We will be visiting Kenya and Tanzania in June. I have room for stamps in my passport but no more totally blank pages. Are blank pages necessary for Kenya and Tanzania visas? If so, I need to get busy and have pages added to my passport. Thank you

I don't have my passport in front of me but seem to recall that the Kenyan one was fairly large.

I'm with Patty. Those were the two hugest stamps to ever grace my passport ( think).

The Kenya stamp takes up around a full page, and the Tanzania stamp was also about one page (but my last visit to Tanzania was in 1999, and I was in Kenya in 2003).

Its easy to get additional pages, and I'm not sure, unless you contact the Kenya and Tanzania consulates or embassies, that you will get a real answer. Get the pages to avoid problems similar to those being encountered by those entering South Africa w/o pages.

I have been to both Kenya and Tz within the past year. The TZ stamp was put on a half page ( I got it at the airport). The Kenyan tokk the whole page.

I'm with thit_cho. Just get the extra pages. Assuming you are under US passport, it takes about a week to do and is free. Ive done it twice in the past 2 years.

Do it now. It's free. The form can probably be downloaded from the U.S. Passport site. And the turnaround is real quick (less than 3-weeks) They'll insert an additional 13/26 pages that should hold you for awhile. Besides, if you travel elsewhere, you know you'll have pages till it's time to renew. And at renewal time, be sure to request the larger (more pages) passport.

Thank you all so, so much for the info. I'll take care of getting those extra pages just in case.

This may sound like a silly question, but do the blank passport pages need to be consecutive? I have 5 blank pages but they are scattered. Thanks for your reply.

Normally more pages takes about a week. It is free. But now the passport agencies are overloaded due to changes in travel rules. Regular service is stated on the US Passport website as 10 weeks. My new pages took from March 2 to May 3. Pay for the express service.

I suggest that you call the embassies of the countries you plan to visit. They will be able to give you the answers about the number of blank pages needed .

I am leaving for South Africa in a week and discovered that the 3 blank pages I had in my passport were not VISA pages, but were "endorsement" pages. I had to expedite my passport to get additional pages last week. I am hoping that the passports will be back in time.

If you are low on pages get this done NOW.

I talked with the South African embassy in DC and they were very kind in answering my questions.

- Granny Joan

TravelLover2,
For Kenya and Tanzania, the pages do not have to be consecutive. Each visa takes up no more than a single page.

As Patty mentions, for Kenya & Tanzania, pages do not need to be consecutive. Just need 1/page for each wherever they are... but as mentioned above, they have to be Visa pages, not endorsement pages (the latter used for things like change of name when using married name).

For South Africa, they require 2/consecutive face-to-face pages.

For Botswana, they seem to use wherever there is blank spaces for their entry visa and exit stamps.

For Zim, they attach a sticky stamp and this does take up about half-page.

Can't comment re Zam.

Thanks for Sandi and Patty for your knowledge of the blank passport pages. We are 56 days away from departure and I'm starting to panic that I'm going to screw up something major!!

Take a deep breath. Pour a glass of wine, keep repeating "I'm going to Afree-kah, going to Afree-kah" and go with the flow. I'm sure you've got everything covered. Do one thing at a time and you'll be just fine!

Got it: Wine...."I'm going to Afree-kah"....more wine...

...just like Alice, click those ruby red shoes (okay, walkers or Tevas), lift a glass, keep saying "Afree-kah, Afree-kah," pour more wine...

Just a heads-up, while Zanzibar is part of Tanzania, they insist on putting an entry and exit stamp in your passport as well (or at least they did last year when I visited). So if Zanzibar is in your plans, leave room for it in your passport.

Never got an entry stamp at Zanzibar (arriving from mainland TNZ), but did receive an exit stamp when departing for NBO.

Leaving ZNZ you also have to pay a departure fee, in cash. This fee is not included in your ticket price. For flights to in-country airports, (JRO or DAR), fee is about $5-$10/person; for out of country, (NBO, JNB, etc.), fee is $20-$25/person.

Always remember to have sufficient cash (about $100) at conclusion of your visit, for just such fees. This is only for exiting ZNZ.

Departure fees from Kenya and Tanzania should have been included in your int'l flight tickets.

Got my passports back this morning. Heading to Afree - Kah next week. Yippee! Such a relief. Turn around time with expedited service out of DC took 7 days including days in transit. We had additional pages added only and now will be able to go to more places.

- Granny Joan

My information about Zanzibar is from September 2006. When arriving on the ferry, we were forced to go through a checkpoint and even though I requested not to have my passport stamped (I was short on pages) they insisted it had to be stamped. When departing for Dar by plane we again had no choice but to get an exit stamp. This is nothing new as indicated by this article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1150376.stm

If you have more recent information than mine, please post it. If not, then I would plan to have space for Zanzibar entry and exit stamps.