Making your passport last longer when running short of pages
By Chris C., April 9 2018
Running out of pages in your passport but still have a while before it expires? It's an issue that many business travellers face, especially now that Australia has axed the larger, 66-page ‘frequent traveller’ passport.
Rather than shelling out for brand new passport years before yours expires, however, you may be able to maximise its life by affixing a simple sticky note over any pages you’d rather keep blank to reserve them for future visas.
For example, most visas require at least one completely blank passport page – some even demand two adjacent blank pages – so if an immigration official whacks a stamp onto your last blank or ‘double blank’ page, you’d need an entirely new passport before applying for any new visas, potentially requiring replacements of the visas you already have, too.
However, if you notice your passport is starting to fill up, grab those sticky notes, write a short and polite message, and stick them in your passport.
I’ve been travelling with these in my passport for over a year now to preserve my last remaining ‘double blank’ page, and all the passport officers I’ve encountered have been most obliging.
Yes, my typing is clearly better than my handwriting...
Some smile, some laugh and some say nothing at all, but whatever their approach, the interaction has always finished with their stamp being placed somewhere other than those valuable blank pages: typically near other stamps to maximise space, which I always appreciate.
On my last visit to the United States, the border official even asked if there was a certain page I wanted my stamp placed on, just in case I was also saving space elsewhere for other, larger passport stamps.
Thanks to this approach, I still have room in my passport for one more large visa, and I expect these simple sticky notes will have extended my passport's life by around two years by the time it truly becomes full and renewing becomes necessary.
Just one tip: don’t physically write on your passport visa pages (even in pencil), because doing so could render your passport defaced and invalid if you encounter a particularly zealous immigration official… at least with sticky notes, there are no markings to the passport page and they can be easily removed!
Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 May 2011
Total posts 232
Chris - that is genius!
The only addition I'd make to that is to write the note in the local language as well if you can for that occasional circumstance where the passport officer doesn't always understand English well.
19 Jan 2018
Total posts 87
To the extent you need to save space for a visa, this is a novel solution.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 710
"... is a novel situation ...", 'novel', very funny, very clever. LMAO.
04 Dec 2013
Total posts 154
I did this for a while before I finally did run out and upgraded to a 66-pager. Usually no problems, but I did get a few antsy immigration officials who must have considered I was being uppity and telling them how to do their jobs...
I've got a few years before my current 66 pager expires and might need to use the same trick again to save the last few pages.
03 May 2017
Total posts 25
Great tip Chris! When I'm in line and wanting a stamp on a certain page, I make sure I pre open and flex back the passport on the page I want, so that when it lands on the desk it naturally opens up to my preferred page.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Jan 2018
Total posts 91
The simplest ideas are, as people say, the best one. Chris, I am a little bit curious how the whole system works entering non English speaking countries given your notes, for obvious reasons, are in English. Have you had any experience with that?
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2441
Haven't encountered any problems since I've put the sticky notes in when crossing borders in Fiji, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Qatar, Thailand, UAE, UK, USA and Vietnam, plus other countries too where the passport isn't stamped.
QF
24 Jan 2016
Total posts 25
Hi Chris.
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2441
Thanks for sharing Lachlan - eVisas weren't an option when I travelled, and I wasn't keen on doing the separate 'visa on arrival' thing for data security reasons (as online registration was required first for the VoA, but there was no official government website for this so you had to trust a random private website and hope they were legit). Nice find!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
31 Aug 2012
Total posts 210
There is always some bloody-minded immigration type who is having a bad day, or life, and wants to bring you down too.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Jun 2015
Total posts 105
I have found a paperclip also works for flipping directly to where you want stamped.
17 Sep 2015
Total posts 388
Fortunately some nations have reduced the diameter of their stamps. This helps (assuming they can't or won't stop placing stamps on passport pages.)
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
04 Apr 2018
Total posts 11
great idea! I've been funnelled through the self-exit immigration normally reserved for residents leaving SIN the last few times, which has saved a couple of exit stamps!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
27 Nov 2014
Total posts 51
At this point, it's safe to say that the electronic departure gates at SIN are no longer "normally" reserved for residents - I think I've had maybe a single occasion when I haven't been told to use the self-service gate at Changi in the last 4 years.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Dec 2015
Total posts 3
Thanks Chris
23 Mar 2015
Total posts 4
A new passport can now be issued with the same passport number if your passport is full and with the same expiry date but at a ridiculous cost of $178.00. I just had to apply for a new one because I have 1 single page left with 3 years to go but paying $278.00 for the new passport was a better deal. I guess you weigh it up with how many years you have left. Getting rid of the 64 page passport was wrong!
01 Feb 2018
Total posts 40
I wonder if the Visa sticker needs to be on a blank page at all. What if it stick on a full page and cover the previous stamps, would that miss anything?
15 Apr 2018
Total posts 1
I do exactly the same. However CX check in agent at Manchesaid I had been tampering with my passport, and would not allow me to check in. So I removed the notes from my second passport, and gave that to her, at which point I was told I had been aggressive, and would not be allowed either! Another agent 10mins later did check me in. Now have an official letter from CX saying that it’s OK!
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