mnbp

My advice: just patiently await the disposition of your renewal application. If approved without interview, you are all set. If they decide to ask you to schedule an interview, seek guidance from and provide any needed clarifications to the agents at your interview. Basically, the interview is the time and place to correct any minor errors in the application.

TheMadBrewer

The question is "what countries have you visited" not "what countries have stamped your passport" so I would err on the side of telling them everything. I always listed all the Schengen countries visited whether or not I went thru a passport check (my next trip will visit four -- one entry, one exit and two in between )

I even list Lichtenstein -- visited from Switzerland so record there either.

Wise-Broccoli8301

Any guidance on layovers? I have done mileage runs to certain places, got on the next flight and flew right out. Did not pass customs at all.

Nexpoman

You have nothing at all to gain by not listing it, so yes, absolutely do so. Remember, they have records of just about every flight you've ever been on, too. It would look fishy if you flew to another country, stayed for two hours, flew back, and then seemingly took steps to avoid mentioning it. Err on the side of caution, and don't lie about anything on these forms!

VegasGambler

With the processing delay, my list of countries is growing and growing. I'm going to have to make some additions during the interview.

glbltvlr

I do multiple international trips a year and it it is hard unless you have to keep a record for business reasons. I generally use the stamps in my passport to start with. Fortunately most countries outside the US still use those, although I expect that to change.

frontenac551

I have a spreadsheet with all my trips on it - not so much for business reasons but for use in situations like this, when applying for some visas (US asked for my last five entries to the US and Jordan asked for all countries visited in last 10 years, for example), and to keep track of times that I'm out of the country since I've been living abroad (in a couple of different countries) and I've been told that they can ask if/when I need to renew the visa. And because I'm a weirdo who likes spreadsheets (same book includes details on my mileage accumulation).

glbltvlr

A couple of times I've needed to cross zones in Frankfort and have constructed a ticket that required changing airlines and terminals at TPE, which in turn required passing through immigration. Although all I saw was the inside of the airport, I went ahead and declared entering the countries.

worldiswide

That has changed a lot in recent years, and especially with the chip in the passport, there is less and less stamping. We used the stamps in the passport as a start, but for instance, Australia and NZ do not stamp, Israel gives an entry ticket outside of the passport, and as others have mentioned, traveling in the EU between countries doesnt require a passport. We visited Belgium, Luxembourg and France in a single day and there were no borders to go through at all. We have been using GE since 2010, and have renewed once already, and tonight had to follow the new process to create an account on the login.gov which wants your PASSID number and not the GOES number. and while the renewal on your birthday makes it easier to remember, it also means there will be different dates for everyone in the family, even when the applications were renewed at the same time.

Steve M

For the most part, it should just be a matter of reviewing the stamps in your passport for the covered time period.

UKtravelbear

But not if you visit say Europe when travel from country to country is regarded as 'domestic' because of the Schengen arrangements.

If a US passport holder arrived at AMS then you would have a stamp for the Netherlands but if you then visited Germany and Belgium you wouldn't get stamps from those countries. As a UK national I don't get stamps when I visit Europe full stop so had to rely on memory.

The definition of 'visit' is also vague. Should I have put France and Belgium down when I travelled through them to Amsterdam on the Eurostar and Thalys. France was a mere pass through but I had to get off the train in Belgium to change trains for the grand total of an hour. Does that count as a visit?

I made a decision not to list them as to me hadn't visited them. It would be different if I had been to a country less than friendly to the US for example.

This may be O/T but recently a Norwegian flight had to land in Iran due to an emergency and passengers deborded waiting for a replacement plane. So the passengers were physically in Iran but IIRC they didn't get arrival / departure stamps so does that count as a visit or not - it certainly wasn't a voluntary one on their part - that needs to be declared to the US and the possibility of those people now needing visas?

luitje

I was reviewing my application today (had aplied back in November) and realized I made the most obvious mistake. I am a permanent resident in the US and the UK national (moved to the US 4 years ago). And I did visit a country or two from the "questionable" list (Lebanon, Turkey, Russia). As I was going through the list of countries I visited in the past 10 years it descended on me I did not mention the UK (duh, I know). From what I read here omitting a country or two doesn't seem to cause an issue or delay in processing, but mine being so obvious, could they deny my application based on that?

Xyzzy

It's anyone's guess -- but the lookback period when I last renewed was nly 5 years.

luitje

You are right, it is only 5 years (which only confirmess my sloppiness).
OK, I am oficially in a panic mode now.

mnbp

Applications cannot be amended online, only during an interview. Just bring any updates to your "countries visited" list to your interview - no big deal at all.