Years ago (1991) when entering South Africa I was offered the choice of not having my passport stamped. I think this was possibly linked to potential travel to countries at that time unfriendly towards Israel. I was off to my SiL's wedding, had no plans to visit Syria so I had my passport stamped. I mean, who doesn't love a stamp to show off!?
Idly musing on top of the hill today, looking out to sea I started thinking about this again.
Say I wanted to become an international man of mystery am I permitted to not have the page stamped? Or maybe only on a loose additional page or something. What about at the other end if I was going to France or Spain or whatever?
I don't do much traveling but read recently about egates? into/out of the EU. Are the days of inky stamps in my passport numbered? I like seeing them, it would be a shame to see them gone.
I'm pretty sure that the only tangible Brexshit bonus is the many stamps you will receive when visiting our closest neighbours.
Stamped in, stamped out of Schengen. Half a page a trip. Halfway through my fairly recent passport.
I doubt your obliged to but I doubt you get let in either…
Years ago in cyprus when we went to the Turkish side the tour guide stressed to everyone to get a separate sheet stamped. The poor girl on passport control looked burnt out by dozens of burnt Brits shouting loudly and slowly that they wanted the separate sheet stamped.
If you were an international man of mystery I'd expect you to have multiple passports from various nations under various names
Getting a Syrian stamp is (outside possibility) going to maybe get some questions if you go to USA. Israel? Get another copy passport before trying to enter/leave with a stamp like that.
Am I allowed more than one passport? Can I have them both stamped?
Am I allowed more than one passport? Can I have them both stamped?
Yes, you are allowed more than one passport, and if you are, for example an employee of an oil company with business interests in the US and Middle East/Africa it's a good idea. And make sure you take the correct one on each visit.
A friend of mine has two passports for visiting Isreal and the Gulf states for his work in the medical sector -. His work paid for the second one.
The only time I was asked if I wanted my passport stamped was when visiting Israel for work, years ago. And since I also visited Arabic countries very often, it was very useful not having an Israeli stamp. Although, as others have mentioned, if you travel regularly, and need to often send your passport off for visa applications, it’s quite normal practice to have two passports, so you’re not left without a passport for travel.
I might have had a beer.
OP here, now deciding that having two (or perhaps more) passports seems like a cool thing. Lots of inky stamps etc.
Next question. How do I actually become an #International man of mystery.
Is a ninja cooler? I have a replacement hip but managed 27km on the Gower peninsula today. Are these credentials sufficient?
I think I will have a nice cup of tea.
When I went to Israel (lesson learned here) I took my one passport and had huge hassles with the final FU being an Israeli stamp on my Saudi visa. Not been back to Israel. Some of the average folks there are lovely.
I believe the answer to Q1 is 'yes'. Its another of those many and varied benefits from leaving the EU that the moron running the Gov that particularly week decided we needed (after deciding we would have British blue passports as that was more important than 50 billion lost in trade... even though the blue British passports contact was given to a FRENCH company!).
Flying in to Minorca recently and some chancer tried to slip round us and past the lady on the passport desk who was stamping passports on arrival, she shouted and he was unceremoniously marched back to her to have his passport stamped, ninety day visa restrictions I presume.
Does anyone (other than the passport's owner) ever look at the stamps?
I once crossed from the USA to Canada via the bridge just below Niagara falls. Purpose was to go down the tunnels behind the falls and to be able to say I had been to Canada! As a tourist I was allowed to enter the country on a 24 hour visa without anything more than the stamp in my passport as proof. Unfortunately, as the lovely customs lady stamped my paspport she realised that she hadn't changed the date on her stamper from the day before (it was quite early). A mild panic ensued since I would not have been able to leave without problems had I tried later that day. It needed an official signature from the head honcho to show it was a mistake and had to be crossed out and the correct date stamped in.
"Does anyone (other than the passport's owner) ever look at the stamps?"
Passport control usually have a flock through mine and have asked (once) about where I'd been
"Does anyone (other than the passport's owner) ever look at the stamps?"
Passport control usually have a flock through mine and have asked (once) about where I'd been
It depends how often you travel and where you travel too. In a previous life I used to travel quite a bit and worked in different African countries. You do get selected for scans, interviews and even pat downs a bit more often. A Brit going too europe as long as not too young not too scrubby will normally attract little interest.
Have been called out for overstaying my 90 day visa in South Africa and when I explained to the customs officer I had been in and out of the country at least four times since (it took a while to locate all the stamps on different pages), made me look even more suspect. After kindly explaining I had an office in both countries and as such was on a first name basis with the flight attendant I got let off.
Russian stamp( and that was just before they invaded Ukraine) seemed to attract particalar interet as well as work permits for places less often traveled too.
They do profiling on your appearance too and on even on race(although they will not admit openly)
Does anyone (other than the passport's owner) ever look at the stamps?
