Passport stamp issues

Liz I can't speak for the cities you list, but I traveled twice to Italy this year, and the first time my passport wasn't stamped at all and the second time they did stamp it. So there isn't any consistency at least in Italy.

I'm sure someone knowledgeable will be able to comment on EU's immigration procedures.

My passport always has been stamped in the past
when travelling to Eastern European countries
including Prague, Czech Republic. Not always in
Western Europe.

Typically any country that has chosen to allow open boarders with the EU agreement will not stamp entering or leaving these days. You can expect in France especially if arriving from say Amsterdam or Germany - no stamp.

From the best of my knowledge this is how it works: You have already received a stamp when you arrived inside an EU country. At the same time if your passport was a 'machine readable' passport your passport was 'scanned' and all the information was recorded. You will on arrival at any airport enter the queue at passport control for Non-EU passport holders. When you travel inside the EU you will present your passport at the Non-EU section on passport control. It will be scanned again. Information will be displayed including where and when you entered the EU and on what date and that you have not left the EU since that date. The passport control staff will look at your passport and ensure that the stamp in your passport that you received when you entered the EU matches the details they have. That is all there is to it. No further stamping required on this visit.

For what it's worth - this past April we flew into Berlin, then flew to Budapest, then went by train to Prague and then to Munich. Our passports were stamped each time we entered and left each country.

Bad news for those who collect stamps on passports. They seldom stamp them. On a recent trip to Italy our passports were stamped in Paris when we changed aircraft at CDG and in Philly when we arrived back in the US. Never went though imigration in Italy.

I remember a movie staring Sandra Bullock called "When you Were Sleeping". Sandra's character obtained a passport without travel plans and silently dreamed of having it stamped with a Italian imigration stamp. I'll bet she'd be a little disappointed with the European Union policy.

My passport was stamped when I 1) entered France via Paris for the first time 2) took the Eurostar from Paris to London - once by French customs, once by British customs 3) took the Eurostar from London to Paris - only by French customs 4) arrived in the US.

Not sure how stamping will play out in your situation. I guess it depends on country relations (member of EU or not, etc.).

My daughter and I traveled in: Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Germany for 8 weeks. Our passports only have stamps in and out of Holland.

Passports are always stamped if you are flying in or out of Denmark. My passport has been stamped in Schipol (Amsterdam) both connecting between the UK and Denmark and between the UK and the US.

Passports are also almost always stamped if you are flying between a Schengen country and a non-Schengen Country.

Kate

I went from London to Marrakech to Paris to Germany to Vienna to Prague. The only place it was never stamped was in Germany where I visited a few places...not sure why and I wanted a stamp :(

In November we flew from Seattle to Rome, with a layover in Paris. Hopped the train into Rome. We took the train from Rome to Venice and then Venice to Verona. We took Air France's Regional airline flight from Verona to Paris, on our way back to Seattle. We didn't get one stamp in our passports.

The Schengen group recently enlarged to include several members of the old Warsaw Pact. Expect even fewer stamps these days.

Sometimes when you connect in Europe, an international flight uses a Schengen gate, so no stamp. Generally no big deal UNLESS you are entering on a visa. If you have a student visa, extended stay visa or are staying for more than a month or two, you need to have your passport checked and stamped as verification of entrance into the country & Schengen Union.

FYI, it is immigrations that checks passports. Customs checks your luggage - both for things not permitted into the country and for items you need to pay tax on.

Kate

If you want stamps you can always ask. However, since most of those places are now within the Schengen zone you won't go through customs when traveling between them so no chance to get a stamp. Still, no one thinks anything bad of you if you ask, and I've always had such requests approved.

To address Liz's question a little more directly; since you are in a Schengen country, typically the only time the passport would be checked by immigration is entering or leaving the Schengen member countries. All of the countries you listed are Schengen countries, so typically your passport will not be looked at. However, each country has the right to implement a check or do random checks. If you are travelling by ground, the chances are almost non-existant, by air, you will show your passport to airline personnel and security as part of the boarding process, and in a rare instance, they may have an additional security check on arrival. If your concern is getting a stamp for a keepsake, I suppose you could seek out immigration and request one. If your concern is that they may discover you have overstayed your Visa, then you may have some risk travelling by air.

I had recently visited Switzerland from Paris via Geneva. Proper Exit of France and Entry of Switzerland Stamping was made. Eventually, When I took train back from Switzerland to Paris surprisingly no stamping was made neither for exiting Switz nor entering France. When I enquired the Train Ticket Examiner, he told me they will do the immigration checking randomly and the immigration officer didn't come in for that day. So, I entered back into France without any entry stamping on my passport.

If you want the stamp you have to ask for it. Usually since all passports in the Visa Waiver zone have scanning bars on them, rather than stamping them you'll see them simply run it through a scanner. That scanning does the same thing as stamping used to.

I think the only country where you might get a stamp, though, as stated above, is from Prague because I think they're not yet part of the Schengen zone (they will be soon).

I went in to Europe through Paris (CDG) and recieved no stamp. I left Paris late the next evening and when I arrived in Rome (FCO) my passport was stamped In and when I left 4 weeks later through Frankfurt it was stamped Out. I always wondered why it was not stamped IN at CDG.

