Originally Posted by
GUWonder
FRA agents look at the stamps in my passports and often just give up, including giving up on the assumption that "with that many visa stamps" I'm not overstaying and then "just stamp the exit". I've heard them say as much a few times.
The problem is passport control drones are wasteful <redacted>. They would rather stamp a blank page in the middle of a passport than put their stamp on a used page that has space for more stamps. The result being that my passports would have no blank pages for visas that require one or more pages (some visa requirements mandate two blank pages facing each other).
I used to use paper clips to reserve pages for visas, and to indicate where my entry stamp is. The paper clips annoyed passport control <redacted> because they think I am trying to hide my travel history.
My newest strategy with my current passport is to use transparent post it sheets on each blank passport page, with the written note "Reserved for visas", leaving the first two pages blank. This lets <redacted> see that I am not hiding anything. The side benefit of this it is easy to find that entry stamp. I can easily remember what are the current two open page numbers.
Sure enough, the first passport control <redacted> I ran into with my new passport, had to put the entry stamp on page 2.
I've had some questions, mostly in India about this practice. One <redacted> claiming there was no space to put his stamp. I told him, calmly, in a normal tone, "Please look at pages 1 and 2 for blank space". I repeated myself ten times, and it got through.
Another <redacted> asked me if this was practice of my country and then summoned his supervisor. Who then said what I was doing was fine.
My passport is 7 months old, 9 years, 5 months left on it, and pages 1 and 2 are full, with some stamps on pages 3 and 4, and the other 32 pages pristine. I think I might last the full ten years on this one.