The Fashionable Frequent Flyers

Hello, Travel Fam. This is the second installment of a series I’ve been working on regarding the subject of passport privilege. Through this series, I’ve been chronicling (and hopefully educating people) on the subject of passport privilege, what it entails, the burdens it creates for individuals with weak passports, and the restraints and limitations on international travel associated with it. My hope (although I’m not holding my breath here) is that eventually, once we’re all better educated on the subject, some of these barriers and restrictions can be taken down to permit more free flowing international travel for individuals who were born and/or grew up in the developing world. As I mentioned in my first post on the subject, many of us from that part of the world simply want the same opportunities to see the world like the rest of folks. To indiscriminately be able to visit countries in the developing world but yet to restrict access to those same individuals who want to reciprocate in the act of travel is unconscionable.

Today, I want to share with y’all a traumatic story that is directly linked to my having a weak passport! I still feel the impact of this experience today! I don’t typically share these sorts of personal stories, but my hope is that by sharing these stories, it’ll help folks understand that in addition to financial expense, condescension, and bureaucratic red tape, there are other more significant burdens associated with having a weak passport!

In my first post on passport privilege, I told y’all that in comparison to most western and other developed world passports, my Kenyan passport is granted visa-free access to approximately 100-110 fewer countries around the globe. For context, there 195 countries in the world. So if someone can go to 180 countries visa-free, they really only have to endure the burden of obtaining a visa in advance to travel to 15 countries. Whereas, on the other hand, I’d have to obtain a visa for more than 110 countries in the world. That’s a truly stark difference.

So how do I limit this burden? To avoid the inconvenience of applying multiple times and reduce the number of times I have to go through the entire appointment and interview process, I try to obtain visas for the longest duration available (when I have the funds to do so). This is usually only applicable after a couple of visits and visas under my belt.

For the purpose of this story, I’m going to keep the country anonymous. I’ll refer to it as Country X. I’d hate for this to impact my ability to travel to that destination in the future. In 2023, I planned to visit Country X. I have been to Country X numerous times before and have twice acquired a five-year visa for the destination. Prior to my visit in 2023, I had visited Country X in 2022. My passports have had numerous visas for Country X so much so that when I return to the country, I am rarely questioned at length at immigration given my long travel history. When planning my trip in the summer of 2023, I figured that this was going to be my last year using my five-year visa. My visa expiration date was 9/3/2023. If everything seems reasonable and on the up and up, that tells me you’re an American reader. So what’s the problem then? In Country X (and many countries in the world), they use the date convention DD/MM/YYYY. In the United States, they (we) use MM/DD/YYYY. Accordingly, my visa for Country X expired on March 9, but I had thought it was expiring on September 3, which would have then been valid for my summer trip. I have lived in the United States for 10 years and I’m so used to the date convention we use here so, in my mind, there was no problem at all.

Okay, so that’s the background — now back to the story. So I plan a trip to Country X and it’s travel day. I take my passport, suitcase, carry on, and other necessary belongings, and I’m on my way. I arrive at JFK and go to Delta One to check in. I provide my passport to check in. They scan my passport and my visa, and there are no red flags. I figure they looked at my visa and, like me, everything seemed fine. Oh, AND THEY SCANNED IT!! Anyway, so I drop off my bags and go through security. At the gate, they scan my passport again and look at my visa. Again, no issues were flagged. So I get on the plane and several hours later, I land in Country X. And that’s where it all begins.

So there I am in line at immigration, blissfully unaware of what’s about to go down. I get to the immigration officer and as he’s asking me routine questions, he informs me that my visa has expired. I say no, that’s not right – it’s valid until September. I inform him that it was checked at JFK twice and I got on the plane without incident. He says “no sir, your visa expired in March.” And then, it hits me! I’ve been using the wrong date convention and my visa had indeed expired. I was mortified! I didn’t know what was going to happen — somehow I missed this, but so did the Delta agents. I mean, it’s an honest mistake. At that point, I figured they were either going to send me back because my visa had expired or they’d ask me a bunch of questions about my trip and waive me in on this single occasion, maybe hold on to passport until my flight out of the country. What happened next was not something I predicted or could have expected, especially given my long history of travel to Country X.

