Passport Stamping At Land Border Crossings
 

I know that upon entry into another country by air passports usually get stamped and visas, etc are attached but does this generally happen by land too?

The reason I ask is because most of my travel is to Mexico and have acquired quite a few stamps from different places....when entering by land, specifically at Tijuana, will the passport be stamped as well? And if it's not, is there a place to get it stamped, to have as a 'reminder' of the trip?

Thanks everyone and sorry if this is in the wrong place

At the land border with Tijuana you will likely not even see a Mexican immigration agent. There are generally no formalities whatsoever. There are offices where you should be able to track down a Mexican immigration agent if they are not on break. They are often on break. They may or may not feel like stamping your passport if you ask nicely.

No NA experience...
 

However, recent (within the past month) Europe experience has shown it to be haphazard, at best. Stamped back in from Poland-Czech Republic but never stamped out of the CR or into Poland.

Stamped in and out of Germany and the CR at a crossing south of Dresden. Stamped out of the CR and into Germany at a crossing west of Pilzen but never stamped out of Germany or into Switzerland. Finally re-stamped when I landed at JFK Monday night.

I once got stamped when driving to Canada (via Buffalo).

You will not get a stamp when entering Mexico via Tijuana's crossings and you will not get one coming back via car into San Diego.

When you drive down, there are no formalities. Just drive south on the I-5 / 905, wait for the green/red light and welcome to the jungle. If you get a red light, drive to the right and pop the trunk. All good.

Have fun in the best city in northern Mexico! (take that Monterrey) :p

Passport checked when going into Eurostar lounge @ Waterloo.
Travelling from Belgium to Germany by rail no sign of any immigration officials on the train & couldn't even tell that we'd crossed into Germany until we saw the change in flags.
Mainland EU countries tend to be more lax on boarder crossings at the moment but i've heard that they could be tightening up on this very shortly.

Same with Germany/Austria/Switzerland. The guards came on and only looked ayt my passport because I offered it-could see they were checking others and didn't know if they needed mine. When I woke from a nap I wasn't sure which country I was in--the license plates helped since language didn't . The train itself never mentioned that it would cross into Austria.

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Belgium, Germany and lots of other European countries have signed the Schengen agreement that abolishes immigration / passport checks when traveling between them. They will only reinstate passport checks at internal Schengen borders in case of a terrorist threat, high-risk events taking place, etc.

Africa terrestrial-border crossings are still quite formal affairs. They often can take up to 30 minutes or more. It usually goes something like this:

1. Park car and queue for immigration exit stamp.
2. Go through exit customs procedure and sometimes receive exit permit.
3. Occasionally have vehicle and its contents inspected by customs agents.
4. Drive across border (hand in exit permit if required).
4. Park park across border and queue for entry visa and/or stamp.
5. Customs processing by the entering nation.
6. Sometimes vehicle inspection including showing proof of insurance.
7. In the meantime, others in your party may exchange currency on the black market, buy lunch etc. etc.

So you usually get two stamps, an exit and entry stamp, when crossing many African land borders. On more remote crossings, they tend to be extremely thorough. It once took us 80 minutes to cross into Zimbabwe from Mozambique.

Oh, but what did you do with the train not talking comment, that was funny :) I hope you weren't worrying about offending me because I had a good laugh.

I am aware of the Schengen agreement and its ramifications but I guess I thought there would be still some border controls at the Swiss border since it's not a member of the EU. Then again, I was simply waved through at passport control in Geneva. I wanted a stamp :)

In my eyes, the less stamps the better.
More stamps mean having to get a new passport (or additional pages), often at a cost (either time, money, hassle, or all three).
Additionally, more stamps give customs officers more reason to take their time as they review your passport (reading more stamps), asking more stupid questions (why were you in XXX country only two days?), etc.

I used to want to have more stamps for bragging rights. Now, if I want to share with my friends/family which countries I visited, I'll show them pictures, souvenirs, etc.

Thankfully, I also have an EU passport (besides my US one). No worries about stamps in that one (when crossing from one EU country into another). I must have used that passport at least a dozen times since I got it, it still does not bear a SINGLE stamp!!! :)

No checking (for 95% of cars or so) or stamping into/out of Andorra from Spain, although they do check the trunk (boot) of everyone with non-Andorra plates at Spanish customs.

Lots of big, fast, and expensive cars around there.

I don't care about bragging rights and, touch wood, none of my stamps have caused any questions. I think the stamps are fun. Some people collect spoons or magnets, I collect passport stamps :)
I think the only one that's gotten even a glance is Hutt River Province. Normally I'd say that's because the immigration agents ask as few questions as possible because they don't want to go on longer than is necessary. The only question that's come up is why I didn't have an "out" stamp when I returned to the Czech Republic but I shrugged and asked, "I don't know why your coworker chose not to stamp" and that was the end of that.

I have never seen a immigration officer when entering Tijuana from San Diego by foot. You basicaly walk through one revolving gate, then walk through a second revolving gate and you are in Mexico. However there is a sign with a line indicating the US/Mexico border. Makes for a nice photo op. :)

http://geoffreypalcher.com/images/Sa...a/IMG_3179.JPG