10

This summer my girlfriend and I planned a trip to Georgia for one week. I am Ukrainian, so I don't need a visa to enter Georgia.

We flew from Kyiv to Tbilisi without any problems. However on a passport control in Tbilisi airport I was refused entry to Georgia without any normal explanation. My girlfriend went through, though.

After an hour of passing me from one person to another they put us back on the same plane we came to Georgia.

I was hoping in Kyiv someone can tell me what's going on, but no one had a clue as well.

At the end they checked my passport and said it's OK, and let me back to Ukraine. After this accident I visited other countries in Schengen zone without problems.

The official refusal letter that I received says:

Attached herewith is a photocopy of a fake/falsified Passport + copy of my passport(just a regular passport, nothing different)

The above-named Document was used by a person claiming to be: MY NAME

Who was refused to enter the territory of Georgia due to: He/She does not have documents necessary for entering Georgia as provided for by the legislation of Georgia.

This does not explain much to me because as Ukrainian I do not need visa or any special documents to enter Georgia. My friends went to Georgia few weeks later with just passport and it was OK.

Does anyone have an idea of what could be the reason for such refusal of entry? Why my passport was considered as fake, while it's valid in other countries. How can I fix this issue?

Update:

Previously I have contacted some officials from Georgia, but could not get any answers. But with this question I also send an email to Ukrainian Embassy in Georgia and finally received some explanation. I am still waiting for more information and will post an answer here once I get it and if it's not really sensitive.

Thank you for all the ideas and for helping me figuring this out.

Improve this question
4
  • What did the border guards at Tbilisi ask or tell you (surely they must have said something)? And did they give you a refusal letter (in most countries they will)? If so, please upload a scan of it, blacking out personal details
    – Crazydre
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 11:45
  • Added refusal letter. I do not need a visa though.
    – Ostap
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 12:00
  • Any chance you have an older Ukrainian foreign passport (one with glued in photo)?
    – George Y.
    Commented Dec 8, 2016 at 5:01
  • @Ostap Any News?
    – Crazydre
    Commented Feb 14, 2017 at 7:25

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
7

As stated in your refusal letter, you were refused entry because according to Georgian immigration, your passport is fake. In other words, you did not have a document valid for entering Georgia, because fake passports are not valid.

Although you do not need a visa for Georgia, you do need a valid passport, which, in the eyes of Georgian immigration, you did not have.

As I see it, there are two possibilities:

  1. the Georgians were amateurs and made an incorrect judgment when examining your passport (and from experience, I know they are extremely scrupulous about this - with my ID card the immigration folks at Kutaisi airport often take around a minute);

  2. there is some manufacturing defect in your passport, in which case all you can do is report it to whomever issued it (you should provide your Georgian refusal letter) and hopefully get a new passport at no extra cost

Improve this answer
8
  • 1
    Thanks, that it kind of obvious, but still does not explain much. What could be a possible reason that Georgia sees my passport as fake, while it's a valid passport in other countries such as Ukraine and countries I've visited since. Why would they let me go to Georgia at the first place, but not though the passport control. And how can I fix the issue.
    – Ostap
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 12:29
  • Yeah, I guess a new passport might help.
    – Ostap
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 12:39
  • 2
    For a country like Georgia when a lot of income comes from tourism it looks strange. Also aren't it the computer system checks the passport now? I could understand if it was just a human factor, but why would their system decline my passport. Also don't think I have a defect in my passport, because it works OK in other countries.
    – Ostap
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 12:45
  • @Ostap how old is your passport?
    – Robert Columbia
    Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 18:34
  • 3
    @Ostap Another possibility: someone else used a forged passport with the same passport number to try to enter Georgia, and Georgia kept a record if this bit did not notify other countries. I have no idea whether that's a plausible scenario, much less a likely one, but it does seem possible.
    – phoog
    Commented Dec 9, 2016 at 22:37
5

My wife used to be a Ukrainian citizen. After some years of using her Ukrainian passport, she noticed that the serial number punched through the pages was not the same as the serial number printed inside! This in itself would have got her thrown out of any country in the world, if any border guard had noticed it.

Perhaps the Georgians noticed something like this?

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    Ah, this is normal my friend. Perhaps the Ukranian passport has a booklet number? If so this is what is stamped on the pages, and not the passport number.
    – Burhan Khalid
    Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 3:35
  • 1
    Interesting, this could be the thing that the Georgian guard mistook for evidence of forgery. In most passports I've seen the number punched through the pages matches the passport number, maybe Ukrainian passports and certain others are different and this one particular official didn't know?
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 9:54
  • 1
    The punched number is the same as the ID inside the passport in my case. Also it was not just one guard. My passport went through 3 or 4 people at least. Thanks for suggestions, though.
    – Ostap
    Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 12:38
  • 1
    @BurhanKhalid: No, it's not normal. In a valid passport, the two numbers are the same.
    – TonyK
    Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 13:02

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .