Hello, all! This is my first post on this awesome website, I've been following you guys for a few months but I've only just now gotten the chance for an actual question. A tremendous amount of great advice on here, it's been great reading all of y'all!

My question pertains to passport stamps. I shall be visiting Dusseldorf, Germany next week. I get an EU entry stamp there, right? On my flight home, I am flying from Dusseldorf to Amsterdam and then on to JFK. Does that mean that I will have an exit stamp from Amsterdam Schiphol?

Or how shall it work?

Another thing that confuses me is that when I tripped in Italy 5 years ago, I got a Rome entry stamp but left from Milan and got no exit stamp. Is there a chance I will not get an exit stamp from Dusseldorf/Amsterdam next week? Just curious. Do they ALWAYS give an exit stamp corresponding to the entry stamp in the EU? Like this: http://www.rathburn.net/visa/germany/germany.html

Notice the last set: they flew into Frankfurt and flew out of Munich. Is that what I shall get with DUS/AMS?

Thanks for your help, all! Much appreciated!

Yes. Entry in DUS, exit in AMS. And you need to be aware that you NEED and exit stap to make evidence that you did not overstay.

Hmmmm. Interesting. What if they don't give me an exit stamp like in Italy? Should I personally request one?

Let's say... it's probably a good idea. As long as they scan your passport it's not totally essential (as there will be a record of your departure), but having a stamp could still save you some hassle in the future.

The'scan' of your passport is not for record keeping, but to make a check in the SIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenge...rmation_System) if there is an alert posted on you.

... and this again tells you that you need evidence that you left the country.

I just thought of something, though. When I enter the United States from Amsterdam, won't I get a blue "Department of Homeland Security" stamp in my passport with the date and everything? Wouldn't this be able to serve as "proof of departure" for the EU if they don't give me any exit stamps in AMS?

An exit stamp in your passport is instant proof that you departed - as long as you are travelling on the same passport next time.

Sometimes Immigration Officers forget/don't bother to stamp passports. This is well known, and the lack of exit stamp in your passport will not be treated as automatic proof that you did NOT depart. It just means that you will have to prove your departure some other way - if they ask you (which they may not). If you get asked to prove your departure then an entry stamp from another country will certainly help.

But... it's much easier to simply ask for a stamp on departure!

And I didn't realise that they don't keep a record of passport scans. You learn something new every day.

Why wouldn't they keep a record of passport scans? Isn't that how they found Jason Bourne on his fake Brazilian passport of Gilberto de Piento after he entered the country with it?

Well, Germany and other EU countries have something called a fundamental right to protection of personal data. Its article 8 in the charter of fundamental rights. So the border control can check if you are a wanted or an alert has been put out on you, but cannot store the fact that a check was made if there is no legal reason.

The EU isn't the land of the free after all

I always try and get an entry stamp from the EU when I return from the US but that is a different topic.

I also recommend to ask for the exit stamp, it is always good to have proof!

I travel in and out of Schengen many times per year. I rarely have stamps in both directions and often in neither. if you depart the area over land you will almost certainly not have a stamp and if you enter by land the same is usually true. That is as long as you have a passport from a visa waiver country, as the US is.

They do not check passport stamps to verify anything at all. Do not think otherwise because it just does not happen. They do have automated systems that monitor aircraft arrivals and departures but not land and sea. None of them are particularly coordinated across the countries.

Also, as you probably know there is no internal passport control within the Schengen area. if you really want an exit stamp you will need to ask, and they do not always even have them in some places.

Thank goodness it is that way. My passports now have a chance of lasting until renewal time, which they never did before Schengen.

I am curious. Where did you depart the area over land and did not get a passport stamp? This gives me some concerns because we do not have too many land borders and I always thougt these were well protected (borders with Russia and sattelites, former Yugoslavia, Turkey)

Do not rely on that. We love to catch foreign cititzenz entering from a visa free (not waiver) county that (a) overstay or (b) take on employment.

Do not rely on that

There is no system monitoring you arrivals and departures on planes. Europe is not the Land of the Free.

This is the idea of it.

At least not at the exit points I know. What are the "some places" you are referring to?

I've had hundreds -- maybe even well over a thousand -- exits from the Schengen zone without an exit stamp in my US passports, and that didn't cause me any problems or get considered as evidence of overstaying.

I wouldn't worry about this at all, but then again I'm not one to worry about highly improbable risks played up by neo-nationalists paranoid about who knows what irrational fear.