Category: International Travel Tales

By Maestro . . . I’d like to share a story about traveling outside the USA with a previous S.O. felony but no longer being on the registry… I recently traveled to Gambia (west Africa) with a stop over both ways in Istanbul, Türkiye.In order to leave the Istanbul airport to get to my hotel (12 hour layover), I had to obtain a visa, which I was able to do right at the airport. No questions asked. Cost $40 USD. Arrived at Banjul airport in Gambia, also obtained a visa there. The only question was; “What brings you to Gambia?”Answer: “An online friend who is going to be my tour guide” (this is true, btw. And soon she’ll also be my wife).The immigration officer then stamped my Gambian visa good for the next 5 yrs! Yes! Arriving back in the USA….I currently live in Georgia, so of course I came back into Atlanta international airport. Going through the customs area,…

By Kim… Well Good Morning. I have just returned from a 5 day cruise to Cabo San Lucas from LA. I was relatively nervous but had done extensive research from others here and elsewhere on what to do pre-travel and what to expect. Full disclosure: my incident was in 2007 and I have been off parole since 2012. Also: I am a woman and even though I believe in feminist ideologies, I also believe that women for obvious reasons do not have the same stigma attached as men (not relevant to this discussion but thought I would share). I have been on 3 cruises prior to 2016 and was denied Carnival after that with a letter and phone call and returned my money. This cruise was on Norwegian. I gave the 21 day notice “over the phone” to my registering agency and she did not ask for anything but the dates and destination. All she said was thank you and…

By Tod… YOU CAN TRAVEL OUTSIDE THE USA! Hello, I read a lot of depressing, discouraging stories all the time about being on the registry and wanted to let everyone know it is not ALL doom and gloom. We have choices, we can let the ‘system’ win, or make the choice to live a good life. Yes, that life would be a LOT better if the registry miraculously disappeared, but we all know that won’t happen in most of our lifetimes. So why sit and complain and worry about what you can’t do – focus on what you CAN do. In the 12 years I was in the ‘system’ I pushed the boundaries every day on living my life – PO’s hated it, but it is also how I proved to those in control I can make good choices, and in the end, was able to successfully complete the program and eventually released – but of course on the registry…

By Jon… I have been traveling on cruises for 10 years as RSO. I never had any issues until my latest cruise. I live in a state where I am not on the rso website. I usually do close loop cruises so I can use my birth certificate to get on the ship. Close loop cruise is cruise leaving and returning t a US port. On a close loop cruise US citizen do not need a passport. This cruise i could not find my Birth certificate so I had to use passport. I do have the new passport with the stamp in back. To board the ship I used an expired passport that was 2 years old. I boarded in San Juan so do not go through customs when boarding. I presented my expired passport to the cruise line. A supervisor was called over and asked if a new one was being sent to me. I said yes they allowed…

By Tony from Long Island I just returned from a short trip to Europe to visit my wife. It’s the first time I have left the country (except for a brief trip to Montreal decades ago). When I received my passport, the first thing I looked for was some sort of “unique identifier.” I found none. There’s nothing I could see on the passport to identify my status. I flew into Amsterdam and going through customs took 20 seconds. Just a “what’s the purpose of your trip” and “how long are you staying.” I flew back from Berlin to New York 9 days later. When I had to scan my passport, I got the “X” on my receipt. I, of course, had no idea what this meant and started to stress out. I had to wait on a slow moving line only to be told “You have to be seen by an officer” with no reason given. So I sat…

By Tim… I previously posted as “a man without a country.” I’ve lived overseas since my release from probation. Until February, 2018, I had no problems overseas, only when I returned to the US the last few, as I had to after my last parent died. Last year, using the same route and carrier as four times before, I was denied a boarding pass when something came up on the screen at check-in. They asked if I were “traveling alone”; I nodded incredulously and indicated no one was standing near me. I later wondered if this was something to do with the ‘trafficking’ we hear a lot about. Because of a health issue, I request wheelchair assistance in airports. Even though I’d spend just a two-hour layover sitting in a wheelchair in that airline’s hub, I was told to find another carrier with another route. Less than an hour after telling my family I’d be back in a month, I…

By TM… I want to give an update and recap of my international travel this year. In February/March this year I travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Turkey. I had no issues leaving the United States and no issues entering Bosnia. I did have a bit of a scare at the Bosnian-Croatian border. I drove out of Bosnia and was stopped by the Bosnian border patrol for about 15 to 20 minutes. I know my RSO issue was holding things up and I think they had no idea what to do with me. But eventually they released me and I was able to enter Croatia. I later entered Turkey with no issues. I then returned back to the United States in the summer of this year. I had a quick stop over in Germany and that is a great place to have a stopover. I actually had to go through passport control to re-check my bags on another airline and was…

By Ron… 20 years ago I plead no contest in a case of the on line undercover police seeking predators. I never touched, met, or did anything to anyone. Back in 1998, things were different. I was never put in jail or prison, I served 2 1/2 years of probation, I was not required to attend sex offender classes, or submit and blood samples to the state of Florida, There were only a few conditions placed on me, and the judge wanted me not to be part of the registry, but he had no choice since the Cop was pretending to be 14 years old. We all make mistakes in our lives, but I never thought how much my life changed. I have traveled in the past and had no problems until I arrived back in Florida. This August, I was planning to engaged to my Fiance in Colombia. I registered as by law of my trip in advance, I…

By James…. My parents, who are in their 90’s and in need of assistance when they travel wanted me to go with them to their time-share in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Initially I wasn’t thrilled with the idea because I am an RSO and every time you travel you can easily run afoul of the law and wind up back in prison by doing nothing. We have all experienced that if you have done nothing wrong the government will invent something, we know the name of that tune. Since my ultimate goal was to leave the country and never return after my parents pass away I decided that this would be a good dry run for doing that. That way if something unexpected happened I could fix it when the time came to leave for good. Having heard horror stories from inmates who had problems with the Arizona Department of Public Services (ADPS) who told them to do one thing…

By John . . . I was told FRIGHTFUL stories how we RSOs can never travel again internationally….wrong!!! We CAN get Passports albeit they will have a mark that the world community knows that we are RSOs. I have my original not expiring until 2021 so I’m traveling as much as possible before I get my “scarlet letter”. I recently spent over $1,000 as an experiment to see if we RSOs can get into Central America. I was able to travel to Belize, Guatemala and Honduras for 2 weeks with NO PROBLEMS!!! Mexico is OUT—they won’t let us in. But guys PLEASE LISTEN CAREFULLY—- DO NOT BE A DOUSCH BAG AND GO DOWN THERE AND COMMIT A CRIME, ESPECIALLY A SEX OFFENSE!!  It just takes ONE knucklehead to mess it up for EVERYBODY!!!! (and their prisons ARE NOT like ours, they are TERROR ZONES!!) They didn’t even ask of my past, just stamped me in (asked why i was there…