1readyset2go

^^^

BuildingMyBento

I'm particularly proud of this one-

Short story really, but at the end of a semester abroad in Tokyo, I had to surrender my alien registration card at my point of departure (in this case, NRT). However, I accidentally passed through immigration without having done this. I hurried back to passport control, which then admonished me about it and proceeded to place a "CANCELLED" chop over that first exit stamp. Back in Japan...for five minutes. The officer went into the back office, took care of something, then stamped me out again.

That is at the other end of the spectrum of DPS (Bali) immigration officials, who wouldn't even let me leave the country...

needroos

As a Pakistani passport holder I look forward to many decades of immigration lines and passport stamps.

On the flip side there will still be many years of developing word immigration stamping the passports of their own citizens. There is alot of pressure coming from the likes of the UK government who don't stamp passports on exit. So for example a non-EU international student who has left the UK before the end of the course would need to send a copy of the entry stamp in their home country as proof. This I guess would change once UK reintroduces exit controls.

moondog

What would have happened if you didn't bother to sort out this issue?

dubaych

When I lived in Czechoslovakia, they always stamped the last page upon entry, one on top of the other unto obscurity, and each stamp had a tiny icon (lifted from some 1930's clip art catalog) of the mode of transport: a choo-choo, an open-top jalopy, or a sturdy Eastern bloc aero-flight machine. We hiked across from Hungary once, fingers crossed for a hobnailed boot, but only got another Tin Lizzie.
Just took a moment to flip through that pre-electronic passport and the stamps evoked memories like a madeleine.

mjcewl1284

At HKG, I witnessed a refusal by an immigration officer to stamp a passport when the person, a caucasian tourist, asked for one. Immigration officer just looked at him and smiled.

CX HK

Did the "CANCELLED" chop ever cause you any problems/ questions during immigration (in Japan or elsewhere) down the road?

BuildingMyBento

Based on what the immigration official said, if I didn't hand over the card/cancel the first chop, I could have run into problems/fines on future trips (the rules are a lot different since 2005, but Q80 and Q85 on that link clarify some issues). Or there's this wikiesque page.

It has been a while since I've looked at it, but the stamp doesn't read "cancelled." Rather, it reads "VOID."

Baldpacker

I had a similar experience in Panama. My aunt was living in Costa Rica and we went to do a visa run to Panama in their Nissan Pathfinder. We got the border, Costa Rica stamped us out, Panama stamped us in, took the paperwork for the vehicle in (which had been previously reviewed and supposedly put in order by a Costa Rican attorney) which they denied. So...we couldn't get into Panama at all but had to get stamped back out and then stamped into Costa Rica.

It was a crazy experience and a waste of time and money for me but at least my Aunt succeeded in extending her time in Costa Rica. I also recall staying in some small town that night and drinking at a bar where some fully pregnant Tica chick was hammered out of her mind and asking me to buy her a drink. Had she not been 8 months preggo I probably would have but honestly, it was a pretty disgusting experience and I feel sorry for the kid who I'm sure has FAS.

bhrubin

I'll get over it. I enjoy sometimes looking at the stamps in my passport. But I'll be fine without it if it means more efficient screening and passage through passport control. The enjoyment I get from looking at a stamp isn't nearly as important to me as the enjoyment I get from passing through airport/border security as seamlessly as possible.

GUWonder

I've defintiely enjoyed looking at even some of my deceased relatives' passports -- because of the stamps -- or passport equivalents. Some of the trips they took in their diplomatic passports were otherwise news and news to me -- even as I knew about many of the trips in those and other passports. I seriously doubt electronic records are going to be as readily recoverable and accessible as ink on paper a century or millennium from now.

Maybe it's my age, but I have doubt that -- over millennia -- electronic storage will be as durable and useful for historical analysis as ink in print. But I have no doubt that the paper passport booklets we now use will eventually be phased out.

mot29

Yes it is, but as I noted it got me my first ride on an ANA 787 and as a DL/SkyTeam flyer -- not easy to find in the ST fleet. (By the way, not sure what is so special about the 787.)
Would that I earned mileage for it, but alas it was burning some orphan UA miles. The full routing for the trip was ICN-CTU(stopover)-NRT/HND(stopover)-TSA-GMP. Managed to book the whole thing in business for 40,000 miles and taxes. Going direct HND-GMP/ICN would have priced it at 45,000 miles and taxes.

s0ssos

Oh, that Costa Rica/Panama visa thing is so fake. Just to make money.

Revilo199

You will only get a Swiss Entry stamp.

As Switzerland joined the Schengen Area there are no more border controls between Switzerland and Italy and therefore no stamp.

iceblueshoes

Really?
I got both entry and exits Swiss stamps and my "exit" was off to Ireland, which is also in Schengen. Not that I'm complaining, I love stamps!

And I also got an Ireland stamp as well, which I was not expecting for the reasons you mentioned.

Now if I could only get my Machu Pichu/Inca Trail stamps back...