinese visa -- you had to have a permit from the Tibet Tourism Bureau. A driver walked me back down the steep shortcuts to Nepali immigration and sold me a ride back to Kathmandu in his car. I still remember one of the pop songs on the tape he played repeatedly on the way. Back in Kathmandu I got the permit (as part of a "group tour" of two people) and took a flight to Lhasa a couple of days later.

For most of 1999 a US citizen didn't need a Ukraine transit visa to get from Russia to Hungary by train, but by October the rules had changed, and I was taken off the train at the Ukraine border town of Konotop, where I had to file some paperwork, pay a $25 fine, and wait 12 hours in a dingy room until the next train went back across the border. At least I caught up on reading. When I arrived back in Moscow I got a same-day Ukraine transit visa for $105 and made the train trip successfully.

Seth

InkUnderNails

Canada, twice.

Doc Savage

Anguilla??????? Went there just two years ago, no mention of this at all. Are you US citizenship?

I was denied entry to Brazil at Foz de Iguacu due to lack of visa until I got back on the bus from Argentina and just neglected to get off at the Brazil entry port. Don't know if that is still ignored there...

celle

Yes. Into Vietnam in 2007.

We had arranged a visa through the Vietnamese embassy about 2 months before our departure - got it early because of other travel plans.

Unknown to us, the type of visa we needed changed in the interim. Had we arrived in Vietnam a day earlier, we would have been OK, but there was a pan-Asian conference in Hanoi the day of our arrival and our type of visa - which was being gradually phased out - was suddenly declared invalid.

We were escorted (by armed officials) back to the counter of the airline that had flown us in to Ho Chi Minh City and they were ordered to take us back to Bangkok on their return flight.

We spent the next day in Bangkok, getting a new visa, and were allowed back in to Vietnam the following day.

In defence of the Vietnamese embassy in our country, they did later refund us all our additional expenses.

It makes a good dinnertime story now, but it was frightening and upsetting at the time.

shocky

No, Israeli. Were the beaches as nice as they looked from the plane?

Doc Savage

The beaches are about the same as nearby islands like St. Maarten/St. Martin. Overall, St. Maarten is a more interesting place, in any case, with superb restaurants, etc. Anguilla is very rural.

joejones

I was denied entry to Japan once, even though I am a US citizen and therefore visa waiver eligible.

I was coming here for grad school classes, but either the university or the justice ministry screwed up some paperwork for my visa (apparently my name was misspelled), so I was told to just come in and have everything settled on the ground. I explained the situation to the immigration officer and was promptly taken off to detention for a couple of hours, during which time I was formally denied entry and then told (by a friendly immigration officer) to write an appeal in longhand. The appeal was granted while I waited, and I got a "special entry permit" in my passport which was good for a year. Apparently they were not procedurally allowed to admit me as a student without a visa, but they had more leeway to make a determination on appeal.

In the detention area, I came across several Asian and Eastern European tourists who were trying to transit without visas, as well as an American guy who had apparently been deported in the past and was trying to get back in; his case required an overnight stay at a guarded hotel room in NRT.

PTravel

The U.S., once, and I'm a US citizen who travels (and was traveling) on a US passport. I was in Toronto, I think, or perhaps Montreal, visiting a client. The US boarder agent asked me the identity of my client, which I declined to provide (it's subject to attorney/client privilege and I can't waive the privilege with permission from the client). The agent told me, "You're not coming home unless you tell me who your client is." I finally negotiated a compromise, agreeing to tell him what the client did without naming the client.

Moron.

William S

Denied entry to the US on a US passport? As long as the passport isn't a fake I thought you had a RIGHT to enter your own country... Seems crazy to me.

PTravel

Seemed crazy to me, too. I was 30 seconds away from calling my firm and sending someone to court to get a writ of mandamus. I'll note, too, that my experience with INS and, later, DHS charged with immigration responsibilities, has rarely been good. This is in sharp contrast with the Customs folks who have rarely been bad.

jbcarioca

I have had the US immigration types ask why I was coming to the US. I just answer the question because it is less hassle than asserting rights, and they seem not overjoyed by dual citizens anyway. I should have more spine I suppose.

zpaul

I was "denied entry" into Russia but it was resolved without them actually sending me back to Vilnius (origin of my incoming flight) even though the airline had been contacted to make the arrangements.

My work visa said under nationality British, but I am American. My passport is, too, but I got the visa in London. Of course, the nationality was written in Russian which I didn't speak at the time so I didn't catch it. I spent about five hours in a glass cubicle with my luggage, watching all of the arrivals go by, and, more interestingly, the immigration agents. Not to go too OT, but...All female, all very stern, and all dressed in the very formal uniform - on top. Once the last pax had left they would all head to the break room showing me their glossy bright red high heels, fishnet stockings and uber-mini skirts! They left the breakroom door open (to keep an eye on me?) and I could see the Russian soap they were watching and hear them talk and laugh like teenagers and smoke like...well, like Russians. As soon as the next flight arrived, their stern faces returned and their legs would be safely hidden behind the immigration counter.

Finally they found the ONE man with the ONE ruler and the ONE pen that could be used to cross out "British" and write in "American" on my visa.