A woman has gone viral on TikTok after posting a video of herself stranded at an airport due to her sister’s hyphenated name not matching the name on her visa. The problem? She couldn’t use special characters when filing for it.
The clip, posted on July 16 by TikTok user Mailan (@mdaniels28), already racked up over 2.5 million views. It shows Mailan at the airport, visibly in disbelief, with her hand covering her mouth. The on-screen caption reads: “Traveled 15 hours already just to get told our visas r denied.”
The accompanying video description gives more context. It reads: “My sister has a hyphen in her legal name and they won’t allow it and decided to tell us 5 minutes before boarding halfway across the country already.”
Mailan’s family was en route to Vietnam, a trip that involved multiple flights. The initial leg of the journey went smoothly. But upon arrival in Chicago, she says they were informed that one family member’s visa was invalid. She says the reason was due to a discrepancy with her name.
@mdaniels28 Korean Air can SMD this has been planned for months and i think we have to turn back around. My sister has a hyphen in her legal name and they wont allow it and decided to tell us 5 minutes before boarding halfway across the country already
♬ original sound – violadagoomba (Robert)
The follow-up
In a follow-up TikTok video, Mailan explains the issue. She says her sister’s first name is hyphenated. But, she adds, the visa application system in Vietnam does not accommodate special characters like hyphens. She says this caused a mismatch between the visa and passport. This resulted in her being denied boarding on a Korean Air flight.
“Everything was fine when we got checked out of Detroit. They checked our visas, … passports, …. bags. We were in contact with Vietnam—the people in Vietnam that were figuring all that stuff out—originally, when we applied to get the visas. And they said, we’re all good,” Mailan says in the video.
Stranded and frustrated, Mailan and her family scrambled for a solution. Fortunately, they managed to find one with Delta Airlines.
As Mailan recounts, “We got in contact with Delta. And we somehow got a full refund on everything. … We got a lot of things covered, which was super nice and we were on a flight earlier today. And now we’re in South Korea.”
She continues, “It was just Korean Air being really nitpicky, which is OK. But it was just, like, really frustrating since we had everyone else’s approval ahead of time.”
@mdaniels28 Replying to @Alfred | Travel Content ♬ original sound – Mailan
Viewers with hyphenated names can resonate
In the comments section, users with hyphenated or otherwise “atypical” names shared the challenges they faced due to bureaucratic red tape.
One user commented, “It’s just a hyphen but they kick up such a huge fuss!” while another shared, “I have a hyphen in my name too. It’s always a struggle with things like this.”
“Hyphen in my middle name has caused me so much trouble so many times when I go abroad,” another commenter shared.
Mailan also urged people to be respectful of different naming conventions. She said, “Please be respectful of other cultures and other names because anywhere else, like other than America, it’s super common for people to have hyphenated names or uncommon ‘weird’ names.”
Similar incidents
In a similar incident shared on Reddit, a user claimed they couldn’t use special characters while applying for a Vietnam e-visa. They wrote, “My last name is hyphenated (eg. Smith-Barnes) and it will not allow you to enter the hyphen on the Vietnam e-visa website.”
In the same Reddit thread, another user reported, “My sister is having the same problem and was denied at the gate this morning.”
The same issue was brought up in a VisaJourney.com forum post, with some users suggesting replacing the hyphen with a space is the only solution available.
The Daily Dot has reached out to TikTok user @mdaniels28 via TikTok comment and to Delta via its media request form. We also reached out to Korean Air via email.
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