Worst Customs Experience

[daniel]

Nothing as horribly racist and humiliating as Vin's experience but I was stopped from leaving Cuba at the airport (and consequently missed the once weekly direct flight back to London) because somebody in the departure process 'lost' my visa. I then spent the next day with the help of a well connected cuban securing the necessary paperwork to leave the country. Up until these circumstances I had only imagined visas were to do with getting into a country and believed not having the right paperwork would mean deportation (like Britain, USA, India) - I now know it can also mean being detained in a situation where you would need insider help or consular/embassy support. Production was partly at fault for this as they had not used the correct visas in the first place and not advised any of us of this or any other information that was significant - hopefully things are changing in Cuba (if not in our industries) for the best.

Edited October 16, 2015 by daniel

[codyman]

I tried to explain that I already paid but he started hitting me and put me on the ground . He asked for my bag from the bus. He opened the bag and started kicking my stuff out.

These experiences were the main reason why I became and American citizen. A proud American citizen.

Yikes.  Talk about a horrible experience.  We are definitely lucky here in America though, especially with how much power the American passport has.  When I was filming in Africa, I started talking to one of our local PA's who was studying film at a local school.  He had been invited to go to London to be on a feature during his summer break and how crazy it was for him to be able to get the permission to travel into that country was INSANE.  Every time I go to visit my friends/family in the UK, I just have to jump on a direct flight to Heathrow and jet laggedly answer the always unwelcoming UK border officer a few questions.  Hell, even to get into his African nation, all I had to do was travel to his country and fill out a form + pay $30 (both upon arrival).  

[mikewest]

Here we go!

Arrived in Johannesburg with sound gear carnet and another for cameras.

Straight through no problem and off to overnight at a hotel near airport.

Up in the morning to depart for Zambia.

Get the carnets stamped - no not possible it's a "public holiday"!

Went to the customs office upstairs and and explained to an official outside.

"Yes there are people in the office but it's a public holiday"!!!!

What to do as plane leaving soon, so downstairs and I see a gun check in !!!!!!!!

Inside this area were Germans in camo having their hi-power hunting rifles examined.

I explained our urgent situation to a smart S African woman - "Come with me"!

We passed inside the security area with her and back to the customs arrival area.

All working, in fact the same guy that had stamped the docs the day before!!!

Bless that smart thinking woman!!!!!!!!!!!

mike

[Jack Norflus]

Just went in and our of Edmonton Canada this week and all I can say that the Canadian customs both going in and out of the country was the easiest and smoothest I have ever experienced in any country.

The woman we dealt with comming in  said "we are ( air quotes ) supposed to check all the serial numbers but usually don't."

Did Canadian customs get lax since I've been there last or does Edmonton customs not care as much.

[Malcolm Davies Amps CAS]

Horses for courses Jack.

I went to Montreal at very short notice with all the equipment taken as excess baggage. On arrival in Montreal I was interviewed by a SNOT from immigration who checked every letter of my work permit and I could tell he wasn't happy. Firstly he didn't want to speak English but as my French is restricted to the pen of my aunt he had to use English. It all came to a head when he said Why isn't a French Canadian doing this movie? There was only one possible answer I could give him which was. Because they want it done right!

I had a marvelous time there and the people from Montreal were kindness themselves it's just that there's always one

[Bash]

When I went to Cuba for a shoot we had to fill in a form on the way in to say how much cash we each had. On the way out we had to fill in a simialr form (so that they know how much cash we had left). Just before they called us to board the plane, we had a message over the tannoy to go see an official. Sure enough, there was an 'unexpected charge' from Customs for doing the paperwork, and it came to..... about $10 short of our combined cash 'wealth'. We paid and left ;-)

 

In my first job in the industry I worked for a company that made amongst other things, corporate films on 16mm in 3D. The only way to watch them was to use the custom 2 projector (linked electronically) 16mm projection rig, which was at that time the only one in the world. I was sent to Europe on short notice to do some shows for Shell in Holland. There was no time to make a Carnet, so I was instructed to do the trip on a 'duplicate list', which I did. On the way back into the UK, as I drove off the car ferry, I ended up with the 'stickler for the rules'. He was having none of the duplicate list, or letter from my employer, or even the one from Shell. He impounded the kit. There then ensued a battle of paperwork, which lasted some months, before I was sent back to the port to collect the kit. It turns out that it had been stored for all this time in an open, wet, warehouse, only a few hundred metres from the sea. It was caked in bright orange rust, broken, and useless. We had to build an entirely new projection rig!!!

 

Kindest,

 

sb

[soundmanjohn]

Told by security at LHR some years ago that I couldn't take my Soundfield ST250 as carry-on "because it looks like a grenade and you could use it as a weapon." Fruitless argument ensues, security is adamant. Soundfield goes in checked luggage, arrives in New Orleans with the capsules detached banging around inside the mic body.

John

[traut]

Canada is a pain in the ass.

I have been to 22 countries and they are the worst.