Passport stamps

gettingtheresometime

Keeping wrote: »

So are passport stamps mandatory or not? Is it random? I'm planning to go on holiday with a few lads but don't want my passport to get stamped otherwise my mrs we know I've been partying it up lol.

Can I just request they don't stamp it or what? Do they stamp it if you go to the States?

Yes they do stamp it.

Off topic but won't your wife wonder why you're not at home? Or won't she care?

Whatever happened to honesty between partners?

benjus

Roger1 wrote: »

Well, eDicky didn't and would have been wrong, like you.

EU passports, including UK, are not normally stamped on arrival in Switzerland or Liechtenstein. AFAIK the same applies to Norway and Iceland.

If arriving from a Schengen country, passports are not even normally checked on arrival in most EEA+ countries (EU, EEA, Switzerland). The UK and Ireland are exceptions.

You seem a bit confused. This was the original quote:

eDicky should have said "will have it stamped on entry to non EU and EEA countries, so Norway, Lichtenstein and Iceland, and as an added bonus Switzerland, which is neither EU or EEA.

In other words, Norway, Lichtenstein, Iceland, and Switzerland are all countries (together with the rest of the EU/EEA) where UK passports are not (usually) stamped.

As for your Schengen comment, you seem confused at the difference between Schengen and EEA. When someone travels between two Schengen countries there is normally no passport control at all. When someone flies between a Schengen country and a non-Schengen country (whether EEA or not) there is normally passport control (OK, I have flown from the UK to Spain a few times and the passport officers have clearly been on their siesta, but that's not how it's supposed to happen). The UK and Ireland are not exceptions to the above rule, they are simply non-Schengen countries.

[Deleted User]

benjus wrote: »

When someone flies between a Schengen country and a non-Schengen country

Or indeed sails, or travels by train.

System

My Dad still has his passport issued from 1971 and kept it for the stamps.

He traveled a lot for his employers.

I can recall there was a section of the passport declaring how much money he was taking with him. Can't remember the amounts he took with him.

Does anyone remember this?

Voyager2002

ScarletMarble wrote: »

My Dad still has his passport issued from 1971 and kept it for the stamps.

He traveled a lot for his employers.

I can recall there was a section of the passport declaring how much money he was taking with him. Can't remember the amounts he took with him.

Does anyone remember this?

Yes, I do.

One of the first things that Mrs Thatcher's government did was to abolish the rules on 'exchange controls' that had been in force since the 1930s. Under those rules, for a long time each person going abroad was limited to taking fifty pounds for each trip (although by the end this had increased to 250 pounds).

There was only one such entry in my passport: after finishing my 'O' levels I went to France to spend the Summer working in the maize fields, and when I bought some francs at the exchange kiosk at Victoria station the transaction was recorded in my passport.

I travelled with two friends from school. One of them later became a full-time drug dealer: the other is now one of the most senior officers in the Metropolitan Police force!

PompeyPete

ScarletMarble wrote: »

My Dad still has his passport issued from 1971 and kept it for the stamps.

My first passport was issued in 1971, a freebie when I joined the Royal Navy.

I'm half way through my 8th passport now. The only one I've had to pay for out of my own pocket is my current one.

I've kept them all as well [except the first one:(]. Some interesting stamps along the way, and all a little part of me.

GlasweJen

PompeyPete wrote: »

Other way round I think, and as Ballard suggests in #14.

We went on a cruise that visited Alexandria and Port Said in Egypt, and then Ashdod in Israel.

Just Checked my passport, the Egypt stamps appear loud and clear.

But when we visited Ashdod all passengers had to attend a face-to-face in the ship's theatre with Israeli Immigration, and we were given a paper insert instead of our passports being stamped. My wife was expecting a problem with her passport as it was issued at the British Embassy in Riyadh [Saudi Arabia]. The Immig Officer noticed [as she would], and had a word with a colleague, but cleared it.

A few years ago, when I worked in Saudi Arabia, I had to get my new boss, his family, and all their effects through all the hoops required to get him overland from Haifa to Riyadh. Nightmare.

Could be but I was sure we visited Egypt the year before we went to Israel. There is a chance I had a previous Israeli stamp as we had family over there.

EssexExile

Israel didn't care what stamp you had in your passport when I was there, but they would not stamp it themselves if you asked them not to, for example if you were going to Egypt who did care.

Roger1

I don't really want to continue the topic unnecessarily, but am prompted by your reference to 'confused' (twice). I don't feel confused!

benjus wrote: »

You seem a bit confused. This was the original quote:

eDicky should have said "will have it stamped on entry to non EU and EEA countries, so Norway, Lichtenstein and Iceland, and as an added bonus Switzerland, which is neither EU or EEA.

In other words, Norway, Lichtenstein, Iceland, and Switzerland are all countries (together with the rest of the EU/EEA) where UK passports are not (usually) stamped.

I read the quote differently. 'eDicky should have said "will have it stamped on entry to non EU and EEA countries, so Norway, Lichtenstein and Iceland, and as an added bonus Switzerland, which is neither EU or EEA.' 'Will have it stamped on entry to non-EU and EEA countries, so Norway, Lichtenstein and Iceland, and ... Switzerland ... ' See the confusion?

As for your Schengen comment, you seem confused at the difference between Schengen and EEA.

Huh?

When someone travels between two Schengen countries there is normally no passport control at all. When someone flies between a Schengen country and a non-Schengen country (whether EEA or not) there is normally passport control (OK, I have flown from the UK to Spain a few times and the passport officers have clearly been on their siesta, but that's not how it's supposed to happen). The UK and Ireland are not exceptions to the above rule, they are simply non-Schengen countries.

That's a longer version of my comment, which remains correct. As I said, 'EU passports, including UK, are not normally stamped on arrival in Switzerland or Liechtenstein. AFAIK the same applies to Norway and Iceland.

'If arriving from a Schengen country, passports are not even normally checked on arrival in most EEA+ countries (EU, EEA, Switzerland). The UK and Ireland are exceptions.'

Yes, 'Schengen' can be confusing, but I have done too much Schengen/non-Schengen, Schengen/Schengen and non-Schengen/Schengen travelling on business and privately to be 'confused.

benjus

Roger1 wrote: »

'If arriving from a Schengen country, passports are not even normally checked on arrival in most EEA+ countries (EU, EEA, Switzerland). The UK and Ireland are exceptions.'

Yes, 'Schengen' can be confusing, but I have done too much Schengen/non-Schengen, Schengen/Schengen and non-Schengen/Schengen travelling on business and privately to be 'confused.

My point was that Schengen and EEA are different things. Whether or not you have immigration control depends on whether the countries are Schengen or not. The EU and EEA are irrelevant to this discussion.