Narrative:

I was wakened from my break to find the relief pilots in frustration trying to get clearance to enter ZZZZ1 foreign airspace enroute to ZZZZ2. Seems dispatch flight planned us on this route; even though a notice had previously been posted about 'unpaid debts to foreign airspace will result in overfly refusal.' over the next 1 1/2 hours; support from the company to either get us permission to enter ZZZZ1 foreign airspace airspace or refile a new routing was nil. As fuel was becoming critical; I declared an emergency and told the ZZZZ controller we were deviating on a new routing around foreign airspace; even though this request had repeatedly been denied. Satcom communications with dispatch was intermittent and twenty minutes into our deviation; we were notified that a contact had gotten us permission to overfly ZZZZ1 foreign airspace. We replied that this was too late and we were proceeding to ZZZZ2 and planned to use the extra 19;000 pounds of unusable fuel (a dispatch restriction) and comply with the 4;660 pounds per tank at landing limitation. After consulting with dispatch; maintenance; and the director of flight operations; who strongly advocated we divert for fuel. They computed our landing fuel in ZZZZ2 at less than 14K; we computed 18K. Landing as an emergency aircraft at our divert airport was uneventful; the ground personnel were waiting for us; and fueling was accomplished in forty minutes. During this period we were relaying the flight attendants request for pay relief to the crew desk as they were now illegal to continue. Unfortunately; airport immigration officials denied anyone access off the airplane so everyone was forced to continue to ZZZZ2. The 1+28 minute flight to ZZZZ2 was uneventful; blocking in almost five hours late. Entire crew was debriefed and thanked in the flight attendant bus and the cockpit crew departed for their hotel.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier aircraft was denied over-flight clearance through foreign airspace because it did not have a permit. An emergency was declared and the flight diverted to an enroute station for fuel.

Narrative: I was wakened from my break to find the Relief Pilots in frustration trying to get clearance to enter ZZZZ1 foreign airspace enroute to ZZZZ2. Seems Dispatch flight planned us on this route; even though a notice had previously been posted about 'unpaid debts to foreign airspace will result in overfly refusal.' Over the next 1 1/2 hours; support from the company to either get us permission to enter ZZZZ1 foreign airspace airspace or refile a new routing was nil. As fuel was becoming critical; I declared an emergency and told the ZZZZ Controller we were deviating on a new routing around foreign airspace; even though this request had repeatedly been denied. SATCOM communications with Dispatch was intermittent and twenty minutes into our deviation; we were notified that a contact had gotten us permission to overfly ZZZZ1 foreign airspace. We replied that this was too late and we were proceeding to ZZZZ2 and planned to use the extra 19;000 LBS of unusable fuel (a Dispatch restriction) and comply with the 4;660 LBS per tank at landing limitation. After consulting with Dispatch; Maintenance; and the Director of Flight Operations; who strongly advocated we divert for fuel. They computed our landing fuel in ZZZZ2 at less than 14K; we computed 18K. Landing as an emergency aircraft at our divert airport was uneventful; the ground personnel were waiting for us; and fueling was accomplished in forty minutes. During this period we were relaying the flight attendants request for pay relief to the crew desk as they were now illegal to continue. Unfortunately; airport immigration officials denied anyone access off the airplane so everyone was forced to continue to ZZZZ2. The 1+28 minute flight to ZZZZ2 was uneventful; blocking in almost five hours late. Entire crew was debriefed and thanked in the Flight Attendant bus and the cockpit crew departed for their hotel.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.