rocketship87

I'm due to visit Beirut in August and was planning on obtaining a visa on arrival, but just realized that I have no fully blank passport pages. Is this a problem, does anyone know if the visa takes up a whole page?

BEYFlyer

The visa is just a small immigration stamp in your passport and you simply head to the immigration desk to get it stamped in your passport (you don't go to the Visa on Arrival section) if you happen to be a citizen of the UK and/or EU (and various other countries).

bebert

no stamp/visa from israel/jordan border required
They do check.....More or less efficiently through a long or short pages flip of your passeport.
Kind of useless and boring job actually!

TomMM

I kind of enjoyed watching the immigration girl go through each page of my almost filled passport looking at my stamps and visas.

rodjune

I returned yesterday from a stay in Beirut due to a 7 hour layover as a result of the QR fiasco with KSA, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt, which forced me to make a connection to BEY on my way to/from Cairo. Instead of spending all that time in the Cedar Lounge (which, btw, is a remodeled ad beautiful facility), I decided to book a day walking tour and get a VOA. When I arrived at immigration, I did not put down a name of a hotel since I was not overnighting. The entry immigration officer insisted that I cannot enter the country without a hotel reservation or local address; and he told me that I was not eligible to enter Lebanon on only a layover (which I was not aware if this rule was true and/or applied to Americans). I told him I would book a hotel on the spot since I had already prepaid for a day tour and did not want to miss it. At that point, he wrote in "Hilton" on my entry card and reminded me next time to reserve a hotel.

What worried me more was when I was exiting BEY several hours later and the departure card asked for the name of my hotel. I wrote in Hilton, but of course, I had no proof that I stayed at that hotel. To make matters worse, the particular immigration officer that processed me on exit was extremely thorough at looking at all my visa stamps, more than the other immigration officers. After looking at my picture and then at me several times, he stamped my passport and I was on my way. I would hate to think what would have happened if he asked me for proof of address in Lebanon.

BEYFlyer

Weird turn of events rodjune... I am certain you're not the first person to visit for the day (and certainly not the last). I am sure you could have used the tour operator's name and phone number in lieu of a full address. And why did they go through your passport while exiting the country is beyond me. I know they are usually thorough when flying to or coming into the country but not when leaving... All I can say is that I'm sorry if the experience caused you any unnecessary uneasiness. Hope you had a good visit