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For a traveler, a passport stamp is a bragging right and a sense of achievement, rolled into one. For governments and border control authorities, a way to monitor entry/exit of passengers. My Indian passports (featured image) have amassed a fair number of colourful stamps and visas and make for a great conversation piece. However, many countries are doing away with the practice altogether – some due to political reasons, while others advance to biometric measures of tracking entry and exit.
Passport Stamp – Ghana, India, Botswana, Turkey
Passport Stamp – Going the way of the Dodo?
If you are a passport stamp collector, you may need to do a bit more than just enter the following countries to get a stamp. These countries do not issue a passport stamp upon entry (the list is not comprehensive, just the ones I know of);
- Australia (Jan 2019) – Not issuing any more stamps on passport for visitors
- New Zealand (Jan 2019) – Not issuing any more stamps on passport for visitors
- Hong Kong (Landing slip)
- Israel (Landing slip)
- Macau (Landing slip)
- Albania – Although not in EU, passport stamps are not issued for nationals of EU, Andorra, Monaco and San Marino
- Liechtenstein – Not part of EU but does not stamp passports for Schengen Zone traveler.
- Traveling within EU Travelling within the Schengen Area – Third country nationals or foreign nationals get a stamp on arrival in first Schengen country. No stamps for travel within the Schengen member states (free movement et al).
- Travel between Canada – US (Depending on Nationality/passport, landing slip at land borders). Travelers using Nexus or Global Entry also don’t get a stamp on passport.
- Entering island countries on cruise ships – Hit or miss with passport stamping. If your passport is not stamped, seek out a port tourism office and get one.
Several countries do not stamp passports of their own nationals entering the country (Brazil, Australia etc.) but will do it upon request. Similarly, if you are a tourist in a country that does not stamp your passport, you can request one. If you forget or the authorities do not oblige your request, visit the closest tourism office and request a souvenir stamp.
Passport Stamp – South Africa, Botswana, UK, UAE
The future of passport stamps is bleak as we fully adopt biometric monitoring. Personally, I take great pride in a colourful passport, where each stamp comes with a story. I would hate to see the passport stamp go the way of the Dodo. On the other hand, those stamps (and visas) are the reason passports fill up and require a renewal *read cash grab * so one can argue that some form of stamping will always be around.
If you know of other countries where a passport stamp is not issued, or have a related experience to share, please leave a comment below.
43 comments
Grenada did not stamp my passport even after I asked last week. Now, I’m back in the states. I cannot understand the point of having the large passport book for purchase if no one stamps it anymore. Records are now kept online where you can access your travel history. I don’t want to have to do anything besides open my passport book to see my record of travel. ☹️
Between e-gates and e-visas the romanticism of a colourful passport continues to erode.
Singapore too. No entrance or exit stamps (since 2019 I believe).
Requested a stamp in Nassau while on a cruise and got it. Tried Freeport Bahamas but they were closed. Jamaica didnt stamp mine. Asked in Canada once and they said no. When I didn’t ask in Canada one of the agents stamped it.
Yay for consistency? lol
Thanks for sharing..the stamping of passport has become so random in certain places, its hard to keep track. Especially if you use fast track lanes, nexus etc.
Jamaica doesn’t stamp anymore either, you get a printed receipt of entry.
Thanks for sharing Adam. Save them passport pages 😉
Actually they do. I just got back from there a week ago
They didn’t stamp mine in Jamaica. I just got back 11/30/23.
same. Just got back 12/13 and no stamp. They used to back in the day
You can get souvenir stamps at the border in Andorra, and the tourist offices in San Marino, Monaco and Liechtenstein. Got some on request in various Caribbean ports, no problem at all with using the passport per Dmoore’s comment, below. (Got souvenir ones in Port Lockroy, Antarctica, and Ushuaia, Argentina, no issues either. I wouldn’t overdo this with pure touristy ones, but otherwise it is likely that you will be okay.)
These are great data points for the reader Richard, thanks for sharing – much appreciated!
UK does not stamp passports at point of entry for several passports, effective June of 2019
We went and requested a stamp. They gave us one but are phasing them out.
went to greece last year(2018): no stamp. Italy this year: they stamped it.
EU passport?
We just returned from a 7 day cruise- and we were told that as of Jan 2019 port authorities were instructed that if a visitor was not docking and/or staying for at least 1 night, stamping the passport could potentially invalidate it and could cause re-entry problems to the home country. Has anyone else heard this?
huh, interesting! I don’t cruise enough to know for sure, but does it mean day trippers get no stamp and ones overnight-ing do? So stamping would be more on the basis of the ship’s itinerary….
No stamp from New Zealand nor Australia this month even though it was requested.
Yeah, few others have shared that here. No more stamps for NZ and Aus…sad.
