GarudaSoars

We recently entered Greece (flew into Athens from non-Schengen country) and I just noticed that at Immigration, for the entry stamp, the officer stamped the year as 1936 instead of 2019 (the date and month are correct) for both of us. I am now thinking that when leaving the country (flying out of Athens to non-Schengen country), at immigration, I show the error and request the stamp be corrected. Would this be the right thing to do?

TWA884

Schengen area travel issues are generally discussed in the Europe forum.

Please follow this thread as it moves there.

TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

KLouis

Amazing! Still, I wonder how this was possible. At midnight, the policeman on duty at immigration only has to change the day and month (which, you say, were correct). To change the year on his/her stamp (s)he would have to change an from 2019 to 1936 (s)he'd have to change an additional 4 digits are only changed once a year. Mistakes are, therefore, hardly possible. Are you sure this is not the Greek equivalent of his "badge number"? At any rate, the stamps are usually labelled "Republic of Greece" while in 1936 it was Kingdom of Greece; you could easily make your point when you try to have this changed.

:D!

There is no mistake; the current year is '19.

Here is a Schengen stamp dated 4th April 2012:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...port_stamp.jpg

sophiesophie

I'm looking at my passport and I see for the day I left Venice. Feb 15, 19. 2 digits for the year. I don't know what 21 is - but it isn't part of the date. Might be a badge code of who stamped it? Are you seeing 19 36?
Not sure what R 288 is, maybe the window I got it checked?

Fanjet

I have yet to have my passport stamped at a Schengen zone airport which has all for numbers for the year. It has always been the last 2 numbers of the year. So today's date would be stamped 16.09.19 and not 16.09.2019. However, IIRC, the UK airports do use the full year, as well as the first 3 letters of the month (i.e. 19 Sep 2019).

KLouis

..., which is sort of irrelevant, given that the UK is not in the Schengen area and soon (?) not even in the EU. Anyway, this and the previous two answers fully exonerates the immigration officers.

GUWonder

Indeed this is not a mistake. And the OP is not the first person to look at the Schengen entry or exit stamps and get concerned because of thinking that the last four digits in line with the date are all part of the date when they are not.

I have at least one "19 36" stamp too, and it's from CPH; and the 19 is the year part but the 36 is certainly not part of the year.

The Schengen stamps have a two digit security code, and the frequency of those two number security codes being changed varies. I will have to verify this, but in my travels I have seen them change as infrequently as monthly and as frequently as daily.

The Schengen stamps also include an explicit indication that helps identify the border crossing person who stamped the passport, but that standard involves a letter and number combination for the agent IIRC; and while that agent identifier can appear to be common for more than one agent, the agent identifiers work as each Schengen country has its own employee base. In other words, just because there is a Danish passport control agent with something like a F022 notation on passport control stamps doesn't mean that there can't be something like a German passport control agent with something like a F022 notation on the passport control stamps.

Schengen stamps all are standardized to have just two digits for the year.

GUWonder

The Schengen stamp's two digit security code after the calendar year is indeed required to be changed at least once per month, but those double-digit characters were being changed as frequently as daily at some Schengen ports of entry.

The border control agent "badge" indicators on the Schengen stamps are always a combination of letter+number and are always using more than just two characters.