Usually they seem like they're going to stamp my passport anyway, but if they seem even the slightest hesitant, I will ask for a stamp. I've yet to have anyone say no and I love how the stamps look.

Surely there are stronger forms of evidence (such as airline ticket receipts) than passport stamps.

My guess is they stapled two pages of the passport together to "protect" them. Though, if passport pages were free in those days, don't know why you would!

Funny! I did something like this for a different reason. I stapled a sheet of paper to cover a blank page, not to add pages. The paper I used was a blank Canadian entry form cut to size. I used this because I wasn't going to Canada (If I were going to Canada, I wouldn't antagonize the Canadians by using their form as scratch paper). I just used one staple. I wanted to save that page for a visa but eventually got extra pages added.

Is there some reason one can't have a visa placed over old stamps (if you wanted)?

If I'm re-entering the US via a POE that I don't normally use, such as HNL (stamp is "HHW") I'll ask for a stamp if they don't stamp it automatically.

If I'm making a routine re-entry at ORD (CHI), DTW (DMA), ATL or LAX, I don't care if they stamp or not.

Sometimes I will ask for a stamp if I there is doubt regarding my exit from a nation. I don't see Schengen Zone (EU) as very strict, but case in point:

Enter Schengen via flight from UK -- scanned / stamped in.
Exit Schengen via flight to UK -- flight leaves from schengen gate (no exit control).
Most times - Exit Schengen via flight to UK or USA with full exit scan/stamp.

Above has never been an issue, but best to keep a travel record.

Other case: fly into nation A, go through full formalities -- exit A via land border to nation B with little to no formalities; fly out of nation B with no exit control to a "regional airport" and enter C with few formalities. Depart country C at major Intll Airport with full formalities. Country C confused how I entered at exit control.

Arrive back to nation A at a later date and immigration computer indicates I never left.

Sometimes it doesn't hurt to keep a record.

No nation is supposed to place a visa sticker on top of other nation's stamps. There are a great many different uses that passport stamps get used for down the line, some of which have already been mentioned. They can be used to document arrivals and departures should the immigration computer records be incomplete for whatever reason. Some nations stamp passports when you visit their embassies, so they can detect "embassy shopping" for visas and the like. Some nations stamp visa application refusals for the same reason. A deportation order might be stamped in a passport, and that country relies on it remaining in the passport if they don't have adequate computer systems. For tax reasons, you may want to be able to establish that you were outside your own country for more than 50% of a particular year. There are too many other reasons to list here.

If the officer is not obliged by law or policy to stamp the passport of a returning US citizen, it's silly of him to do so in my opinion. Thirty years of that is sure to lead to some form of repetitive strain injury.

If you're trying to conserve a few blank pages, I recommend sticking a Post-it note on each of the blank pages with "For Visas" written on the sticky paper.

UK officers always seem to stamp off-kilter and right in the center of a blank page, so that the stamp encroaches on all four "boxes" :mad:

UK officers often aims for perfection.. on purpose..:eek: