Blank pages in a passport when a VISA is required

My husband and I are traveling to Myanmar and Cambodia and the end of November and we need to get two visa's for our travels. I just encountered a situation that I was not aware of and thought that others might be interested in knowing about this.

There is an area in the Grand Circle handbook that says there needs to be SIX blank visa pages in the passport in order to apply for our visa's. I have 4 and my husband has 5 blank pages. I need to send my passport back for extra pages to be added before I can apply for our two visa's.

Quote from the U.S. Passport & International Travel website:

Some countries have certain restrictions and may not allow entry if you have less than a specific number of blank visa pages in your passport, which may or may not need to be consecutive.

I would have had the extra pages added months ago had I known this. I knew that we were low on blank pages, but knew nothing about the number needed for each visa and never bothered to count them :eek:.

Just thought I would pass this information on to others in hopes that they will not be in the same situation that we are.

Thanks for the heads up!

I was advised last year by US Immigration officer when returning to the US that I needed to have pages added to my passport before traveling again internationally. I had two blank pages at the time.

Quite expensive to add them but I took care of it right away as I had not realized it could cause an issue for ANY international trip, not just one requiring a VISA.

Going to go count pages on both our passports right now!

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Yes it is quite expensive to have new pages added --- $82!! While the cost of a NEW passport is $110!! We just had our passports renewed and requested the "frequent traveler" passport which automatically comes with extra pages.

Hi

If you renew your passport, you can ask for a 52 page book at no extra cost--better than paying $85 to add pages.

Tom

Hi

If you renew your passport, you can ask for a 52 page book at no extra cost--better than paying $85 to add pages.

Tom

I have 5 more years on my passport, but I did ask for 48 additional pages instead of 24.

I just got this info from my TAa few weeks ago, but of course that would not have been enough time to rectify the situation before leaving:eek: Luckily for us, we did have enough, but this is very good advice. Also check expiration dates- many times you must have 6 months or more left.

Which basically means our passports have 5 useless pages and 6 useless months:rolleyes:

I just got this info from my TAa few weeks ago, but of course that would not have been enough time to rectify the situation before leaving:eek: Luckily for us, we did have enough, but this is very good advice. Also check expiration dates- many times you must have 6 months or more left.

Which basically means our passports have 5 useless pages and 6 useless months:rolleyes:

Need that "Like" button CC!

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Update on my passport dilemma:

Went to our local post office to overnight the applications, passports and checks only to find our post office doesn't ship anything overnight. Two day delivery with a 3 pm arrival time was the best they could do. The clerk told me to find a UPS or FedEx store :eek:.

So, I went to the UPS Store and they cannot ship anything via UPS or FedEx to a post office box. The recipient must have a physical address. The passport agency receives all their mail to a PO Box.

So, I found a larger post office in a different town that would overnight them.

What a night mare. :D

Good advice and thank you for posting it. ;)

Just wanted to clarify the "six month rule": for many cruises, tours and countries, your passport has to be valid for six months past the LAST day of travel. You might want to check your passports to make sure they're valid from the very last date that you plan to be traveling and not six months from the first day you leave on your trip.

We received our passports in the mail today with the extra pages added. Tomorrow I will send the passports, visa applications and payment to the visa service company. Hopefully we will have everything returned to us in a timely manner.

We received our visas for Myanmar and Cambodia today. It was a total of 26 days from the day sent them till the day received them, a little less than 3 working weeks.

We received our visas for Myanmar and Cambodia today. It was a total of 26 days from the day sent them till the day received them, a little less than 3 working weeks.

I'm assuming you used GenVisa....they are very reliable. I just renewed mine this year and had frequent flyer pages added. My question is when going through immigration why do they flip through the passport and stamp whatever page comes up? They all do it and it's annoying because you have to check page by page to see how many pages you really have left and some of the stamps are so faint you can't even read them. I know it's a small thing, but it's annoying.

I'm assuming you used GenVisa....they are very reliable. I just renewed mine this year and had frequent flyer pages added. My question is when going through immigration why do they flip through the passport and stamp whatever page comes up? They all do it and it's annoying because you have to check page by page to see how many pages you really have left and some of the stamps are so faint you can't even read them. I know it's a small thing, but it's annoying.

We did not use GenVisa for this trip, although we have used them in the past. Grand Circle recommends PVS service, so we used them. I was a little annoyed with them. I sent 2 emails to them under their "Contact Us" website and NEVER received an email back from them. Don't know why companies have a "Contact Us" if they have no intention of replying :mad:.

We did not use GenVisa for this trip, although we have used them in the past. Grand Circle recommends PVS service, so we used them. I was a little annoyed with them. I sent 2 emails to them under their "Contact Us" website and NEVER received an email back from them. Don't know why companies have a "Contact Us" if they have no intention of replying :mad:.

That's surprising since GCT and Vantage are owned by brothers! I thought everybody used genvisa and I SO agree with you on the "contact us if you have questions or need help"..... believe it or not that is my only complaint with Vantage....they never return e-mail, although lately they seem to be getting a little better in the airline dept.

We had the same problem of not enough pages for visas when we visited Africa about 8 years ago. Luckily we live close to Seattle and made an appointment up there to get more pages. Left our passports at the passport center, had a great day in Seattle, picked up our passports in the afternoon and drove back to Portland. Now I think it is an over night process but something to check into if anyone needs this done and lives close to a passport center. We will need more pages when we do our Asian cruise in 2016. The joys of travel!! :)

We had the same problem of not enough pages for visas when we visited Africa about 8 years ago. Luckily we live close to Seattle and made an appointment up there to get more pages. Left our passports at the passport center, had a great day in Seattle, picked up our passports in the afternoon and drove back to Portland. Now I think it is an over night process but something to check into if anyone needs this done and lives close to a passport center. We will need more pages when we do our Asian cruise in 2016. The joys of travel!! :)

We can do the same in NYC but it's a real expensive day trip!!:D