After a long flight we disembarked at Melbourne Airport. I had my epassport processed in the machine before duty free and held my receipt ticket. Thru duty free I handed Trevor his passport and arranged to meet him at luggage carousel. I went thru the epassport line producing my receipt ticket and had my photo processed to match my receipt image. I waited at the carousel for ages collecting our bags. Much later my mobile rang, as fortunately I'd turned it on, this being late Sunday night. It was 'Fred from customs', where was I? At luggage carousel. Fred said not possible, where was I really? I returned to customs officers near the carousels to explain there seemed to be a problem with Trevor at Immigration. I waited while a Customs officer took Trevor's passport to immigration officer. Oops after using mine in the epassport machine I had in error handed him mine! Trevor had been challenged, who what why where and when? He didnt look like me! Customs told Trevor that the Federal Police would need to be involved (but weren't). End of saga, we highlighted a problem with their system as I was not required to produce my passport to exit Immigration, as I'd only been required to put receipt ticket in machine. Eventually Trevor was released and customs/immigration officer escorted us straight outside with no need to queue thru 'to declare' lines. Procedure error number 2, luckily what I'd needed to declare wasn't anything illegal.
in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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