When I applied for my residency to Spain I had to scan the entire passport and send it to them.
If you visit Cuba they give you a piece of paper to show you are in the country legally, which they take back when you leave. Kind of them, but to get a US electronic visa waiver you need to declare that you haven't visited any place on a list which includes Cuba. So Mrs g and I had to apply for a visa and attend an interview at the embassy in London. Which we now have. US citizens are not allowed to visit Cuba I believe, so it is important for them.
Having observed who got asked what questions at the interview, and who got refused, I suspect there was some racial profiling and judging by appearance, age, occupation etc going on there. We were not asked about our means, but we both saw people in front of us being refused on that basis.
[Would probably not be visiting US atm but for the fact that our son now works there.]
Turkmenistan police also had great interest in my stamps and visas .....
Possibly as I had 5 or 6 full page Turkmenistan visas in there - which lead to lots of whys.
I'm also probably still offshore somewhere in Nigeria as I came home via the backrooms and never got stamped out.
I can't imagine the lack of that stamp will cause me issue. No plans to retire out there.
In my experience Israel immigration officers don't care that much about your travel history. However some of the Arab countries get terribly upset if they think you've been to Israel, so on request they'll stamp a slip of paper instead, which you return when you leave.
I occasionally enter without being stamped and leave as a passenger. It's been rumoured to cause problems in the past but I had no problems leaving South Africa last week without an entry stamp.
Does anyone (other than the passport's owner) ever look at the stamps?
Border control of quite a few countries do check that you have valid entry stamps, and that you haven't got stamps from any countries they disagree with.
Flew into Israel 35 odd years ago and asked can you put a stamp on a separate page from my passport. They said yes then stamped my passport anyway. Only country I've been to I'd never go back to. Horrible people in my experience.
Does anyone (other than the passport's owner) ever look at the stamps?
I’m not sure about visitors from the U.K., but from what I’ve read about the US, they’re very, very strict about not overstayed visa requirements, doing so seems to attract unwarranted attention from masked people with ICE and CBP patches on tactical vests and guns. Probably best to err on the safe side.
And take a cheap dumb phone instead of a smart phone.
Does anyone (other than the passport's owner) ever look at the stamps?
Yes. Dutch passport control at the Hook of Holland were checking that we had stamps for entry into the Schengen area. Which was a shame, because French passport control had forgotten to stamp one of my kids' passports.
If you visit Cuba they give you a piece of paper to show you are in the country legally, which they take back when you leave. Kind of them, but to get a US electronic visa waiver you need to declare that you haven't visited any place on a list which includes Cuba.
I've just been looking into getting an additional passport for one of my daughters [cabin crew] and came across this information for passport staff on the .gov website:
Travel from Cuba to the USA through Mexico
If you know a customer with an additional passport is travelling from Cuba to the USA through Mexico, you must tell them to use the same passport to enter Cuba and Mexico, as:
-
the Mexican immigration authorities stamp the passport ‘Arrived from Cuba’
-
using only 1 passport means the other passport does not make reference to Cuba (as references to Cuba may cause the customer problems when arriving in the USA)
You don't get your passport stamped entering the US now as it's electronic.
Which means when you're doing fieldwork on the mexican border and some nice border guards ask for evidence you're in the country legally things are a bit tricky. That was a couple years ago, if it happened now I think we'd have gone to ICE jail.
So careful what you wish for
I have two passports, neither of them have a single stamp in them...
even though the blue British passports contact was given to a FRENCH company!).
It's better than that as the documents are printed in Poland and delivered by a German company!
Israel doesn't do passport stamps and hasn't done for at least 6 years as far as I know. Just a blue/green ticket depending on where you enter. The border control folk in Israel generally don't give two hoots about where you've been, but try getting on an El Al flight in e.g. Amsterdam and it's an entirely different story.
Source: been travelling to Israel to get on transport back out of Israel and to my workplace in the Mediterranean since 2020.
I went to Israel for work in 2011 (working on a cycle tour, rode the length of a beautiful country with a lovely bunch of cyclists; steadfastly avoided the politics). I had been to Turkey three years before and had a stamp in my passport. Because of this, I was detained for another hour at the airport and repeatedly questioned on where I went, who I met, what my intentions were, why I was in Israel (with a group that was 95% Jewish!), what my plans were, why I was in Turkey, where I went, who I met, what my intentions were... etc.
Eventually I think they got tired of me answering, truthfully, it was a week where we barely left the resort, a cheap holiday chosen at the last minute, I couldn't even point out on a map where we went, but I certainly didn't speak to anyone other than a few hotel and restaurant staff. But... maybe that's exactly what an international man of mystery might say?
He'd certainly be smart enough to take a clean passport if he ever visited Israel again though.