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My cousin, who holds an OCI card was travelling from London Gatwick to Ahmedabad, India with Emirates Air Line, but she forgot her OCI card at home and somehow she passed through Gatwick and was allowed to travel.

When she reached Ahmedabad, she was denied entry as she is had her British passport, but not a visa or OCI.

So, I was wondering that who is responsible for immigration check, the airline or any government?

1 Answer 1

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The person traveling is always responsible for having the right paperwork, the airline is not, nor are the immigration officers.

The passport officers at the destination country will check and will usually insist on visa or other proof of being permitted in, like the OCI card, although in most cases the airline will stop a passenger getting on the flight.

Airlines are often charged a fine for allowing people to approach immigration who do not qualify for entry and have to transport those people back or otherwise away, which they will try to get paid for by the passenger.

As pointed out in the comments, in some countries you need to hold an exit visa and it will be the airline and/or the border guards who check you have it, but it is still the responsibility of the person traveling.

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    Note that there is a slight caveat here in the case of exit visas. Those are under the purview of the origin country, not the destination country.
    – Flater
    Nov 28, 2022 at 2:26
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    @Flater but still the traveler is the one responsible for having it, not the airline.
    – jwenting
    Nov 28, 2022 at 7:47
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    Also to consider: airlines employees cannot known all immigration rules/requirements. They uses an electronic system, but still without all exception listed, and they are not trained to recognize such different documents. "Immigration officers" at exit points also do not known the rules for other countries. And your cousin by having the document knew about the requirement: it is difficult to blame other people. Checklists are important not to have embarrassing situations: recommend your cousins to prepare them. Nov 28, 2022 at 9:44
  • @GiacomoCatenazzi agree. I just wanted to know as from destination airport authority person told us to contact to air line for this mistake, by saying that it is air lines responsibility. Nov 28, 2022 at 20:14
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    @KinjalPatel It seems likely they are referring to the third paragraph of this answer: "Airlines are often charged a fine for allowing people to approach immigration who do not qualify for entry and have to transport those people back or otherwise away" That is, it isn't that this person is saying it's the airlines responsibility to have the right documents (that's on the passenger), but rather that it's the airline's responsibility to do something about it now (i.e., transport the person back where they came from). Nov 28, 2022 at 20:39

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