So what happened? First, I started by filling out a form (similar to the visa application form) that provided personal details and explained why I was visiting the country. I then provided, by email, all the necessary itinerary emails –hotel bookings, numbers of people I was visiting, contact info, etc. All of that seemed reasonable. While folks with strong passports NEVER have to do this, I was used to providing this information so it didn’t feel like a big deal. Thereafter, I waited in the terminal for approximately 3 hours for feedback. When an immigration officer eventually came back, I was taken to retrieve my bags (as I had checked a bag) and those were searched thoroughly, then I was taken to a back room. There, my biometrics were taken and then — and I shit you NOT — I was taken into custody.

That’s right?! I was taken into custody — simply because I had the misfortune of using the wrong date convention on my visa. My bags were locked in a room, I was given one opportunity to us my cell phone to text one person the number of a payphone where I could take calls, then my cell phone was taken, and then I was put in a room. I was told an immigration officer would come speak to me about my case. I waited in that locked room for approximately four hours before someone came to speak to me. In that time, I had time to observe how the case agents treated the other three other people in custody with me. It became clear to me that I was in the same place that housed individuals suspected of significant criminal activity, including terrorism. The experience was terrifying. And meanwhile, in those first four hours, I kept asking for updates on when I would be able to see a case agent, and all I was told was that the agents were aware that I was in custody and aware of my case.

When my case agent finally arrived four hours later, I was taken into an interview room and asked very simple questions. They seemed designed to confirm the information I provided in the forms (which, of course, it did). The interview was less than 30 minutes long. This was a simple case. In fact, the case agent informed me that the date mix-up issue happened all the time. ALL THE TIME! I couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would be subjected to extended custodial stays with limited rights for a simple misreading issue that happened all the time. So I finish my interview and I’m taken back to custody and told by the case agent that they are going to run everything by their superior. Within 20 minutes my case agent returns and tells me that everything checks out (duh!) and that they’re going to basically “deny me entry because my visa has expired” but “let me into the country on bail for the duration of my stay.” (Note that they could’ve just waived me in or “permitted me entry, but no, that’s not the route that was taken.) In any case, the case agent says they were going to get the paper work ready. So I remain in custody, where all this time a lot of crazy shit is going down. I console myself by saying that I’ll be out in less than an hour so I just need to thug it out. Let me tell y’all, I did not leave FOR ANOTHER 4 HOURS! I followed up multiple times to no avail. It was miserable! There are honestly no words to describe how defeated I felt! And honestly, it’s too traumatic to recount here. By hour 3 I had convinced myself I was going to sleep in custody over night. Anyway…

Fast forward to when the case agent returns 4 hours later. I ask why it took so long and I was told that the agent was asked to handle some other unrelated matter and my paperwork wasn’t assigned to someone else. The agent then forgot that I was there until maybe 3 hours later and then went back to attend to my release. So, in other words, I didn’t matter enough for anyone to care enough to get me out of a custodial situation that housed suspected terrorists. 12 hours later, I was able to retrieve my bags, get access to my cell phone, and finally leave! I had tons of missed calls from my fiancé, my mother, my friends. It was all insane. And the release process made it even more shocking — I was basically just walked into duty free and told you’re free to go – enjoy your time here! Like, I endured 12 hours of treatment as a suspected criminal, only to be just told “Peace! have fun!.”

So that brings me back to passport privilege! Sure, I take accountability for misreading the dates (along with the two Delta employees). But, none of this happens without a system that disadvantages passports like mine. If I had a strong passport, I would never have had to apply for visas in advance nor would I have to deal with visa expirations and continued applications. I could simply just arrive at a country, like many others do regularly, answer questions at immigration, and walk in. And despite my long history of visiting Country X, that meant next to nothing for what was simply a clerical misreading — one that apparently happens all the time. Country X still felt it necessary to put me in custody! It saddens me that such experiences can be allowed to happen! The system needs to change! This is the dark side of passport privilege!!