Tom Hanks’ son Chet has revealed he’s stranded in Colombia after travelling without a valid US passport.
The 35-year-old took to Instagram over the weekend to explain that he’d found himself in an unfortunate position after flying to visit a friend in the South American country.
“Ya’ll ready for storytime,” the Running Point actor explained, before revealing that travelled to visit a friend for his birthday in Puerto Rico before taking a quick detour to see another pal in Medellín as it was only ‘two to three hours’ away from the Caribbean island.
All sounds totally fine right?
Unfortunately for dual citizen Chet, he made the decision to travel on his Greek passport rather than his US one as it was ‘about to expire’.
“Sometimes they don’t let you in the country, even if it hasn’t expired, but it’s about to expire,” he explained.
Chet, the son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, revealed his unfortunate situation on Instagram (Instagram/Chet Hanks)
Unfortunately for Chet, this decision which would have major consequences when he went to check in at Medellín airport.
“I go to the airport to check in [for] my flight three hours early,” he said. “This is an international flight. They tell me that if I’m using a foreign passport, I need a green card to get back into America.
“I don’t have a green card because I’m an American citizen.”
Going on to show the view from his window, Chet added: “I’m literally stuck in Colombia.
“Granted, there’s worse places to be stuck, but I literally have no f**king idea what I’m gonna do.”
The only way for Chet to get back to the US was to visit the US embassy in Bogotá, a journey which takes eight hours in the car or a one hour flight.
“I don’t want to go to Bogotá,” he added. “So free me.”
Are US citizens not allowed to enter America without a US passport?
At first Chet’s situation seems a little baffling, after all why wouldn’t a US citizen with dual nationality be able to fly in on their other passport, however the US Department of State confirms this unusually strict rule to be true.
“U.S. nationals, including U.S. dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. U.S. dual nationals may also be required by the country of their foreign nationality to use that country’s passport to enter and leave that country,” the site reads.
“Use of the foreign passport to travel to or from a country other than the United States is not inconsistent with U.S. law.”
Which means the The Surreal Life star needs to either hop on a plane to Bogotá or find a way to get his passport sent over.
After leaving the US on his Greek passport, the American citizen needs a green card or his US passport to return (Instagram/Chet Hanks)
In the meantime, he can enjoy reading the online reactions to his situation, with the majority of the actor and musician’s followers finding the situation hilarious.
“Better call someone in your family to have them FedEx your passport to you ASAP,” read one comment, while a second penned: “lol have a nice life in Medellin.”
“Crying at I don’t have a green card cuz I’m an American citizen,” a third added.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.ladbible.com ’
