Illegal Aliens

For some months, when we first talked about coming to Brunei, my son-in-law, Anth, and I have been planning to play a game of golf in Miri, Malaysia at The Eastwood Valley Golf and Country Club.  It is a two-hour drive from Anth’s home but the course is well worth the trip.  When it comes to golf in Brunei, we have had a string of bad luck and many of the games we have planned we have cancelled for any number of reasons.  So it made our trip to Malaysia even more highly anticipated.

At 5:30 AM Anth and I were out of the house and on our way to the house of his friend, Dave, who was doing the driving.  By 6:00 AM we were off to Miri and our 9:30 AM tee time.  A couple of hours later we were at the border.

Brunei Immigration

Our golf in Malaysia was not to be.  We were not allowed to leave the country of Brunei.  We had an illegal alien in our midst . . . and it was me!

Prior to leaving Canada, Cathie and I obtained visas from the Brunei High Commission in Ottawa which indicated they expired on 29 November.  We did this because we were aware that Canadians can only stay in Brunei for 14 days without a visa.  We thought, and had been given the impression by the folks at the High Commission, that this was all that was required for our stay here.  We passed through customs here without problems and thought no more of it . . . until that aborted golf trip.

Apparently, when we passed through customs, we were only given permission to stay for 14 days (the Visa from the High Commission meant nothing).  If we wished to stay longer than that we were supposed to apply at immigration in Brunei for an extension.  We did not do that.  So after 14 days here, we were here illegally.

There are many foreigners in Brunei (mostly from other Asian countries) so they take immigration and visa violations very seriously.  Cathie and I found that by our violation of the immigration laws we were in jeopardy of fines, imprisonment, and believe it or not, whipping!  We were more than a little concerned.

At the Malaysian border I was given a special pass and told to get my sorry ass to Immigration Enforcement back in Bandar.

To make this long story shorter, the Brunei officials at Immigration Enforcement were very friendly and sympathetic.  They understood and believed my misunderstanding of the law.  Without any penalty, Cathie and I had our passports authorized for our extended stay here.  I suspect that, in Canada, we would not have gotten off so lightly or treated so courteously.

Initially, I was so disappointed that once again I missed a game of golf at an excellent course.  After some reflection it has occurred to me that the trip to the border revealed a visa problem.  If Cathie and I showed up at the Bandar airport to catch our flight out of here and were stopped by immigration from boarding our flight, the consequences would be significant and costly.