They stamp mine maybe 1 in 8 entries.

ORD always seems to stamp. Never have been stamped at LAX, SEA or DFW.

In the last 50 or so times I have come in via air (primarily entry points are IAH, SEA, LAX, EWR, HNL, and DFW), 49 of those times I did not get stamped. I flew into Chicago this year though and he did not stamp me once but twice and as the ink was fresh, both stamps bled through (so it appears I have 4 stamps). He also stamped my customs form twice. It was 5 am and he had just come on shift so that may have something to do with it.

Nevertheless I really do not like my passport stamped as by the US as it is a waste of space to me. If i need proof I can show entry / exit stamps from other countries.

Just ask nicely
 

Years ago I realized that, as a US citizen, I was only getting entry stamps on a somewhat random basis, and I also realized I was running out of my extra pages. So now I just ask politely when I hand over my passport:

"Could I ask a small favor? I'd like to request no entry stamp, to help me conserve pages."

I started that 3-4 years ago and I haven't had a single entry stamp since. If you are friendly and polite about it, it also has the side benefit of establishing that you are a nice person, and not one of the grumpy jerks behind you. ;)

I imagine the same works in reverse if you want some extra stamps...

-Jim

In Japan, they give a stamp that says "citizen returned" for Japanese passport holders, whil they give an entry sticker for foreign passport holders:

Japanese passport with Japanese "citizen returned" stamps (ciricular stamp):
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_PE-39FdoSbo/TK...sport_page.jpg

US passport with Japanese entry sticker (good way to cover redundant US entry stamps CBP shouldn't be doing to US passport holders)
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_PE-39FdoSbo/TK...sport_2007.jpg

BTW, anyone have concerns about how visible your entry and exit stamps are on newer US passports with dark backgrounds? Anyone with insight, let me know on the US passport - background pictures thread. :D

Last time through ORD, the CPB officer asked if I wanted it stamped. COuldn't see any reason I had to have it stamped, so I said "no thanks" and that was it. Every other time they just stamp it automatically.

stamping passport pages
 

But that is what the "pages" are for in a passport: "To be STAMPED" on.

Hypothetical futuristic possibility:

Now, on the other hand, sooner or later, as the electronic world comes to our lives, we should not have passport books with pages (this will become obsolete as stamping is almost obsolete) but just a "passport card" with a magnetic strip or chip in it that will have all the information, visa, port of entry and exit dates that will show on the officers' monitors when your "passport card" is swiped....

I tried this once last year in MCO and it earnt me additional interrogation and a referral to a secondary. At 2am. :mad:

The EU doesn't stamp passport for returning EU/EEA citizens.

NNNNooooooooooooooooooo! :eek:

A passport stamp is confirmation that one travelled. Having travel photos is not as good. Getting a stamp is 10% of the fun of the trip!

I was running short of pages so I stapled some blank ones together. Then I finally got some extra pages just before they stopped being free.

Do you mean you just stapled some of your own paper into your passport? And nobody hassled you for it? Sounds like a great way to save money, if it works!

Ouch.

$85 for more pages, so that they can stamp? :eek:

I've tried to force them to stamp things on the first few pages by putting a rubber band over the last half of the passport. More authoritative countries will remove the rubber band but lax countries will stamp on the pages not bound by the rubber band.

Some countries tend to be more neat. Singaporean stamps are always straight. Japanese stemps tend to be straight.

Canadian Customs never stamps the passport of a Canadian Citizen.

What I find more interesting is that US CBP at YYZ stopped stamping Canadian Passports about 3 or 4 years ago - my old Passport was full of US stamps, my new one doesn't have a single stamp.