OK...this is a silly question....

Are passports is getting stamped in most places or do you have to ask them to stamp it?

I haven't been out of the country in a couple of years and a friend recently told me that her passport never gets stamped anymore.

I only ask because cool stamps in my passport sort of make me feel like a kid exploring the world. Just a fun way to look back on trips.


Thanks in advance.

I would say it depends on where you go, London for example always stamps, in Germany they just saw the cover of the passport and waved us through.

We run into more places that stamp then don't stamp.

Nikki00,
In my experience, all airport entry points to countries in Asia, Africa, South America and the South Pacific will get you a stamp. European countries
are "hit and miss", some stamp, but most don't. Also seems to vary within
each country, as my last entry at LHR was stamped, but an entry at
MAN two weeks later was not.

Enjoy your stamp collection!

It never hurts to ask either, if you don't get one...

N674UW

Has anyone ever understood what purpose stamping passports actually serves ? Why, for example, are driving licences not stamped when you rent a car ? (gosh, don't suggest it to them).

The past few years I've always had to ask....except when I returned to New York. Then they just stamped away.

Stamping passports serves a very important purpose! To provide a record of departure and arrival particularly as it concerns visa status. In ireland for example the stamp says "valid for entry 90 days." If they dont stamp how will they know when the 90 days began?

Depends on where you go and what nationality your passport.

Most European countries do not stamp me but I see others being stamped at same border crossings.

US always stamps, as does Australia. Most places in Asia stamp.
NZ doesnt stamp for NZers.

Most places I get the impression if you want a stamp and dont automatically get one you can just ask and get it.

Personally I am glad dont get stamped everywhere as passport fills up too quick (unlike some countries we have very limited extra pages able to be added).

I understand the value of stamping to establish visa validity, but why do I always get a stamp in my US passport when I return to the US?

In my experience with a US passport, ORD is the only US port of entry that stamps. LAX has never stamped my passport after at least 200 entries. Neither did BOS a couple of weeks ago. SFO sometimes stamps. MIA no, Tijuana, no.

I try to ask Singapore to stamp my passport, but each time has failed. In Canada, I have to ask them, and they ask why. But if someone want a lot of stamps, they can just go to Hong Kong, travel between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and you're guaranteed stamps from China and Hong Kong. I am planning on doing this until they ask me, I need to fill up my Singapore passport to get a new one, as the consulate in Toronto stubbornly refuses to replace my damaged one. If anyone goes to North Korea, they don't give a stamp, but if you pay the guy about US$20, he'll stamp it.

I guess it depends both on the agreement between the country issuing your passport and the country you're travelling to, as well as the computerisation of the country you're travelling to. If you're allowed indefinite stay in the other country (such as EU citizens in other EU countries), then you don't need to have a stamp.

If all entry points to and from a country are computerised, then you also don't need a stamp (unless it's for contingency measures - they can't very well stop letting people out the country if a computer should fail). But, although I've seen plenty border guards with mobile, networked laptops with passport scanners, it's hardly universal. So, if not all border posts open to foreigners are computerised, then you still need a stamp.

We took the train from Budapest to Prague and I was pleasantly surprised to get an SK (Slovakia) stamp- all we did was pass through Slovakia.

It will be a long time before computers make the obsolete- you'd have to equip train conductors with compauters to find out when people entered if the passport weren't stamped.

I have US entry stamps from ORD, PHL, JFK, EWR, and Vancouver (that's where the Immigration guy was when he stamped it ).

I had been hoping Australia would stamp when I got there next year, but I thought I read that it was not going to be stamped with an ETA (electronic travel authorization)?