Well, that makes for 99+% of travel.
Not in GA 
While the value of stamps in passports certainly has diminished / disappeared with the increasing proliferation of electronic databases, they used to be – and still are – of importance in parts of the world that have not yet gone digital. I spent a good part of my working life in, shall we say ‘interesting’ parts of the world and there you made damn sure the stamps were correct and legible.
Yes – very true I am sure. That (the old days) is probably where this passport stamping stuff comes from. I doubt anyone would be implementing it today.
Another complicating factor with passport stamps – not really affecting most of us – has been that if you travel to Israel and the Middle East, you need to have two passports, so they don’t see the stamps of the country which is their sworn enemy The UK govt obliged by issuing such travellers with two passports.
Another reason why stamps can’t be relied on is because you could legitimately own multiple passports e.g. I could have UK and Czech. Out on one and back on the other…
Peter wrote:
Another complicating factor with passport stamps – not really affecting most of us – has been that if you travel to Israel and the Middle East, you need to have two passports, so they don’t see the stamps of the country which is their sworn enemy The UK govt obliged by issuing such travellers with two passports.
Many talk about this issue, but never had it and don’t know anybody who did. Can not talk about the Israeli side too much as I always used my “non Middle East passport” for entry in Israel. But I can tell from own experience, that I got a Saudi Visum in a passport that had Israel stamps in it (I used it by mistake) – no problems and no questions asked.
Multiple passports, however, create complexity – US Esta for instance is linked to the passport, not to the person – so if you figure out at the airport that your ESTA is not on the passport you have with you but on the one that is at home, it is actually a good thing that you can apply for an ESTA online and will typically get it approved within 30 minutes ;-)
Malibuflyer wrote:
Many talk about this issue, but never had it and don’t know anybody who did. Can not talk about the Israeli side too much as I always used my “non Middle East passport” for entry in Israel. But I can tell from own experience, that I got a Saudi Visum in a passport that had Israel stamps in it (I used it by mistake) – no problems and no questions asked. Multiple passports, however, create complexity – US Esta for instance is linked to the passport, not to the person – so if you figure out at the airport that your ESTA is not on the passport you have with you but on the one that is at home, it is actually a good thing that you can apply for an ESTA online and will typically get it approved within 30 minutes ;-)
It’s only between Iran & Israel (I have visited both), you definitely need two passports (later on you can’t visit US on ESTA for your whole life if you have been in Iran, you will need proper VISA but they give you one that expires in 2030), no problem visiting Saudi, Egypt from Israel on the same passport, you have to go via Dubai/Turkey as there are no direct commercial flights unless if you own a jet
I’ve known many with 2 passports for that reason.
You could travel to either ME or Israel on any passport so long as it didn’t contain stamps from the other entity. Once it got “contaminated” with the wrong stamp, you could not use it for the other territory.
Not sure if the issue is current, however.
I got well spoken to by US immigration over Egyptian passport stamps… but they were OK with it eventually.
Anyway, when I get my Czech passport I will test this stamp counting system on every trip
Peter wrote:
You could travel to either ME or Israel on any passport so long as it didn’t contain stamps from the other entity. Once it got “contaminated” with the wrong stamp, you could not use it for the other territory.
As said: This is absolutely not true, the traveling (and getting a visa) to Saudi with a passport with Israeli stamps. No problem there as lbra also reported.
Iran is a different topic but not only due to stamps in the pass
In my opinion the much more important reason to have two passports these days is processing time: It takes more than a week for many countries to process visa requests and the heavy international traveller can not afford to be “grounded” for their passport being stuck in the Indian embassy…
I was advised by a Visa processing company as recently as 2018 that Israeli stamps in a passport to get a Saudi Visa were not recommend. And I have also had “a grilling” on entry to the US about why I had visited Libya, having inadvertently used the “wrong” passport. If you have two passports, it is common sense to try and segregate where you visit to different passports.
The EU EES (Entry/Exit System) will replace passport stamping in May 2023: biometric photograph and fingerprints compared to a central database. Croatia, Cyprus and Ireland will still physically stamp passports.
Also, from November 2023, ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System), an online pre-advice form like the US ESTA, €7 and valid for 3 years.
Croatia, Cyprus and Ireland will still physically stamp passports.
They are not in Schengen (they are in customs union and in EU), so probably EES is not applicable?
Croatia will enter Schengen on Jan23
In my experience, Israel does not stamp your passport any more, and hasn’t been for at least like 1.5 decades now. They give you a separately printed piece of paper which contains the information that would be on the stamp (and more, having a print of the contactless data area of your passport, including your picture).
Ibra wrote:
You get the same result if you show French passport to French and UK passport to Brits
Exactly how I handle it. Show my UK passport to UK Border Farce, show my German passport to any EU immigration officials. Not got any entry / exit stamps for EU, am glad to keep it that way.
