No entry stamp in passport
May 31, 2019, 11:08 am
#16
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,752
I'm sure legally you'd be OK. But it could result in significant delays at the border should they raise a fuss. I have heard of a recent case where the traveller was delayed by two hours due to a missing registration from a hotel on a trip two years ago. They were sure that they had registered at the hotel but apparently it wasn't in the border force's system.
May 31, 2019, 7:09 pm
#18
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, AA, DL
Posts: 7,418
Jun 1, 2019, 4:17 am
#19
Join Date: May 2009
Location: SIN (with a bit of ZRH sprinkled in)
Posts: 9,455
Immigration will know when you entered China anyway.
If your password is as crazy full with various stamps such as mine, usually they'll give up after a minute or two on searching and just copy the visa page.
If your password is as crazy full with various stamps such as mine, usually they'll give up after a minute or two on searching and just copy the visa page.
Jun 2, 2019, 3:29 am
#20
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 15
Hey, wanted to update this as I am now sitting in ICN awaiting a (delayed) flight back to the states.
So my hotel in Beijing called the police who stated that it was “not a problem, and everything was electronic anyway”. Not sure quite how to take this statement I gave myself plenty of time when I went to PEK for my flight to DYG if I had any issues. No problems in PEK, and none departing DYG for XIY either. To be honest I would never have spotted anything if it hadn’t been mentioned at the first hotel as it was never brought up again.
On departure from XIY this morning I got held up about 15 minutes because of the missing stamp, but in the end they seemed to decide it was ‘okay’ after numerous people looked at my passport. I have a one year visa, and am unlikely to return on it, I will have to see if this bites me on return to China some time in the future...
So my hotel in Beijing called the police who stated that it was “not a problem, and everything was electronic anyway”. Not sure quite how to take this statement I gave myself plenty of time when I went to PEK for my flight to DYG if I had any issues. No problems in PEK, and none departing DYG for XIY either. To be honest I would never have spotted anything if it hadn’t been mentioned at the first hotel as it was never brought up again.
On departure from XIY this morning I got held up about 15 minutes because of the missing stamp, but in the end they seemed to decide it was ‘okay’ after numerous people looked at my passport. I have a one year visa, and am unlikely to return on it, I will have to see if this bites me on return to China some time in the future...
Jun 4, 2019, 2:47 am
#22
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: HKG
Posts: 1,315
So my hotel in Beijing called the police who stated that it was “not a problem, and everything was electronic anyway”. Not sure quite how to take this statement I gave myself plenty of time when I went to PEK for my flight to DYG if I had any issues. No problems in PEK, and none departing DYG for XIY either. To be honest I would never have spotted anything if it hadn’t been mentioned at the first hotel as it was never brought up again.
On departure from XIY this morning I got held up about 15 minutes because of the missing stamp, but in the end they seemed to decide it was ‘okay’ after numerous people looked at my passport. I have a one year visa, and am unlikely to return on it, I will have to see if this bites me on return to China some time in the future...
On departure from XIY this morning I got held up about 15 minutes because of the missing stamp, but in the end they seemed to decide it was ‘okay’ after numerous people looked at my passport. I have a one year visa, and am unlikely to return on it, I will have to see if this bites me on return to China some time in the future...
Well your flight from PEK and DYG are both domestic flights so it's unsurprising that they didn't check your inbound/outbound stamps. It is worrying that exit customs at XIY was concerned enough about your missing stamp to cause a 15-minute delay as that indicates this is not entirely electronic. Perhaps it wouldn't have been an issue had you exited at PEK or maybe even PVG.
I just googled and it appears that XIY doesn't have the automatic border machines like the ones in PEK/PVG. Actually they do have them but they're not open to the general public, only tour groups to/from Hong Kong. Perhaps this might have something to do with the delay as those who use the machines in PEK/PVG would have no stamps and therefore the border staff there would be more accustomed to this situation.