Passport stamps

Is there a place on the islands to get a passport book stamped?

Which ports?

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St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Barbados, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, San Juan.

Ill throw in Roatan, Belize City and Cozumel. Had the same question for our cruise in April. On Alaskan cruise last summer, when went to Canada, the visitors center actually stamped your passport.

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Usually in the cruise terminal there is an office where you an get your passport stamped. Note that St. Thomas and San Juan are part of the US, so you may not get one in those.

Also, just a heads up if you really like to travel abroad, cross reference any countries you’ll be visiting with countries you plan to visit to make sure their governments are cool with each other. Some countries won’t let you in if you have an adversarial stamp so to speak in your passport. People who primarily use the PPs to cruise definitely won’t have this problem though.

US passports have a limited number of pages. It is not a wise move to fill up pages with stamps that are not required. You may want to go somewhere that requires a certain number of empty pages, and discover that you don't have them, so you end up getting a new passport.

What do you want the stamps for? I recommend that unless you have a genuine reason for getting your passport stamped as part of normal immigration control or customs procedures (in which case they will do it without you asking), that you do not ask anyone to make any kind of unnecessary mark in your passport.

I say this for three reasons:

1) Most countries (the US included) specify that you must not deface your passport with 'notes, stickers, or stamps, other than those required as part of normal immigration control or customs procedures'. Asking for souvenir stamps from post offices, gift shops, etc, will invalidate your passport.

2) Your passport only has a certain amount of room for stamps, and if you fill it with unnecessary ones you will soon find that you have an invalid passport. For most purposes a passport is valid if it has at least two empty pages, but some countries will want to see at least four empty pages.

3) Some countries will not let you enter if you have passport stamps from certain other countries.

If an immigration official needs to stamp your passport, let him. But I really can't think of a reason why you'd ask him to. What do you want the stamp for?

We are not avid international travelers. My last passport had only one stamp in it before it expired. We are taking my brother and his wife for their first international trip in April. Highly unlikely they will travel out of country again. Thought it would nice to have at least one stamp in their passports.

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We are not avid international travelers. My last passport had only one stamp in it before it expired. We are taking my brother and his wife for their first international trip in April. Highly unlikely they will travel out of country again. Thought it would nice to have at least one stamp in their passports.

 

 

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Take your expired passport and get it stamped.

I thought the point of all those pages was to collect stamps as kind of a souvenir. Both my sisters-in-law traveled abroad when their husbands were in the service back in the 70s and they got theirs stamped several times. They were the ones joking with me that I needed to fill up those pages. I didn't realize that it would be a problem or somehow invalidate my passport.

No, passports are not stamped for souvenir purposes. The stamps provide entry and exit records.

Your passport actually is the property of the US government, and it can be invalidated by non-official stamps.

Me I don't look for them to be stamped for the reasons mentioned nor would I want to spend time having this done.

However we all of different interests so best to ask on the cruise ship and they will advise you.

Keith

When we first started international traveling passports stamps were a big deal and I suspect that is true for most people. Now, I wish they would change to an electronic stamp so that you wouldn’t have to worry about running out of pages! Looks like we are going to have to renew our passports before they expire unless there is a way to add pages.

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You can't add pages to a US passport anymore. Consider getting a 52 page passport next time.

When we first started international traveling passports stamps were a big deal and I suspect that is true for most people. Now, I wish they would change to an electronic stamp so that you wouldn’t have to worry about running out of pages! Looks like we are going to have to renew our passports before they expire unless there is a way to add pages.

 

 

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My daughter travels internationally for work often. She said that you can have pages added to your booklet at any time at a passport office.

My daughter travels internationally for work often. She said that you can have pages added to your booklet at any time at a passport office.

That used to be true. It isn't any more. They discontinued the practice at the beginning of 2016:

https://www.us-passport-service-guide.com/add-pages-to-passport.html

You can still order the passport initially with more pages (52 pages instead of 24), but they won't add pages later.

My daughter travels internationally for work often. She said that you can have pages added to your booklet at any time at a passport office.

She's incorrect. As stated above, you haven't been able to add pages to a US passport since 2015.

You can't add pages to a US passport anymore. Consider getting a 52 page passport next time.

Definitely will

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Barbados has a customs office in the terminal area that will give you an official stamp.;)

I thought the point of all those pages was to collect stamps as kind of a souvenir. Both my sisters-in-law traveled abroad when their husbands were in the service back in the 70s and they got theirs stamped several times. They were the ones joking with me that I needed to fill up those pages. I didn't realize that it would be a problem or somehow invalidate my passport.

In the 70s, and up until a few years ago, you could get pages added to your passport.

But times change, and now, if you fill up your passport, you will be paying for a renewal early.

About the only adversarial issue with passports that I can think of, is in the Middle East. Many Arab countries will not let you in with an Israeli stamp in your passport (Jordan is one major exception to this). For this reason, Israel normally stamps a loose piece of paper, that you can remove.

However, I know of one case where the paper was stamped while sitting on the passport, and a tiny corner of the stamp ended up in the passport. And the person was later denied entry into an Arab country.

Heck, once leaving an Arab country, I had my passport closely scrutinized, AS I WAITED IN TO LINE TO LEAVE. Really??? If you found something, what are you going to do, make me leave? I was already leaving. :D

You can't add pages to a US passport anymore. Consider getting a 52 page passport next time.

AFAIK, all the new US passports being issued are the larger books, because of not being able to add pages.

At least with Global Entry, you don't end up filling it up with US entry stamps. :D

AFAIK, all the new US passports being issued are the larger books, because of not being able to add pages.

 

No, most people get the 28 page book.

Don’t be scared by all these stories of passports being invalidated and/or filled up. Most Americans don’t even have a passport much less even come close to filling one up. If you want to get your passport stamped during your Caribbean cruise then don’t let all these worry warts here spoil your parade. Worst case scenario is you find yourself doing a bunch of international travel (a really good thing) in the future then you may have to prematurely get a new passport which is a small price to pay if it happens. Enjoy your trip.

US passports have a limited number of pages. It is not a wise move to fill up pages with stamps that are not required. You may want to go somewhere that requires a certain number of empty pages, and discover that you don't have them, so you end up getting a new passport.

Plus 1.

The PP is not an autograph book. If someone wants to impress folks, opt for collecting visas (The PRC visa is a work of art).

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