Australian passport warning after passenger is stopped by border officials

An Aussie has spoken out after being stopped by border officials at Sydney airport, all because he had an old passport photo showing their faces before plastic surgery.

Tomi Grainger arrived at Sydney International Airport last week excited to head to Tokyo, Japan.

But they nearly missed their flight after being stopped and questioned by airport security officials when the electronic machine failed to recognize their faces from their passport size photos.

Tomi, now 29, openly admits to having plastic surgery and looks very different from the 22-year-old pictured in their passport, causing alarm among airport officials.

It was the first major problem the seasoned international traveler encountered with his passport.

Tomi later described the heartbreaking ordeal in a video, which has since gone viral with over 100,000 views and sparked online debate.

“You wouldn’t believe what just happened to me at Sydney Airport, and I’m in a panic. My heart is still pounding,” they said as they walked through the airport.

“You go through airport security, and you have to take out your digital passport or whatever so they can identify you, and the machine says, this isn’t the person. Like it’s me!’

Officials quickly led Tomi to a private line where a security officer held up their passport for further investigation.

“I thought I was going to miss my flight,” they said.

“She looks at my face, and she frowns a lot, keeps doing it, spends a few minutes on it,” Tomi continues.

“I’m standing there awkwardly, I have to pee.”

The security guard walks off with Tomi’s passport to discuss the matter further with her boss.

“The two of them stand there talking about me, looking at this picture, shaking their heads and frowning, and I’m like, they won’t let me through,” said Tomi.

And then it hits me, ‘oh, I don’t look like the person in my passport photo anymore because I’ve had so much plastic surgery’.

Tomi went to officials to clear things up by explaining that they had plastic surgery, including a facelift.

Then they finally got through.

“I assume you want to see my passport photo?” Tomi ends the video.

The video was quickly flooded with comments from viewers.

Many advised Tomi to update their passports. ‘

“That’s a completely different person!” one noted,

Another added, “That’s what happens when you make a change in how you look and they can’t recognize you.” They did their job. Breath.’

Another said it was lucky the ordeal wasn’t in another country.

Others didn’t see what the huge fuss was about.

“It still looks like you if you look closely at your features. You just look younger in the picture,” one viewer wrote.

Tomi’s story led others to share similar airport nightmares over old passport photos.

“It happened to me last year. I lost 100 lbs traveling alone and almost cried. Told me ‘better get a new passport’, one woman recalls.

Another viewer added, “I’m having the same problem. I like to say yes, I’ve put in a lot of work, full steam ahead, and that gets them moving on fast!’

Some viewers also saw the funny side of it.

“That’s gold,” one woman wrote.

Tomi has learned a lesson from the ordeal and will now renew their passport, which was due to expire in two years.

They described the ordeal as a dazzling experience and added that they had no problems in Japan.

Tomi has previously opened up to Daily Mail Australia about their recent work including a facelift, a surgical lip lift, surgical brow lift, botox, filler and threads.

“Since I had a history of anorexia, I had reduced my skin collagen and made it much more elastic than it would be for a regular 28-year-old man. Surgery was the only solution,” they said.

“There was a physical reason for having this procedure and obviously a psychological component as well. It wasn’t something I decided to do overnight. This was a few years when I considered all my other options. I have no regrets.’