stimpy

If you read the above you will see that Americans can add a heck of a lot more than 24 pages twice.

bankops

Well, I didn't see anything in a previous post that says you can add more than 48 pages (even though the actual limit is 72). As per the American embassador in London (as well as personal experience):

Additional pages may be added to a passport up to a maximum of three times, providing that the passport is in good condition.

I said two times because most people who have filled up the original and had two sets added get caught by the "provided the passport is in good condition" clause so the fact that you can actually have three sets added doesn't mean very much.

stimpy

Well I have about 200 pages in my US passport which I wrote about above. Never a problem anywhere using it. I've added pages in LA, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and I can't remember where else. And it started with 48 pages. So I am quite sure there is no rule limiting size to 72 pages.

Yaatri

Then, you have to pay the expedited fee. Doing at a U.S. consulate is the best bet. We got pages added to passports of my wife and my children at the U.S. consulate in Bucharest. Conveniently, it was located with a block walking distance of the hotel, where one of our FTer friends was staying. When we met him, we told him of our plans to visit the U.S. consultae, it turned out he needed extra pages too. For the 4 of us, it took about an hour. It would have been sooner had heir not been many local (Romanian spouses of US citizens) needing attention for their issues.

mecabq

Slightly off-topic, but I find the form to request new pages to be ridiculous. They ask for lots of information, some of which is unnecessary because they can read it right off the passport, some of which is irrelevant (namely, a list of countries to which you plan to travel -- presumably to "justify" the need for extra pages ), and some of which is bizarre (namely, your social security number -- why would they need that?).

I keep meaning to contact the Office of Management and Budget Paperwork Reduction Act office to complain about the form, but haven't gotten around to it.

holtju2

They still do and it is still not considered to being a country of its own.

Spiff

That is indeed very good news! ^

TheTrustedTraveler

200 Pages! Why not just hand the C and I people a copy of War and Peace

GUWonder

There is no 72-page rule that has hit me this month and I just added another A-X (IIRC) section, which brings me well above 72 pages since I started with 48 pages and have added well more than 2 supplemental sets of pages.

Kiwi Flyer

Be glad you can still add pages. My new passport has earlier expiry than the one my old passport replaced (ie 2 passports ago), and I had to pay double for expedited service since the interval between trips is too short (no overseas issuance any more ).

stimpy

Sometimes I have to help the immigration agents find whatever visa they are looking for. Especially in China and India where I have lots of them.

However when I go back to the US, they don't even blink at the size of my passport. This tells me it isn't the first large passport they have seen. I think there are lots of people like me out there. Maybe not a high percentage, but still thousands of us.

hfly

bankops, the US Ambassador to London is generally a political appointee, who couldn't really care about what the rules are, let alone quote them. There are no such limitations which you state above. There was a time about 18 months ago when certain limitations were put on amendments to US passports that certain US missions abroad misinterpreted as a soft limit of three amendments to a passport, however this was not a legal limit nor was this enforced by all missions abroad, furthermore, it has been my experience that only two missions practiced this at all. As I like Spiff have a 8 page passport and just last week got TWO more additions thrown in at once (that was a new one as in the past I have asked for this several times and they would never do more than one at a time - when I asked why they did it, they said that it looked that I needed it and due to passport processing problems worldwide they are trying to male people as happy as they can - necessitating fewer visits to PP offices and consulates) now bringing my current passport up 216 pages, with more than 4 years of validity left on it, I can guarantee you that it will go past 300. In otherwords, what you have posted is simply just not true.

Stimpy, there are a lot of us. until 2 years ago it was sometimes worse as I had some longer term vsas such as Brazil and India in the previous passport (which ran over 150 pages). The two of them clipped together was quite a sight and thicker than many paperbacks!

JimC

Agreed, same attitude in 2007. Adding to the list of places to avoid unless desperate: the consulate in Monterrey. Figure on 3 hours if you go there. Lots of screaming babies and an uncomfortable waiting room. Oh, and pure hell trying to find a parking spot anywhere in the vicinty.

HLS2002

Has anyone successfully added pages to a US passport in Panama? I tried in EZE this month, but I gave up after waiting more than an hour. In that time, the passports section didn't call a single person, and there were two families with passport applications for their dozen or so kids in front of me. HKG was the best; there you could make an appointment on-line, and I was in and out in 10 minutes.

Incidentally, does Panama stamp the tourist card? If they could do this and refrain from stamping my passport it would save two little boxes in case my PTY extra pages adventure isn't a success.

Reindeerflame

I sent in my expiring passport on Nov. 4, paying just the normal $67 renewal fee, but enclosing a note requesting a passport with extra pages.

It arrived back today in the ordinary mail (Nov. 30), just under 4 weeks later.

I was pleased to see that they had immediately added the A-X "extra pages" in the middle, in addition to the "normal" numbered pages.