It did not involve Europe, but a Canadian Immigration Officer told my father when we crossed into Canada, and my father asked him if he would stamp his passport, that they no longer stamp them because it adds time to each person in line and to keep things moving they no longer stamp them. It was slow that day (crossing at the peach arch entrance from Washington to BC) so when my Dad responded, Oh really? The officer said that it takes about 15 seconds more, so in a one or two minute query, it would add 12.5%-25% and that means getting 4 to 8 more cars through in an hour.

I guess it is like when the telephone company stopped saying please after inquiring What City? They claimed it saved time and money.

So I guess we slow down for vacation after immigration, until then stand right, walk left, hold on, and pray you don't get run over.

Kevin

I've gotten the Canadians to stamp my passport. It was at Montreal's Trudeau Airport. I'd just arrived on a flight from Boston on a business trip. It was really early in the morning. The arrival hall was empty. After being examined by immigration, I politely asked the officer to stamp the passport. She looked at me funny. I said that the passport was very new and very empty. She smiled and stamped my passport.

In my experiece, the Dutch, the British and the Germans will stamp an entry into your passport. I have yet to get a French immigration officer to even open, let alone stamp my passport.

Rick

Is anybody familiar with border control/passport stamping on high speed trains between germany and switzerland? Are the germans concerned when one is leaving the schengen or mostly the swiss upon arrival?

Typically there is no passport check. Once in a blue moon inspectors will come on board and check passports but its rare.

I had a similar experience as Christina. My passport was not stamped when flying in Paris but was stamped when flying out from Frankfurt. But I believe I asked the person to stamp it again because it barely showed.

I went to London, got stamped, then went to Lisbon, got stamped, then went to Barcelona, Brussels, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Vienna, and took the train to Italy.... all no stamps. With only a couple years left on that passport I knew I wouldn't be traveling anywhere else on it so I was looking forward to all the stamps so it could be a memento of my "Trip of a Lifetime" but alas...!

That does not surprise me because those are all Schengen countries. However, Switzerland is not yet. So, I am wondering very specifically if people have had controls on long distance, high speed trains from Germany to Switzerland?

Typically there is no passport check. Once in a blue moon inspectors will come on board and check passports but its rare.

Last week I was in Germany, Austria and Italy.
Only stamp was when we entered via Munich airport.
Since they are EU countries did not even stop at
borders.

Arn, it has to do with the Schengen treaty countries, not the EU. UK is a member of the EU, but not the Schengen treaty. You have to go through passport control from/to the UK to/from the continent.

Sam, the post office remark might be a translation issue. I don't know about Hungarian, but in German to stamp a passport is "Stempeln", an entirely different word than the stamp on a letter, "Briefmark". Even if you said the word in English, a native Hungarian might not have realized that "stamp" has two meanings (at least).

What about driving from Italy to Switzerland? Will I get stamped?

I'm a dominican citizen living in the United States. I have my dominican passport and my american green card.
Next month I'm visiting my boyfriend in Italy and we are going to drive to Geneva for a birthday party. I read that I don't need a visa to go to Switzerland if I have a green card, but I only have 2 entries to the Schengen states (first entry will be used when I land in Italy) and I'm also planning to fly to London and Bulgary in one trip so I don't touch Schengen soil between them but my passport will get stamped when I get back to Italy.

So, my question is: If we drive to Geneva from Italy, am I going to get my passport stamped?

Please let me know...

Thanks and regards!

Ciao!

Daniela

having spent time in northern europe recently, I was stamped in Berlin, Frankfort and five other places that I can't make out clearly. The coolest thing is the Russian visa.

If you want your Passport stamped and it is not standard procedure...It helps to send your kid to ask (if you are travelling with, of course!) Almost no one can refuse a kid who askes politely!
I don't have, but if I did, I'd probably approach it from that angle! I've seen it and it seems to work every time...

If you fly into the country, they should stamp your passport in and out, unless you're from a country that's part of the EU; then you just don't need it, I think, because the borders are open... correct?

Personally, I am wondering how to get a stamp if you enter by car or train? It seems I heard from someone that you can go to any post office and they will stamp your passport if you ask, but I don't know for sure and don't want to look like an idiot... Anyone know for sure if this is the way to do it?

I don't know if a post office will stamp your passport. At least, not in the US.

My kids had a National Parks Passport (a commerical thing - not really a passport). You took this passport to various National Parks or monuments administed by the Park Service and they had "Passport" stamps that the kids could stamp in it. Nice memento. We then went to Philadelphia and visited the first post office. The kids wanted to know if they would stamp the passport. The answer was they could only use their cancellation stamper on an actual stamp - so we had to buy a stamp, put it in the passport and then they would stamp it.

Thanks for the info, Sue; I actually am currently in Europe and was wondering how to get my passport stamped when I drive across the border to other countries. Can anyone confirm if the post office is where to have it stamped?

Someone said that when travelling between Schengen and non-Schengen countries, a passport will almost always be stamped. In my experience, this is not true, or at least has one exception: I hold a passport from a Schengen country, but I live in a non-Schengen country. I travelled to Spain (no, I'm not a Spanish citizen) on my "European" passport from the United States. They didn't even open my passport. The same thing happened on the way back. I would have liked to get samps, but I didn't. They didn't even ask me for proof of my US residency on my return trip...

Most EU members do not stamp passports when people enter the country by car or train or by air from another EU member nation, but if you ask almost all border crossings have stamps and will do it for you. We got some funny looks, but in the end I was able to get my passport stamped at crossings from Italy to Switzerland, Switzerland into France. Just ask.