Sjoerd

My experience is different. Excluding Schengen and other EU countries, I have been to some 45 countries and the vast majority stamp on entry and exit. Exceptions that do not stamp on exit: US, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, New Zealand.

hfly

There is of course the other issue of those that stamp and do not bother inputting information nor scanning passports. Sjoerd, your numbers and exceptions may or may not mean anything, you exclude EU countries. There are 27 of them, we do not know how many you have been to, nor how many you have excluded, if it were all 27, that is more than half of your countries. I have been to far in excess of 100 and have stated what I find/found. Ishould note that I agree with many of the "schengen" comments made above: France generally stamps me in, almost never out, and even on the odd occasion that they do, there is neither input nor scanning done. In Spain I find that Madrid rarely stamps on the way out, Barcelons sometimes and Malaga rarely. Holland used to never stamp on the way out, sometimes on the way in, but I find that these days they do stamp on the way out much of the time. Germany is generally religious about stamping in both directions. The newer Schengen countries are now much more prone to stamp on the way out than before. Again, I would say that overall its half and half.

Sjoerd

I am just curious. If you exclude the Schengen countries, you have been to some 80 countries, right? Can you list the countries that didn't stamp you out?

Swanhunter

I've been to 70+ non-EU countries and the only ones that haven't given me an exit stamp are the US, Canada and Mexico. North Korea didn't give either; everywhere else has given me both entry and exit stamps. Pre-EU, countries likes Romania, Estonia, Hungary etc were pretty strict about giving you both too.

hfly

Eliminating Schengen countries was your idea, as they make up about 15% of the world's countries I will do no such thing. Countries which I have exited w/o a stamp off the top of my head without actually looking at pp's....... US, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Antigua, St. Lucia, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao (not strictly countries, but run their own PP control), Domenica, Grenada, Martinique, Grand Cayman, BVI, USVI (arriving and departing to/from a country other than the US), Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, UK, Norway (have entered and exited on many occasions without even showing a passport), Sweden, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland (been there at least thirty times, maybe had one stamp in, ever), Poland, wanna get cute......Gibraltar, Ceuta, Melilla, Vatican, Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino........Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Israel, Oman (especially when going to/thru UAE), Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia, Taiwan...........

Kiwi Flyer

I have visited a number of those countries and my passport has been stamped out in some of the ones I've visited.

Off the top of my head I've gotten stamps from the following countries listed above - Argentina, Spain, Lithuania, Australia (half my passport is Australian stamps), French Polynesia. I've probably missed some others.

Sjoerd

Some of these are not countries: Ceuta, Melilla. Some of these I have been many times and always have been stamped in and out: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Taiwan, Australia, Curacao.
I will give you Switzerland, Vatican, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein and the ones I mentioned earlier. I haven't been to most of the Caribean islands you mention so I can't comment on these.
The Schengen zone should be treated as one country - otherwise I can also include not getting a stamp when crossing from Nebraska into Wyoming in my list.
All in all the vast majority of countries / passport zones do stamp on exit.

CApreppie

Didn't get one going in or out of Switzerland.

hfly

Sorry Brazil was an error on my part, I lived there and other than entering by land have always gotten a stamp. Regarding Uruguay, I regularly used to cross in and out an never once had an exit stamp. Also, regarding Curacao, I would suppose that it is down to where you are from considering the fact that until recently North American citizens didn't even need a passport to travel there, hence there wouldn't even be a place to stamp. (also if you;re going to allow Curacao, you need to allow Ceuta and Melilla) For that matter, just to be clear, as you obviously didn;t get my meaning, I am referring to coming in and out of the aforementioned Schengen states from OUTSIDE of the Schengen zone, not within the zone, so what I post is correct. I should also note that the vast majority of Caribbean countries do not stamp on the way out (or in many cases on the way in) at least for North American citizens for the same reasons given for Curacao above.

Regarding Taiwan, this is probably down to the country you are from however believe it or not Taiwan will NOT stamp your passport if you ask them, much like Israel, if you have a valid reason for asking so (which I do).

Kiwi, as is posted by meyself and others further up the thread, Spain for example rarely stamps. I used to live in Spain and still regularly travel there, I have already posted my perceptions on different airports above, and their stamping rates, did you miss that? I would estimate that I have entered and left Spain over 400 times (200 each, in and out), Eliminating 100 or so land crossings, although many occurred before Schengen came into effect (or before Spain was even a member of the EC and then the EU for that matter), that would be 150 times in and out. Let's further say that 40 of those occurred by air before Schengen existed, so we have a nice even 110 trips in and out, most recently 6 or 7 weeks ago. Of that lets' say that most have been to non-Schengen countries, only ten trips in and out of Schengen.Of 100 entries into Spain, I would estimate that my pasport was stamped 75 times, of 100 exits from Spain, I would estimate that my passport has been stamped at most 15 times. Regarding French Polyneia, I have only been there twice,and never had an exit stamp, perhaps its different for others, I am not a frequent enough traveller there to know for sure. Argentina, I will admit that I have not been there for awhile, but the few times that I have been there I never had an exit stamp. Lithuania is an interesting one, when I first travelled there it was Soviet and it was of course a different world. After indeendence they were big on stamping, however on my last two trips there they did not do exit stamps.

Kiwi Flyer

This thread is enlightening. I did not realise how many places seem to have discretion on whether they stamp or not and/or have stamping policies(?) for different circumstances which can of course change over time.

pltwannab

Greece didn't stamp when got out.

unagi1

Very odd...

Loren Pechtel

It was the way in that surprised me the most. Apparently US passports were enough they feel like looking at them. (We were arriving from Indonesia, not direct from the US even!)

Outbound I can understand--had they done the passports normally we would have missed the train. If they didn't have anyone they were trying to keep from leaving it would simply have been a formality.

unagi1

By train, are you actually referring to the train from Singapore to Malaysia that leaves from Keppel Road.

dg4255

Botswana is super stamp happy. I flew from JNB to GBE and back, and then also crossed the land border to do a day safari just 5 kms inside SA. The stamps are hot neon pink and about the same in size as EU stamps. But the ink does not dry so fast, so closing the passport actually transfers the stamp to the facing page, but of course in a mirror image which is confusing to many other immigrations officials because they think it is another stamp. But, Botswana was a very very very pleasant surprise with wonderful wonderful people, amazing scenery, and a very high quality of life. I highly recommend it.