South Africa: empty “visas” page in passport?

[tmendy226]

(Because of the urgency, I’m opening a new thread. It can be moved to the main SA thread later)


I am on a delta flight to CDG right now and I have a second separate flight to JNB tomorrow night from Paris. My wife only has one (US) passport and when we told the delta check in agent that we were planning in continuing our trip to SA she checked my wife’s passport and said that they wouldn’t let us go since she only has one empty page on her passport and it is an “endorsement” page. We were able to take the flight to Paris since it was a separate reservation but now wondering if to go to the US consulate in Paris tomorrow to get an emergency passport?

Does anyone know if it is true that you need to have a full empty page and that it cannot be an endorsement page but only a “visa” page? (I never knew there was such a difference... in my European passports all pages are “visas”).

Our flight to JNB is with Air France if that matters.

(Another complication is that France has this rule about not being able to leave the country unless for specific reasons. I was hoping to have luggage through to JNB but now I’ll have to deal with customs about that)

[Yehuda57]

It's definitely a real thing. A friend was not allowed on the plane because of that issue, he had a bunch of kids traveling with him, they are extremely strict about it.

[tmendy226]

Wow! Thank you.

Wow! I just want to make sure that this is even if there’s an empty “endorsement” page?

[Yehuda57]

Wow! Thank you.

Wow! I just want to make sure that this is even if there’s an empty “endorsement” page?

Yup. Good luck.

[sds1493]

My father wasn't allowed in because of the lack of empty pages. TG after a lot of cajoling (שעת הדחק) he was stamped in.
Having said that, we landed on MLK day. Had the embassy been open, it seems like something could have been arranged.

[Yehuda57]

@tmendy226 did you make it?

[tmendy226]

@tmendy226 did you make it?

I did not try it after seeing this and other reports online and what the delta agent told us...

We tried to get another passport from the US consulate in Paris, ran around the whole day but bottom line is that it did not work out for today. Hopefully will get to go next month with a new passport. After having been to 80 countries, you still learn new things every day... גם זו לטובה. We will make the best of it in Europe iyh