Don’t Leave Home Without It…
February 2, 2009 Recently I was invited to make a quick trip to a Middle Eastern country for some risk management consultancy. The company inviting me was in a hurry to get results, so the trip came together rather quickly. The company started making my travel arrangements and swiftly Fed-Exed the necessary invitations needed for me to get into the country. They could only confirm my trip to the country, but not my return to the U.S. I hastily received a one-way ticket with a note that said they were still trying to confirm my return flight.
There was no time to get the required visa in the usual way, so I logged onto the State Department website to find that people traveling to this particular country on business could obtain a visa upon arrival. Good, I thought. I have done that successfully several times in other countries; I didn’t give it much thought.
I was booked on KLM from Memphis to Abu Dhabi where I was supposed to change planes and fly on the destination country’s National airline. The trip went smoothly until my arrival in Abu Dhabi. As soon as I entered the terminal, several people began vying for the job of getting me through the transfer desk and into the business lounge. I selected the most trustworthy looking guy and gave him my ticket and passport. He said he would deliver the boarding pass to me in the business lounge. I had been in the lounge only a few minutes when the chap came in and said he needed my visa. I told him I planned to acquire one on my arrival at the final destination. He left and was gone for a good while. I began to get a little worried. Finally, the airline station agent came in and said he couldn’t issue a boarding pass without a visa. I showed him my printout from the State Department, along with the letters of invitation, thinking that would satisfy him. It did not. He then asked for my return trip ticket, of course. I told him the story behind my not having one. That only made matters worse and he left again saying he didn’t think he could do much for me. This time he was gone for a very long time. I grew increasingly nervous. Luckily I had a four hour layover, but departure time was fast approaching.
I finally began working on plan B, which was finding a hotel and booking my return to the U. S.
With about 10 minutes remaining before departure time, the agent showed up with the same printout from the U.S. State Department that I had shown him. He sat down and proceeded to read the entire two page printout to me while I was watching the clock. He said he did not know that one could get a visa upon arrival in his country, but then finally gave me a boarding pass and very simply said “Please hurry.” And I did. I was the last to board the plane.
Upon arrival at the final destination around 5:00 a.m., I proceeded to the immigration desk and asked for directions to the office where I could get a visa. I was politely shown to an office and was told to have a seat. A uniformed official came in and took a seat behind the desk and began going through a stack of paper work. He did not even acknowledge that I was even there until about an hour later.
Finally the officer asked if he could help me and I told him the reason I was in his office. He slowly handed me a visa application form and told me to fill it out. When I handed the completed form back to him he didn’t even look at it before he folded it and merely tucked it into a folder, telling me how much money I needed to pay him. I found out later the visa cost significantly less than I was required to pay, so you can guess what happened to the rest of the money.
I guess all the hassle was worth it, the company is now a client, but I will never again leave home without a visa and a return ticket. You always need an exit plan.
Caption (photo):
William B. Griffin
Caption (graphic):
Abu Dhabi
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