Required number of blank pages in a passport--who knew!

Interesting article, but stamping of passports is largely a thing of the past, at least in some countries/areas, the Schengen Zone for example. I took a look at my new passport, which I used to enter Portugal in May and return from Helsinki just over a week ago. No stamps whatsoever. All pages are blank. Of course, plenty of countries still stamp passports, so keeping an eye on the pages is a good idea.

And some countries will not accept a defaced passport. I nearly had a problem entering India, after an over-enthusiastic US official had ripped out my visa waiver card (this was some time ago) and tore the page.

South Africa is notorious for being strict about this. I had to renew my passport two years early before going there as mine was borderline (enough blank pages but not consecutive) and I didn’t want a problem with that. I won’t have that concern again as I made sure to get the 52 rather than the 26 page passport (no extra charge but you need to check the box to request it) and as noted, stamps are less common these days. But a trip through stamp-happy Balkan countries or Asian ones with the full page visas plus stamps can still use up a lot of pages in a hurry.

I got the passport with extra pages when I renewed. The 52 page passport doesn’t cost any more than the standard 28 page passport. It was somewhat wishful thinking as my renewal came shortly after I retired and I was dreaming about all the places that I would travel to. I doubt I will need those pages since I get few stamps when I travel now. So many countries have switched to electronic entry.

Back in 2000, I had to go to the U.S. Embassy in London to have extra blank pages added to my passport. As noted in the article, the government no longer adds pages and now makes you get a new passport. At the time, I was in my third year of living in Europe and I needed 2 blank pages for a trip to Cairo. I had multiple full page visas for the countries that I lived/worked in and every page had entry/exit stamps. I traveled frequently for work. One year, my travel record for tax purposes showed that I went through passport control 42 times. I doubt that I will ever fill up a passport again.

the headline in the URL screams clickbait and the text of the article is no better. One stand out line " China, Germany, and Italy are just a few of the countries that require U.S. travelers to have at least two blank passport pages." By randomly giving two Schengen countries it suggests that this travel writer doesn't know what Schengen is, because the rules are the same throughout. One better explanation I found was the if travelling with a visa to Schengen (and how many of you are?) you need two pages - one for the visa sticker and one for the stamps. Otherwise the rather vague rule for visa free travel (like american tourists) is you need enough space for the stamps - and stamps are something which are being phased out for visa free travel with EES and the soon to be launched ETIAS systems. But beware of the "3 months after you leave" validity requirement, if you can't show when you will leave they can assume you will stay the full 90 days allowed and add 3 months to that - which basically becomes 6 months.

Your big problem is that rules vary and airline check-in staff don't know them all - and some don't like to lose face in an argument. We had this during covid restrictions when many EU nationals trying to get home from USA (for instance) found the only viable options were connections at London. The UK exempted these people from the test certificates needed for entry to UK - it didn't stop some check-in staff from refusing them due to lack of certificate.

Like Slate above, I too renewed my passport 2 years early last July since I had multiple trips to Africa planned and knew that a lot of the countries I was going to including S Africa, Zambia, etc. needed multiple blank pages and in some cases the blank pages must be consecutive. I have been getting the 52 page booklet for my last 3 passports but if you travel to Africa or places where you need to obtain visas, the pages fill up fast.

I just returned last week from a complicated trip to Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia and including transits through Doha, Istanbul, and Johannesburg ended up with 14 entry/exit stamps in my passport. My passport which is not even a year old has 20 pages with stamps, visas or official verbiage out of the 50 pages. I don't see how this will last me another 9 years since I tend to go to places off the beaten path.

Hungary stamped mine coming and going a few weeks ago. And so did Montenegro.

janetkupfer the US State Department travel info page for every country tells you how many blank pages you need in your passport on arrival. It's usually listed under the "quick facts" section at the top of the page. Here's an example for Mozambique as it was cited in one of the responses: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Mozambique.html

Note for many EU countries it still says two blank pages. This may just not have caught up with the new EES, but in the event the system isn't working you would be expected to have blank pages to stamp by hand.

Germany still wants and gives stamps in the passport. I found this out the hard way a few weeks ago when leaving Schengen via Germany. They couldn't find my entry stamp (Austria) as there was none. I had to show them my plane reservation into Austria to show the date I entered.

I then got an exit stamp on a completely blank page.

They were nice about it but annoyed that other countries have stopped stamping.

Germany still wants and gives stamps in the passport. I found this out the hard way a few weeks ago when leaving Schengen via Germany. They couldn't find my entry stamp (Austria) as there was none. I had to show them my plane reservation into Austria to show the date I entered.

So the EES hadn't captured and made it available to the German authorities?

If that is the case it seems the EES isn't ready for ETIAS to kick in. My guess is ETIAS isn't happening "in the last quarter of 2026".

ETIAS will start operations in the last quarter of 2026.
No action is required from travellers at this point.
The European Union will inform about the specific date for the start of ETIAS several months prior to its launch.
https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias