Playing it cool at passport control

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Anyone who’s been on a long-haul flight knows that all you want to do when you get back on the ground is clear passport control as quickly and painlessly as possible, and get to wherever you need to get to.

This is exactly what I wanted to do after a 17-hour flight with little sleep and a lot of back pain last week. Walking from the plane to passport control, I was excited to be back home and looking forward to touching base with family and friends. And then I got to passport control and the scene was enough to snuff out any form of happiness or joy at being back home.

Firstly, there were a number of flights from around the world that had landed, so it was understandably busy and people were moving like cattle through the cordoned-off maze. That didn’t bother me as much as the immigration staff screaming orders at travellers like it was some kind of mass interrogation. There were international visitors to South Africa in the queue – some probably on African soil for the first time – and their first point of contact with someone representing the country was not a smile or some kind of warmth, but a bark.

You had to have been there to understand exactly how embarrassing this whole situation was to watch. Instead of politely asking people to queue in the right lanes to make the process smoother, all the one guy who looked like some kind of supervisor did was shout out, “Five, five, five, five!”

Of course, none of the foreigners knew what he was on about and by this time I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer. I barked back in the same tone and aggression with which I was dealt and explained to him exactly how embarrassing and awkward he was making everybody feel. Of course, this went totally over his head and he continued his tirade against the travellers.

A couple of people came up to me at the baggage collection and asked if this was how things were done here or if he was simply having a bad day. Everyone had a story or two to share about their experiences at passport controls around the world.

The fact is: after a long flight, passing through passport control might seem more stressful than it actually is, but the tension can be compounded by staff that are unfriendly, or, in this case, downright belligerent. Whilst I get that the job at passport control is that person’s day-to-day existence, for the traveller, again, many of whom are here for the first time, this is their first point of contact with South Africa and its people. Seeing somebody behaving like a complete maniac is not the image you want for your country.

One traveller told me about an incident recently where thousands of British travellers were forced to queue for more than an hour at London Stansted’s passport control, saying that frustrated passengers called the wait a "joke", and described the scene as "carnage". 

Someone also told me that Frankfurt in Germany is pretty strict and he received something of a grilling at passport control. He was passing through Germany on a European holiday and the passport control person gave him something of an interrogation. Even though he was just passing through, he had to produce all the tickets and supporting documents for every leg of his tour before they let him into the country.

While these incidents were frustrating, they were nowhere near what I experienced that day.

I read an article on Travel24.com which said that South Africans have fewer options when it comes to visa-free countries, aka hassle-free travel destinations. 'Always make doubly sure about the visa requirements for South Africans for the country you're visiting from multiple internet sources and do a third check by just calling up the country's embassy in South Africa. Don't despair too much though - there are at least 92 countries where the Green Mamba (referring to the South African passport) has no visa requirements,' the article said.

The article also had some advice for travellers and went on to say, 'The passport control officers have had long days of people hustling through to their more exciting destinations - the least you can do is greet them with a smile and have all your documents ready. To go through faster aim for the queue with the least families and more solo travellers. If there's a problem, remain as friendly as possible and it'll go smoother, and always have a pen with you!'

Do you have a travel experience – good or bad, that's worth sharing? You can email me at [email protected] or follow me on Twitter: @terencepillay1 and tweet me your thoughts.