Same thing had happened to someone I know. All he said to the
Immigration agent was "if I never left the country.. how can I be here now"
He was allowed in.

Anyway, now US has this "us-visit" kiosks at the airports where you can
record your exit. You can even get a receipt. This should save you
trouble in the future.
(I hope I named it correctly)

I wish Australia would reciprocate. That would extend the life of my passport enormously (now we can no longer get extension pages added).

Speaking of summer students as custom officers, I had a "funny" experience. A couple years ago I went through YYZ and the queue was processed by a gorgeous looking young girl. I thought there couldn't be such young people as officers so I tried to read from the name tag on her chest to see if she's student. Unfortunately she must thought I was looking at "something else" and put a big red mark on my declaration form.....ended up having my luggage searched upside down when I declared nothing for tax.

The best passport stamps have to be those Japanese stickers. Won't mess up your passport and look so cute. Also for people who've been to Berlin, you certainly can't miss the Checkpoint Charlie stamp. Even though it costs 2 Euros, but sometimes you still have fun even you know you are being ripped off.

We just got new pages added to our passports yesterday in DUB, so we can continue to collect stamps. ;)

My favorite is my Liechtenstein stamp, which is really quite pretty. IIRC we went to either the tourist office, or it may have been the post office to get the stamp. As stated, we did have to pay a very small amount.

It also seemed like the tourist office or post office, whichever it was, closed quite early, like 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., so bear that timing in mind. Here we are above the Liechtenstein Castle, on a beautiful, crisp, clear day in early March.

Something quite interesting also happens if you travel (by car) through ex-yugoslavia on a European passport.

Going from italy into slovenia: italian police let me out of the country by just looking at the outside of my passport. when entering slovenia...same thing. I actually didn't need to stop. All I had to do was slow down a lot.

Going from slovenia into croatia: checked by slovene police but just waved the closed passport at the croatian cop.

going from croatia into serbia: passport checked by croatian police and fully checked and stamped by serbian police.

from serbia into romania: passport was fully checekd and stamped by serbia.....it was stamped by a romanian immigration officer while he was smoking a cigarette.

back into serbia: checked by romanian police, stamped by serbian police.

from serbia into bosnia: the extremely good looking serbian female officer went thru every single page and only after a while stamped the passport and let me go. The bosnian officer stamped the passport.

going from bosnia into croatia: passport just briefly checked by a croatian officer who was chatting with his bosnian collegue.

Getting back to italy: police officers came on board of the ferry and briefly looked at my passport.

As you can see, some countries do not even open passports. They probably trust you by looking at your face. How can you possibly get stamps in these cases without upsetting the police man who just can't be bothered to do his/her job?

Also, it appeared that the better diplomatic relations two bordering countires have, the easier it is to get from out into another.

Getting from Serbia into Bosnia seriosuly felt scary. However, getting from Bosnia into Croatia felt like the most natural thing. And the same obviously applies to italy and slovenia.

Anyhow, serbia seemed the only country that was really into checking in and out stamps. I think that's probably cuz serbian citizens need visas to just go anywhere.

It is also interesting to see that most countries check passports on the way out. Are the US and Canada the only countries that do not check travel documents on the way out?

Also, why is it that the US and Canadian immigration offciers ask so many questions and never seem to trust you? is that because once you enter the US or Canada police officers cannot stop you for no reason and ask you for an ID (it is the case in europe, ex-yugoslavia, etc)?

I hope I didn't go off topic too much :-P

to make sure the do it on the right page i paperclip the extra pages together.

As others had stated, when I transited through CDG I did not recieve a stamp, but for some reason about half of the people travelling with me did get one. Looking back now, I wish I had asked for the stamp as I got an exit stamp from Italy on that trip....

Before they did this, they would stamp my passport - back in 2003 they did this. Then... in 2004, all that changed.

Amen, I have 3 of those stickers now in my passport. That nice square you see in there, has your immigration information in it. Am leaving Japan next week so will be looking forward to leaving here for my 4th time. ;)

Sanosuke!

as a US citizen living in Montréal, i go through US customs at YUL often. They rarely stamp US passports, even if you live in canada, unless you ask them. I once asked an agent for a stamp, and he looked at me with a hillbilly accent and said "you want a us stamp in a us passport?" i nodded and said yes and he opened up my passport alligned the stamp and stamped directly ontop of another stamp. what a jerk

Yes in France.

If you're looking to have as many stamps as possible, then your destination is Asia. A day trip across the border from Hong Kong/Macau to Shenzhen/Canton/etc or Singapore/Johor Bahru will result in 4 stamps (2 exits and 2 entries). I've only been to HKG in 4 occasions, but I've got about 20 stamps from there!

It's 6!

You get 1 stamp for leaving Hong Kong, 2 stamps on arrival in Macau (the regular stamp and the permitted time stamp), 1 stamp leaving Macau, and another 2 when arriving back in Hong Kong. On my latest trip NYC-HKG-Macau-Hong Kong-Shenzen-Hong Kong- New York I got a whopping 16 stamps. :p :eek:

I gladly welcome this practice now... since i'm running out of the pages.

... out of all the stamps I have in my passport. the worst ones
are US stamps :)

Plus, you need a page for the China/Shenzhen visa sticker.

Seriously, when will they be doing away with the HK/MO/CN stamp madness?

I'm flying AMS-LGW-DFW tomorrow... I didn't get a AMS stamp on the way in and I totally regret it. I'll definitely ask for one on the way out... will make sure to wear eye makeup and lip gloss and then pray for a male passport control agent.