nalismom

Passport valid beyond (over 8 months) length of stay. Traveling from USA to LHR and staying 2 nights in London before onward direct flight to JNB for holiday of 20 days.....then direct flight from JNB to LHR connecting 5 hrs later to USA flight.....not leaving LHR.

I counted 9 blank visa pages in my passport......UK requires 1 for my inbound flight.....I don't believe I need another for my return flight since I am connecting.....correct?

South Africa requires 2 blank pages for entry/exit......is this correct? Or do they require 2 blank for entry and another 2 for exit?

Sorry for this OCD question but I'm trying to decide whether I should send my passport for additional Visa pages for this trip.

DesertNomad

My South African stamps are just slightly bigger than a standard Schengen stamp - about 1/4 page so even one page for LHR and one page for JNB should be enough to do your trip.

fozziedoggie

Sorry, clarification request please. When you say "visa" page, you really just mean an empty page for a passport entry/exit stamp yes? Unless I'm wrong, I don't believe SA requires an entry visa for short stays as a US holiday tourist, unlike Argentina or China.

I have a holiday trip planned to SA over Christmas/New Year and did not find anything official directing me to apply for an entry visa.

Thanks

industry_killer

It is not SA immigration you would have problems with if you do not have two free pages, it would be the airline. The rule states that you must have two pages blank and the airline will not take the chance of a fine for transporting someone who does not meet the entry requirements.

nalismom

They call it a 'visa' page to distinguish it from the pages at back of passport marked 'endorsements'. The pages that get stamped have 'visa' across the top.

fozziedoggie

Thanks, never paid any attention before, just handed over my passport and watched them stamp it (or not in some cases). Good to know, thanks ^

jerry a. laska

It seems in most countries the person stamping me in has not cared a whit as to whether he was stamping a page labeled visa or endorsement. And so I have visas and entry stamps in the endorsement pages.

dvs7310

When the country doesn't require a proper visa for travel then usually they don't have requirements for number of blank pages, however some do. I believe South Africa got rid of or reduced the 2 page requirement a couple years ago.

To keep space open for these requirements, the tick is, flip back through your passport and I bet you have a number of rather large open spaces on used pages. I more or less politely insist they use these open spaces first before starting a new page when I go anywhere. (Granted, I am very polite about it and I will explain why if any comments are made). Even countries that say you must have X number of blank pages will usually happily stamp an already used page when requested. I have managed to get a very impressive number of stamps crammed onto one page this way, even got one Brazilian stamp that straddles the fold on 2 pages since that was the only open space for it there (they are rather large). I'm only 5 years into my passport though and running out of space quickly. I'd prefer to use this one for as much of the 10 years as possible, fortunately 3 of the countries I enter and exit most often allow me stampless access (USA, Japan, and Hong Kong) giving my well used passport a bit more staying power.

I do have post it notes on my blank pages as well that say "Page reserved for full page visas please". It has never been questioned and I have a lot of old full page visas to back up my claim if challenged.

Steve_ZA

SA immigration used to apply a visa sticker which took up half a page and then stamp next to it. On departure they stamped the opposite page which made it easy to see the corresponding stamps when you next arrived there.

Now they just stamp on entry and they seem happy to do this on any page even if there are other stamps there.

dvs7310

At least for the past 2 years, they stamp entry, exit, and even int-int transit. I with it was just an entry stamp, e.g. USA and UK style. Oddly enough my first visit there, they (assuming accidentally) marked the "work permitted" line.

ThudAndBlunder

#neverforget http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-afri...9#.VSwzdjR4rHQ

Granted, this was a while ago, and things may have become more relaxed as per some of the comments above, but South African customs / immigration exceptionalism continues to dumbfound me.

Steve_ZA

Oh I meant they stamp on entry as opposed to sticking the visa on a blank page. Yes they do stamp at every entry/exit/transit but the ridiculous "2 blank pages" requirement has been dropped.

JonB110

This is absolutely correct. I unfortunately did not pay attention to the two remaining pages in my passport which read "endorsements". I made it from Boston to Doha with no issues. After a 8 hour layover I presented to my hate for travel to Cape Town. The Qatar gate agents informed me of the two page requirement and I would not be taking the flight. I spent the next day in and out of the Doha US Embassy and finally obtained an emergency passport the next afternoon. Hard lesson that I will never forget!