I know NZ doesn’t issue stamps if you use the eGates. Will they stamp your passport if it was manually processed by an immigration officer? My friend told me NZ immigration officer had stamped his passport.
Aruba is using biometric E-Gates and doesn’t stamp passports anymore. I just came back from there and I wish they had stamped my passport.
Thanks for the update Gus, did you try any of the tourist offices or post offices? Sometimes they offer the “tourist stamp” as an alternate if you wish to colour your passport 🙂
Aruba still stamps all passports
Australia has introduced biometric gates for the nationals of about a dozen countries. No passport stamp.
Neither Australia nor New Zealand stamped my US passport this month
Neither Australia nor New Zealand stamped my US passport this month.
PP Stamps are all over in Australia. Which is a shame – as they rigorously stamped entry/exit since the 1960s. New Zealand though, if you request in Auckland they will do it, but with the e-gates you need to sort of double-back or talk to someone asap to get taken care of. Wellington/Christchurch – mixed bag. Good luck. NZ has never stamped on exit. (like US / Canada).
South Korea does not give exit stamps anymore. This was the case for Australian and Japanese passports.
1. Macedonia doesn’t stamp EU/Schengen passports by law
2. “Travelling within EU” should be replaced by “Travelling within the Schengen Area”. Not the same Thing and can cause devastating misunderstandings.
3. Serbia doesn’t stamp foreign passports on exit
4. Tourism offices will only issue stamps in certain countries. When border control was unmanned at the airport of Guadeloupe, I had to go to the border police office in the capital to fix an entry stamp in my mother’s passport
Thanks for the feedback Crazydre, much appreciated. Switched EU/Schengen bit, as suggested. Cheers!
Iraq didn’t stamp passports for Shia Muslims on pilgrimage to Karbala and Najaf when Saddam was in power – not sure about that now. They stamp on a sheet of paper which the traveler keeps or the duration of their journey
Israel too doesn’t stamp passports – they stamp on a sheet of paper which you keep with you
[…] These countries do not issue a passport stamp upon entry. – As an international traveler, one of the fun things to do is collect passport stamps and compare the differences between countries. It’s a shame that more countries are doing away with passport stamps. […]
New Zealand doesn’t stamp US Passports
Thanks for sharing Paul. NZ is also one of the few countries that does not do exit stamp (regardless of passport).
Tunisia doesn’t always stamp passports. Seems like they are less likely to stamp cruise ship passengers than at the airports. Also EU countries like Italy, France and Spain seem like they don’t stamp cruise ships either.
Yeah, cruise ships and ports can be tricky. Apparently, entire ships (and contents/people) get the permit so they don’t have to stamp folks individually. But if you go to the local port office, they can stamp passports upon request. Some countries charge a small fee for this service.
At the other end are countries that still require the purchase of an actual paper stick-on stamp visa. These often take up a full (and valuable for frequent travelers) page. China is the biggest culprit here, but at least they now issue multi-year multi-entry visas for many foreign nationals. And Egypt just began e-visas, though a month late as I lost three full pages buying single entry visa stamps, each of which are just large enough that they can only be pasted down in a way as to occupy a full page. South Africa issues full page sticker visas to many nationals, but many more are simple ink stamps upon entry. However their rules still insist one has two clean facing pages while the ink stamp occupies just a quarter page. Brazil is another full page sticker stamp (albeit it’s a multi-entry 5-year visa in most cases), though it too is moving towards e-visas. The move to 10-year passports is nice, but they are too often of limited number of pages without the ability to add supplemental pages…so more often than not with frequent travelers will require replacent several times during their supposed validity period…and at a higher cost per passport!
I feel your frustrations. My passports are full of those pesky full page visa stickers. While they make for a great collection, passport fees are through the roof. I have been getting a “jumbo booklet”, a 60 page Indian passport because I burn through them quickly. Once the embassy refused to give me a new passport because I still had 8 pages in the current one, I had to submit a letter explaining my 12 country trip (with pending visas) with travel itinerary to get a new passport application approved. What a pain. Totally on board with multiple entry tourist visas and e-visas. Am sure in the next decade or so, most tourist heavy countries will be on the e-visa. Having said that, I do love flipping though the pages to browse the colorful stickers 🙂
Albania and plenty of other EU countries will even stamp an EU passport upon request.
Thanks for the confirmation Skaner, EU countries are pretty good at stamping the passport if you request one. Also, several tourism offices in countries issue souvenir stamps for a small fee. Cheers!
I usually request exit (and entry) stamps when Im leaving the EU (with my german passport) and only the german authorities gave them to me… France, Finland and the Netherlands always refused to give me stamps in my EU passport, even on request
You are right – one can only ask, its at their discretion if they stamp your passport. Especially in places where they don’t need to 🙂