A Visa Mishap in My Own Home Country
I visited Indonesia with a plan of Jeddah-Jakarta-Malaysia-Singapore-Jakarta-West Papua-Jakarta-Jeddah.
I’m part Indonesian but I have a Yemeni passport. I needed a visa so I applied and got the visa within a day.
I had all my tickets and visas ready for each country I planned on visiting. I arrived on 29th April and left on the 30th to visit the neighboring countries as planned.
Just as the immigration was about to stamp an exit on my passport, that’s when it hit me that I only have a single-entry visa which means I cannot enter Indonesia again unless I have a new visa! I PANICKED!
I was already late for my flight to Malaysia and I didn’t have a visa to return back, all my stuff is in Jakarta, I already booked my ticket for West Papua and arranged on few things, and all I could think of was that everything is down the drain!
I tried to speak to several immigration officers and explained that I’m part Indonesian, my mom is Indonesian, I have families in Indonesia that could sponsor me or send them a letter or anything they want or need just to get me a new visa. Unfortunately, no luck.
I rushed to catch my flight to Kuala Lumpur while still panicking, luckily as soon as I landed in KL; my brother contacted me and gave me a contact person that might be able to help me get a visa but in SINGAPORE!
So I spent the next 2 days in Malaysia worrying about my visa and if it will push through. Then I flew to Singapore where I had planned on only 1 night and everything was booked accordingly. Obviously, the visa was not going to be ready overnight.
So I had to stay longer with hopes that it wouldn’t take longer than 2 days because I had my ticket booked for West Papua which was not cheap and I wouldn’t want to miss visiting a heaven on earth.
Luckily, I got my visa the next day and I was able to enter Indonesia again to continue on my island adventures!