etch5895

What I want to know is how Martinique and Guadaloupe do it? They are both overseas departments of France (I think that is right), and both have direct flights from Paris. If you fly from Paris to Guadaloupe, is that just like any other domestic arrival, or do they still do immigration formalities?

camsean

I'd disagree with this. In my experience, almost all of the 45 or so countries I have visited in the last 10 years DO stamp at exit.

Most of these countries are developing countries so maybe there is a pattern there?

MatthewClement

I arrived in La Réunion from Mauritius, and got the whole immigration clearance (as you would expect). I seem to remember there was passport control on the way out (to Paris) as well, but I could be mistake.

MatthewClement

Surprised no one has mentioned it yet -- the US controls outbound travellers (non-US passport holders) via their I-94/I-94W forms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-94_(form)

hfly

But I did mention it, "In any case a stamp, or a pp checkpoint are not the only way of ascetaining whether someone has departed the country".

[Personalized comment deleted by moderator.]

ironmanjt

Paraguay does, however, stamp on exit....depending where you exit

hfly

I must admit that I have never left Paraguay by air, I have however done so several times by land (to two different countries) and have never received an exit stamp and for that matter at times have not received an entry stamp either.

Loren Pechtel

I utterly don't recall where the station was, this was long ago.

You are right about where the train goes. How else can you leave Singapore by train by any other means??

camsean

Huh?

You said that you believe most countries do not stamp people out. My experience contradicts this. I didn't mention anything about "ascertaining whether someone has departed the country".

I don't see anything that contradicts my point. Thanks for the advice though.

wolfie_cr

disagree with that, most be the geographic area you have visited most (Africa? Asia?) because in Central America for instance noone, the Carribean I have visited does not either and US/Canada/ some parts of the EU dont either

if the US were to stamp people on departure..........my passport which is 48 pages would be totally full by now (well then again may be not, because US 'stampers' have the nasty habit of putting one on top of the other, on top of the other, in one page I have managed to decipher at least 10 stamps!)

wolfie_cr

yes a 'control' that is likely (I hope not ) to get me in some future "ooops"

I have over 80 entries to the US in a 8 year timestamp, first of all, forms can get lost from airline guys that collect them (at different points, sometimes at check in , sometimes at the very departure gate)......etc

then once on the way to HKG I forgot to turn it in...........on the return trip (HKG-EWR-SJO) I handed it over to the immigration agent.......I hope it gets properly logged in his systems SOMEHOW , if not I will find out in a year.....when I renew my visa , IF they renew it

about entry stamps.......I have been in Spain twice........yet you couldnt tell by my passport, crossing from GIB to Spain .......the first time the guy looked REALLY close at my passport and then let me go, the 2nd time 5 years later my ex-boss said , wave it in (from inside the car) and the guy just nodded

camsean

Yep you got it. Most of the countries I'm thinking about are in Asia, the middle east or, Africa.

Sjoerd

Well, well, Mr. / Mrs. hfly, you were proven wrong (you were able to name less than half of the 100 countries you said you have visited that don't stamp on exit, and when queried on these countries you had to admit that 1) some are not countries (Ceuta, Melilla) ; 2) some only don't stamp on request (Taiwan); 3) some you were just wrong (Brazil); 4) some sometimes stamp / sometimes they do not (all Schengen countries)) [unduly personalized comment deleted by moderator].
The truth is that the majority of countries do stamp on exit.

Christopher

The UK got rid of formal exit controls a few years ago (but they are now being re-introduced). When they existed, I think that the only people who were "stamped out" were people with various sorts of residence permits (not right of abode certificates) in their passports. Others (British citizens, those with right of abode certificates, EU/EEA citizens, and short-term visitors) were not stamped, I think.

The EU/EEA countries do not stamp the passports of their own country or other EU/EEA countries on entry or exit. Indeed, sometimes passport control officers will refuse to stamp these passports even on request because (apparently) it implies that "the holder has been subject to an immigration control that he or she is not, in fact, subject to". Back in the real world, other passport officers will stamp a passport on request, particularly if it is a child asking for the stamp.

Australia no longer stamps Australian passports either. An Australian citizen friend of mine who had been living outside Australia for many years requested a stamp as proof of entry when she arrived there a few years back with the intention of remaining in Australia to live. This was given without demur. However, when asked for proof that she was in Australia (!) by her local medicare office (Australia's free government health system) — I say "!" because she was standing in front of the person asking her for proof that she was physically in Australia... — she produced her passport with the stamp but was told, "Oh, we don't take any notice of passport stamps any more, they're too easy to forge."

Sjoerd

My (Dutch) passport was stamped in and out by UK immigration ("given leave to enter the United Kingdom for six months") until 1978. (the exit stamp was triangular). In the early 1980's, EU citizens were given a card (in all EU languages) specifying how long you could stay, and that card was stamped. (on entry only) Later in the 1980's and throughout the 1990's, UK immigration hardly even looked at EU passports. More recently, they started having a closer look and they scan the passport.