As a US citizen can you get a US Immigration stamp upon request while entering the country? I just spent the weekend in Victoria, BC and took a ferry (not a plane, sorry :-( back to the US. We cleared immigration at Sidney, BC. If I asked... would US Immigration stamp my poor, empty passport?

A person sitting next to me on a flight recently had a hard bound passport with LOTS of pages. I asked him how he got this and he said they gave it to him when he went in to have pages added for the third time (at the DC passport office.) Has anyone ever seen one of these thick hard bound passports or know anything about them?

No, I've never seen one of those. How about the green U.S. passports that were issued for 4 months, I believe, in 1993? Those are pretty unusual. Some countries refuse to believe that they are real! I've seen travelers have problems with them.

Of course, there are also the brown (U.S. government official) and black (U.S. diplomat) ones that you see occasionally. I had a brown one in the 1980s. It was stolen in Amsterdam. What a mess that was!

Bruce

I have one of those green passports and never knew that they were only issued for a short period of time in '93. Thanks for that trivia when it comes up about the green passport. It does come up once in awhile.

Speaking of passports, a major Francophile friend lost hers on the Paris Metro (not sure whether stolen or her flimsy purse strap simply came undone). Anyway, she's so delighted with her replacement issued at "U.S. Embassy, Paris" that I suspect any future renewal will be promptly lost, guess where!

I also have a green passport, issued mid 93. Never had anyone doubt its authenticity.

I have nearly finished filling my sixth insert. I always get my pages added at the US Embassy in BKK. I have never had to wait more than 5 minutes. The last time however, they wanted to issue me a new passport because they said that my passport was too thick, and they felt that some countries (they quoted China as an example) might think that something was amiss. Since people do cut select pages out of their passports, it becomes difficult to detect whether a passport has been tampered with when it jammed full of inserts. In any event, I declined their offer, as I have numerous active long-term visas that would become invalid once the passport was cancelled upon issuance of a new one. Don't believe U.S. Passport agents when they tell you that you can use 'unexpired' visas in an old passport, if it is presented along with the new one. That strategy only works in some countries.

greg99, I travel to various Gulf states on occasion, and also have a second passport due to travel to Israel. (I used to get Israelis stamps on a separate loose page, but for several reasons, now have the stamps placed directly into my passport.) When renewal time came, I actually had a bit of a hassle renewing it in BKK. Now, I renew it only in the U.S.

Australians get a choice of 32 or 64 page type. I travel a lot, and Ozzies need VISAS for pretty well every place on earth unfortunately, so even the 64 pagers fill for me pretty fast. They cost about $150 a passport as I recall, plus lots of paperwork so filling them is bad news. Pages will not be added. Fill it up and they void it, return it, holepunch it thru, charge you afresh, and off you go again.

I am trained now to sweetly ask customs guys to stamp on a page with some other stamps already on there. 90% oblige. Amazing how they otherwise all LOVE a white virginal page to plonk their cancel on.

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~ Glen ~

Fortunately for us with U.S. passports more pages are free, fast, and friendly (at least in most U.S. embassys).

That might change if Australia stopped requiring virtually everyone coming to Oz first obtaining a visa...

Always Flyin:

Chicken or the egg?

Yes. You have to ask "Will you stamp my passport?" and they usually do. I used to, until I had to continually get refill pages.

Post moved to a diff. thread. Pls ignore. Thx!

[This message has been edited by Jamester (edited 01-15-2001).]

I sent my passport in on 01/02 to get extra pages and still have not received it back. Does anybody know how long it takes to get it back when submitted via mail.

thepla, just curious if you received your passport with the refill yet? There is a related discussion in another thread, which prompted me to check back here.

I found out it takes five weeks. There is a 900 number to call and get a status update.