TRANSIT TROUBLES - A FAKE VISA?

It was my maiden trip to the US. The University of Richmond had paid for my trip for an interview. I had never boarded any plane, not even a domestic one. Once I got to Bangkok, I had a five hour layover. When I was about to board the British Airways flight, the attendant asked to check my visa to US and he immediately became suspicious when he saw my Nepali passport. He was not convinced my visa was genuine and did not let me board. His logic – the printed photo on the US visa showed a staple pin and such shoddy workmanship cannot authentic. The fact that I was from Nepal and generally looked clueless also reinforced
his belief. It was Friday evening. The Nepali embassy in Bangkok was already closed. I could return back to Nepal but that would have been a humiliating turn of events after having proudly proclaimed that I was leaving for the land of opportunity. I stayed in the transit lounge. I called home and asked my family to fax me the supporting documents. Still they would not let me board onward. Luckily the next day, a bunch of Australian Consulate people were in the airport on an official business. They scanned my visa and told the British Airways personnel that it was a genuine visa. And only then was my itinerary rerouted. I spent 36 hours in Bangkok terminal. When I was in Dulles Airport in Washington DC, I was surprised to hear my name in the intercom. My contact in the university was frantically trying to locate me and was almost about to alert  the Interpol about a missing person. Made for quite a trip to the US!

- Himal Karmacharya