Modes of transport - entry stamps in passport

Today, you will only have your passport stamped when you enter the Schengen zone. It's kind of difficult to do that without a flight. After that, as long as you stay in the Schengen zone, no one is going to stamp your passpost, or check it, for that matter.

Difficult but not impossible, as I have several recent stamps that attest to this... Plane: that one is easy - entry & exit @ several airports. Train: entry @ Ilirska Bistrica (Croat-Slovene border) Car: a few, notably exit @ Dragonja (Croat-Slovene border) Boat: exit @ Ancona, ferry to Split

Back to my question, is there a distinctive stamp for bus entry? or is that a car symbol too?

I have never ever heard of a requirement to keep two blank pages. Sounds like an urban story. Been through four passport and couple didn't have any blank pages. I think you are just pulling our collective legs.

Actually no, it's true. I know for a fact that this is the case for South Africa. You will be denied boarding if you don't have the required blank pages left. SA is not alone in this. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1008.html#entry_requirements

I, too, have never heard of any requirement to have two unstamped pages in your passport. How could you control that? In my experience, when my passport is stamped, they have just randomly opened it and stamped it. Would you suggest that we direct the passport agent where to stamp it so as to leave two blank pages? And who is denied boarding in South Africa for that? Are you saying that a US citizen coming home from SA could be denied boarding? Sounds like an urban myth to me, too.

Don't take my word for it, read the State Dept on this. The point isn't about telling the immigration officer where to stamp your passport. YOU have to keep track of how many empty pages you have left. This is no myth. The problem arises before entry, not on departure, and applies to all tourists, Canadian or American included. Here's how it plays: 1. you show up to board a flight in London or IAD to fly to Jo'burg, the airline employee checks your passport and sees that you don't have a free page left = denied boarding. 2. You arrive in front of the immigration officer and he sees that you don't even have TWO pages free and he denies you entry = you must get back onto the next flight out. Lack of empty pages is a smart reason to renew a passport before it's due... or pay a bit extra for one with more pages. Canada offers both a 24-page and a 48-page passport. I have had 6 passports up-to-now, 2 have been 48-pages. For this next one, I had to seriously weigh the pros and cons of both formats and decided on the 24-page again - less thick in the waist-belt, even though I may have to renew it a little early again. I'm sure that others here on the RS Helpline are like me - travel omnivores who don't stick to just Europe. That's why I mentioned this little-known quirk that can seriously ruin travel plans.

One of my daughters recently applied for The Amazing Race and one of the questions on the application was "How many blank visa pages are in your passport?" Just thought I'd throw that out. The application didn't say how many blank pages they want her to have; maybe she'll find that out if she makes the cut.

Are you looking to add a bus symbol (assuming they have them) to your passport? I guess you could go from the UK to France on a bus (that used a ferry across the English Channel), but then you might get a boat symbol. Other than that you would have to go somewhere like Croatia and take a bus into Slovenia. It seems like a lot of trouble to go through to get a bus symbol on your passport. Come to think of it, how did you get the car symbol, or did you enter from Switzerland before they became part of the Schengen zone? I've always flown into the Schengen zone, and my passpost has little pictures of an airplane.

I travel quite a bit by myself, some with my husband, some with another couple, and some with one my friends (wife of the couple). After our last "couples" vacation, my friend Ann and I waved goodbye to our spouses at Graz airport, went to an Austrian spa near the Slovenian border, then zig-zagged several times across the Slovene, Croat & Hungarian borders, still chasing thermal waters... hence the car symbols. Dropped the car off back in Croatia (picked up in Split), then took a train to Salzburg from Opatija... the train symbol. Croatia is a goldmine for oddball passport stamps :-) As for future travel, I'm asking because I'm considering a post-couples trip for myself up from Turkey to Hungary. Lots of territory there to have fun with...

I just cleaned out several posts. If your post begins or furthers an argument, you should not post at all. Stick to the original question concerning entry stamps and drop the unstamped pages topic please. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Webmaster, that is appreciated.

I've gotten the same stamps when crossing borders by road, rail or airport worldwide. The only difference is what the entry port is listed as. For example, when my passport is stamped by Canadian customs on arrival in Vancouver airport it is stamped as "Canada Customs-YVR airport" while when it is stamped coming off the ferry in Victoria it is stamped "Canada Customs-Victoria ferry terminal" but the basic stamp design is the same ,except for the place name.

Hi David, The ones I have from Europe (Schengen countries) have a little symbol on the upper right-hand corner: outline drawings of a plane, a car, a boat, and a railcar engine. It tweaked my curiosity.

My daughter had pages added to her passport. Go here to read about it: http://travel.state.gov/passport/correcting/add/add_850.html

Back to my question, is there a distinctive stamp for bus entry? or is that a car symbol too? Yes. The little car is actually supposed to be a generic "by road" symbol, you get that one if you enter by car, bus, bicycle, foot, sled, roller blades, or rickshaw. Basically any land transport which isn't a rail bound train.

They weren't using those symbols in 1988 when I crossed over from Germany to Austria on foot, on the top of the Zugspitze (does a footpath count as a road?). Anyway, the "Zoll" agent (there was only one, I don't know if he was Austrian or German) was sleeping in his little building.

That's cool Lee; the symbol for that should be the line drawing of a foot, à la Monty Python's ;-)