Removing Used/Expired Visa Stickers from Passport

Subscribe
Quote: I wouldn't. If you need pages for stamps, send your passport back in.
[...]

Canada: http://www.passportcanada.gc.ca/supp...ang=eng&id=301
Quote:
It is no longer possible to add pages to Canadian passports. An applicant who has a valid passport in which the visa pages have become filled with visas or entry-exit stamps must apply for a new passport.
Reply
I would think some suspicious immigrations officers, not just in the USA but around the world, may ask you what used to be in place of the torn VISA sticker and if you don't provide an answer he/she sees fit, you will be asked to go into the little room.

I would just leave it alone.
Reply
One of those things that can be done .... but shouldn't be done normally .... unless done very well .... but normally can't be done very well.
Reply
i don't see how it will work. besides having a visa sticker, the country you visit will usually also put a stamp of entry and sometimes upon exit. how will you have an "orphan" entry stamp without visa?
of course, that would require knowing which countries place visa and entry stamps, instead of just entry stamps, but on the surface the whole idea doesn't make sense to me.
Reply
I had a visa sticker get "detouched" from my passport before by itself. It was an old visa and just fell of (was a US visa, by the way). I was out of pages, and desparate to get another visa, and had no problem whatsoever getting another visa on that page. Of course I did not mention that to the consulate that was giving me visa, and that page was otehrwise intact. And I did not really do it by myself. I blaim them for using low qaulity stickers.

But most countries stamp or sign visa so that part of teh stamp or signature is on the edge of the passport page. Even if it is not, stickers are hard to remove. Otherwise, if I am desparate and knew how to remove them - I would try. Depends on desparation.
Reply
Once I sent my passport in to Myanmar's Washington embassy for a visa. Two weeks later they called me on the phone and denied me because they didn't like my itinerary. When I got my passport back you could see where there had been a sticker that was then removed and probably some kind of stamp half over the missing sticker and half on the now empty page. That was covered with whiteout. I take it they placed the visa but then changed their mind. No one ever questioned it though and eventually an Indonesian immigration agent placed a full page sticker over it. If you ask some agents in some countries will place full page sticker visas over older expired ones as well and a few times I have had them place sticker visas over other countries stamps simply because they were to lazy to find an empty page. I have one page with 4 layers of Indonesian stickers. My take would be that it is 'wrong' for YOU to peel out a sticker, but if it so happened that some foreign immigration agent was the one who did it then that is OK. I imagine it would be pretty difficult for a Canadian immigration official to verify if an unnamed Indonesian immigration agent did or did not peel out a visa last time you exited. YMMV depending on the countries involved.
Reply
In Denmark, you get your old passport back at once
Quote: Which brings up a related but slightly OT subject.

I am sure it is SSI top secret, but. . . Every ten years when you send in your PP for renewal, does/might the US State Department take that opportunity, before they void it and send it back for you to keep, to thumb through your pages of stamps and add them to your personal database so the computer can see if they match the airline tickets you have purchased and your customs recorded border crossings, etc.? Or see if you might have used foreign purchased air tickets or unrecorded cash travel like trains or busses to visit "countries of concern"?
As a Dane, I get my old passport returned to me, when I apply for a new one. The government does not look at any of the visa pages.

Quote: I have been thinking about removing used full-page visa stickers from my passport to make room for stamps.

Any one done this?
I have not done it, nor would I ever do it. I am pretty sure this is not legal regarding any Danish passport but my quick search in the criminal code turned out to be fruitless. The way I see it, my passport is for me to carry and show but only for any government agent to actually change.
Reply
Quote: I believe they scan all your pages when you add pages. Not 100% certain though
If not 100% certain, why do you believe it?
Reply
The OP was basically asking how to clear space for more entry/exit stamps, not for another visa to be added where an old one has been removed. In my experience, if your passport is getting pretty full, get more pages added but most places will just start stamping around older stamps. I've had that done quite a bit with my old 48-pager, I had about 10 pages taken up with visas, the rest had stamps in every direction and size on just about every page. I think I counted 9 stamps on one page when technically, there should have been a max of 4 (I believe, the older ones had the pages in quarters right?

The crappy new ones don't break each page down into sections, so it's even easier to squeeze stamps in, particularly the small European ones. Some of the 3rd world countries, their entry/exit stamps are humongous. I guess a little penis envy on their part. Little country, compensating with a bigggg stamp
Reply
I am scared
I have peel off 3 visa stickers from my passport. Fortunately, I keep them in my passport envelop. I guess I will put them back now, I am scared.
Reply
Most of the time, the stamps end up on existing ones so that no one can read it. There are some Middle Eastern and South American countries that relish in stamping on existing stamps that one cannot read anything at all. I have pages filled with black or blue stamps that are totally illegible.

There have been instances where the agent at the entry or exit got upset that there were no clear empty pages to stamp. I had to remove the paper clip to release 1 empty page for them to stamp . In some cases, I have noticed them flip through pages for that small empty space to put their stamp. I thank them profusely for doing so. ^

I would avoid removing stickers unless you are really in a bind.
Reply
Quote: The crappy new ones don't break each page down into sections, so it's even easier to squeeze stamps in, particularly the small European ones. Some of the 3rd world countries, their entry/exit stamps are humongous. I guess a little penis envy on their part. Little country, compensating with a bigggg stamp
Not only size, but use of stamps is directly related to the insecurity of the country. Hence 3rd world countries love stamps. Of course, countries that don't rely on computers much are more "stamp oriented" in everyday life.

US does not stamp citizens in unless you ask. For a while around 2004ish apparently EU did not always stamp, just swipe thru the computer. FRA did not stamp me a couple of times, but on all recent trips they are back to always stamping.

Related to stamp size for insecurity compensation is military hat size. Some countries have large hats to intimidate the masses, and hats increase in size with rank. Thus the generals seen walking with Dear Leader El Presidente for Life in news clips have comical oversize hats. Places like the old USSR come to mind, but today's clear prize has to be North Korea. Skinny short men, BIG hats.

If you want to see a Manual Stamp Event right out of the 1890's, go to your Time Machine US Post Office and mail a registered letter. Watch all that slow motion hand stamping with that Official Stamp. It helps to imagine the clerk with slick hair, a celluloid collar, and pencil mustache to complete the image.
Reply
Quote: US does not stamp citizens in unless you ask.
IME, they stamp in EVERY time. I travel internationally 6+ times a year. Every time I've re-entered, I've been stamped. ATL, JFK (AA & DL terminals), CVG, IAD, and ORD) in the last 2 years. Every time, with no request from me.
Reply
Quote: I believe they scan all your pages when you add pages. Not 100% certain though
Why would they do this?

MisterNice
Reply
Quote: Why would they do this?
You want Big Brother to spend your tax money on a Universal Citizen Database Computer then NOT use it?

I think it would be for tracking your every movement. DHS of course has your passenger data from the airline for every US entry and exit. But what if you fly to IST then buy a cash local ticket to Somewhereistan then another to Hideoutistan to visit OBL? Perhaps NSA has not tapped into the computer reservation system of every local commuter airline in the world, especially those that do not have a computer , just cash tickets.

When a "person of interest" renews a passport in any country I have no doubt they look at the extra passport stamps to complete their database of the person's travel history the past 10 years. Like it says in the fine print, the passport belongs to the government, and they sure don't need a search warrant to look at something they own which you voluntarily mail them once every ten years.
Reply