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Local Items: Can you get to Bonaire without Passport
Bonaire Talk: Local Items: Archives: Archives 2007: Archives - 2007-07-01 to 2007-12-31: Can you get to Bonaire without Passport
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By ScubaBanker (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #668) on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - 10:59 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

After much talk and convincing my boss he will let me take what I am calling the 3 hr tour to bonaire. I know that the police have our passports so I just need to get in country so that I can reclaim our items and identify them for us.
I am literaly going to fly in Bonaire sat and turn around and come back home on Mon. Does anyone know if this is possible?
Paul says this is a Lucy moment ( I love Lucy)but he knows just like Ricky when Lucy gets an idea in her head until it happens she thinks of everyway to make it happen so he is just saying Lucy.
Instead of trying to get in show business I am just trying to find a way to get to my favorite island even for the whirlwind tour.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jeff (BonaireTalker - Post #88) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 2:38 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

When I first read this post I thought that it was a joke. The "police have our passports" had me LOL. Given the recent horde of stolen property that has been recovered, I understand. It is still a funny post Lucy!

The first thing I would do is to call my Congressman. Get them to help you in getting an emergency passport from the State Department. If it can be done, then that is your best shot at greasing the skids. We pay them to work for us (LOL) so here is their chance to perform.

As I recall, our passports are actually the property of the USA. I would assume that they would be turned over to the US Consulate. What they do with them, I don't know.

Good luck and keep the faith!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kobi in Virginia (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #2396) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 6:39 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

WOW...that's a lot for passport retrieval! I would personally ask someone on island to secure my passport for me. This can be done with a release form with the BON PD so I heard. I was thinking Kathy was maybe going to get a release and have someone there get them for her?

Oh well, the getting through customs on BON is the issue as you won't get past that without a passport. I'd work magic on island with someone there and get them brought back on the next flight to the US. That's just me though; do whatever is best for you.
Good luck ....

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Vince DePietro (Bellevue Condos ) (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1140) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 7:20 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I can't understand WHY you would want to put yourself through this after what you have been through. IMHO the worst part of the Bonaire experience is the traveling, yet that's what you want to do. Really, your plan doesn't make any logical sense to me.

My advice is to have the passports returned to the US consulate's office & they in turn will forward to you. Then take a deep breath & rebook a REFRESHING trip back to Bonaire and relax. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By ScubaBanker (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #669) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 8:41 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

it not just about the passport. We had alot of electronic equipment stolen the big thing is Larry's laptop which had all his pictures on it and devastated Kathy the most. Plus he is mr. national geographic photogpher and had alot of phto equipment that was very expensive not covered by insurance. So that it the main reason to get back there electronic expensive items

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gail T. (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #2455) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 8:46 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Good luck, Christine. I hope you can recognize and recover some of your stuff. (Doen't say much for the thief's mentality - keeping easily recognized items at home!) I'll send up a little prayer for your travels to be successful.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Debbie Babcock (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #6294) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 8:48 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

ScubaBanker, I am on Bonaire right now and if you want, I can pick up your items for you and bring them back with me. I am here only a short time, but maybe send me pictures of the electronic equipment to identify or I bet the serial numbers would be enough to identify the items. At least you would know IF they are here.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jan Klos - ( Hamlet Bonaire #10) (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #550) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 8:53 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I would ask the airlines.. With the new rules, I do not think that they will even allow you to leave the states without one. I am surprised that you did not get a replacement for the stolen passport. Good Luck!!!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Shelley Voelkel (BonaireTalker - Post #30) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 9:36 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

You are right regarding the airline not letting you out of the US without proper documentation. I am on the front line with the documents issue and have been for the past 20 yrs. If the documentation for your international destination states you must be wearing "blue socks" and you are not, you don't go. The fines to the airlines are outrageous plus we pay the fares for deportation! The stories I could tell "Lucy". Do you have an expired passport? A lot of the Caribbean islands will accept an expired (5yrs) for entry. It's the return to the US, and you will have your passports for that.
I understand your anxiety and I'm glad your property has been found.
Shelley

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By BOOM! and then there was Tara (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5315) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 2:07 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Christine, I hope you take Debbie up on her offer and book that return trip for fun, fun, fun....

Wishing you all the very best of luck in getting everything back --- and selfishly wanting to see those pictures too!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kathy H (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #9595) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 2:37 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Debbie, you've got mail. I really hate for anyone to waste a minute of their vacation looking for our stuff. :-( That's very kind of you to offer!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Linda Stoltzfus (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1178) on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - 5:05 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

My first thought was....the worst that could happen was the immigration officer will take you to the Police Station and ...that's exactly where you want to go!!! But then Shelley mentioned the difficulty of getting on the Bonaire bound flight in the first place. :-(

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ann Phelan - www.bonairecaribbean.com (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #2951) on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 7:37 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

US Airline Officials at the various gates will not let anyone one planes without passports. I have seen a few irate people at the gates in BOS unable to board because they had no clue passports were needed.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Shelley Voelkel (BonaireTalker - Post #32) on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 12:47 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Back to the passport issue. Airline agents are required to check for proper documentation at FIRST point of contact. No one SHOULD be at a gate without passport (and visa Brazil, India and China to name a few). I tried unsucessfully to get into our system yesterday to post correct info on Bonaire. Although not the thread to continue this conversation, it chaps my you know what that airport agts are doing immigration and customs work. We are not trained to do this but we are responsible for the accuracy of the information on each international passenger. Just so you know, an agent who lets someone travel without the proper documentation gets in a LOT of trouble! I'll get off my soap box now and wish everyone a wonderful day!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jan Klos - ( Hamlet Bonaire #10) (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #551) on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 3:11 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Maybe no one should be allowed to purchase international tickets whether on the phone or online without a passport. That way the ifo would already be in the sytem, when the passenger checks in at the terminal. And you would only need to ask proff of passport.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #2640) on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 5:45 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

You cannot be the first American who has had this problem: talk to the US passport people or other official US to find out what is best to do about the passports and getting to Bonaire w/o them. They will have better information than this board all put together, as interested and good as we are! You can even start at their web site. :–)

Also to consider is how to prove to Bonaire that they are your passports and why one of you should pick up both. Sure the picture looks like you but....

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By ScubaBanker (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #670) on Thursday, November 8, 2007 - 10:29 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I want to thank all of you for your advice. I want to thank Debbie for offering to go pickup our things. I know we reported our passports stolen to bonaire police and the us embassy so that we could get back in states but we did not do the final step of reporting it on the form to the state dept because the bonairan police told us that passports always show up. Once you declare your passports stolen even if they are found they are voided and cant be reused.
That is alot of money to spend so we chose to wait at least six months then if they hadn't shown up we were going to take the final step.
Also we got ahead of ourselves because when the police emailed and ask for serial numbers we thought for sure they had found some of our stuff. I called again this morning and was told that only three laptops were found but they are still investigating with criminals about the other stolen stuff. One good thing even if they can't find the rest of our stuff at least the criminals can be linked to the crimes as far back as August because they had our passports.
I am thinking what happen is the stuff that got stolen two months ago they were able to get rid of . That what they caught them was for recent crimes. I hope they got all of them so that no one else has to be a victim of crime on bonaire for a long time.

 


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