I don't think that is the case anymore. We are renewing ours now and was looking for the form to do this and they now say this on their website:


2. You travel extensively and need a new passport

You may request more Visa pages in your passport at no additional cost. To do so, please attach a signed request for additional Visa pages to be added to your application. Note: 48-page passport s are no longer available in the U.S. or abroad.

That's from the additional pages section at

http://travel.state.gov/passport/fri/add/add_850.html

I've no idea what they do when you ask for extra pages now when you renew if they are not issuing a 48 page passport, I was a bit surprised to see this Friday.

Thanks for the SIN tip, I will have this done when I am there next week.^

I'm a sucker for novelty stamps on my passport, so I have stamps from Mars, the Moon, and the Big Dipper (done at Kennedy Space Center), and some stamps from "The End of The World" (Ushuaia, Argentina).

As a result I've quickly run out of space on my passport, so I'm glad it's possible to add extra pages without too much hassle.

Any US embassy/consulate should work in the same way. Some are just more willing than others to add more sections than others (i.e., some will say ok to one or two sections but not to a third while others will be fine with a third no questions asked); but one additional section by itself shouldn't be much of an issue anywhere.

A related question: Is it possible to cover some pages, for example by sticking post-it notes on them or stapling them together? Or would the authorities have a problem with this?

The reason to do so would be to force an immigration officer to place a stamp on an already used page, as opposed to rendering a blank page unsuitable for a full-page visa sticker. It seems like every time I enter the U.K. or U.S., they put their tiny stamp on a blank page, even though I have plenty of half pages and quarter pages available elsewhere . . . .

Also I thought that one could only get pages added to a U.S. passport once, and then the traveler would have to get a new passport. I had this done at the U.S. embassy in Abu Dhabi, and it was smooth as can be (although I had to fill out a one-page form, which asked for all kinds of information, including my address, social security number, and other things that seemed unnecessary for this transaction).

Quite often certain countries would stamp on top of an existing stamp. The UK does this alot on my passport. Fine with me since I won't need to add pages soon.

I also caution against making any notations or writing on any page of a passport.

Australian passports (as an example) have this warning:
Other countries have similar statements. This is mainly to protect against fake stamps being added or pages being removed, but a smart alec immigration officer could also use it against someone...

Interesting aside, once while entering SIN the immigration agent was thumbing through my passport, settled on a page with other stamps on it, and placed her stamp there. I asked her about that, as I had a minute and there was no line. She said she was specifically looking for a used page with an empty space, so that I could keep some blank pages in case I needed them for VISAs in the future. I thanked her and went on my way. :)

I've been in and out of singapore many times, and it seems that both their immigration officers are trained to always (atleast in my experience) to always search for the first page with enough space to stamp.

I've had the same thing happen in Italy. I don't know if they stamp over another stamp because they see I'm almost out of space or because they just don't care, but I'm glad they do it (although I still need to get more pages added pretty soon).

It's still possible to get more than one section of additional pages added; some places/persons just refuse to while other places/persons still do it. The process is the same for the second supplement as the first supplement, which includes asking the person requesting additional pages to fill out all that information you noted, most of which they already have on file anyway.

I used to make pencil notations of each trip next to the stamps (i.e. ORD-MXP Jun 05); a few times I used pen instead. On Italian immigration agent last year was quite concerned, spent "some time" looking through the passport (well, some time by Ital. immigration standards, meaning 45 seconds), then questioned me about it. He told me never to make notations in ink, because he thought they were coded comments/annotations by one of his collegues from another country.

I had mine added at the Embassy in Tallinn. Didn't take long at all. Funny thing is that Estonia likes to start stamping from the back. When they got to the new pages on my next entry, they stamped there instead of below the other stamps on a partially used page. One immigration officer also noted how many days I had been in the country to verify that I hadn't exceeded the time limits allowed for travel without a visa.

I hadnt realised about the changes to stop 48 page passports being issued. I am a UK citizen based in Oz travelling a lot through Asia/US and was looking forward to getting my 48 page passport next year some time (when the current one is full). I just saw this after reading this thread:

The new biometric passports are currently available in 32 page books so one of the results of becoming 100% biometric is that we will not be able to offer 48 page books. We appreciate that this will inconvenience a small number of our customers but should be for a relatively short period of time. We are unable to continue offering 48 page digital books because of the requirements of the US Visa Waiver Programme (US VWP).

From the UK passport office :(

You can get extra pages, but the 48-page passport is no longer available ---

"You may request more Visa pages in your passport at no additional cost. To do so, please attach a signed request for additional Visa pages to be added to your application. Note: 48-page passport s are no longer available in the U.S. or abroad."