An entrepreneur has claimed that he was stopped for additional questioning because of his Indian passport after landing in the tiny nation of Timor Leste. Manoj Ahirwar said that despite the fact that Timor Leste has visa on arrival facility for Indian nationals, he was pulled aside and grilled by immigration officials.
Ahirwar is the Singapore-based founder of UniqueSide.io who has travelled to more than 20 countries across the world. At Timor Leste, his 22nd country, Ahirwar was stopped and questioned after landing at Dili airport.
He blamed his Indian passport for the additional scrutiny he invited, noting that other tourists got their passports stamped without any issues.
“Pulled aside over Indian passport”
“Timor Leste has VOA for most of the countries including India. Everyone got their VOA. When they saw my Indian passport, they pulled me aside for additional questioning,” Ahirwar recounted in his X post this morning.
(Also read: Travel vlogger’s rant on Indian passport goes viral: ‘Har jagah entry denied’)
Ahirwar claimed that immigration officials who pulled him aside in Dili asked him several questions. He was asked whether he had a letter of invitation, why he was visiting Timor Leste, whether he had any friends in the country, the purpose of his visit and more.
{{/usCountry}}Ahirwar claimed that immigration officials who pulled him aside in Dili asked him several questions. He was asked whether he had a letter of invitation, why he was visiting Timor Leste, whether he had any friends in the country, the purpose of his visit and more.
{{/usCountry}}The Indian founder claimed that he was also asked to show his hotel bookings and confirm the amount of money he was carrying. Officials also asked him to show the cash he carried.
“You cannot enter”
The grilling did not end with these questions — he was also asked to produce his return ticket.
Ahirwar explained that he did not have a return ticket because he planned travel onwards to Indonesia by road. However, on hearing that he had no return ticket, the Timor Leste official started telling Ahirwar that he could not enter the country.
“I explained I am going to Indonesia by road. I plan to take bus to go to Indonesia and bus booking is directly via bus terminal, but he started saying, cannot enter etc,” the entrepreneur recounted in his X post.
Finally, he was asked to show his return ticket from Indonesia as well as his e-visa for Indonesia. Luckily, Ahirwar did have the e-visa in place, which led to him being allowed to enter Timor Leste.
He noted, however, that Indonesia also has visa on arrival facility, which meant that he could just as easily have been denied entry to Timor Leste — a nation that, on paper, has visa on arrival for Indians.
Ahirwar was finally given a 30 day visa to enter the island country. In his X post, he reflected ruefully on the drawbacks of having a weak passport.
“Seriously, having an Indian passport is just sad sometimes,” he said.
(Also read: Woman rues about Indian passport after missing flight: ‘Other passengers got 5-star hotels’)