ANOTHER PASSPORT QUESTION
 

I will be studying in Prague this summer for 6 weeks. We have a free weekend, so some of us are going to Amsterdam. One question..... once I arrive in Amsterdam from Prague, will they stamp my passport, even if I am coming from another European country? By the way, I am American.

As long as you are in the EU they do not have border crossings and your passport is not stamped.

Your passport is stamped once when you enter the EU. If for example your flight to Prague is not non-stop, and you connect in say Paris, your passport will be stamped there and will not be stamped again when you arrive in Prague. Like jnjfraz says if you go anywhere else in the EU (except maybe the UK) your passport is not stamped again.

Or, you could connect through Paris (or somewhere else) to Prague and they will only stamp in Prague. It appears to be quite variable! When we flew to Budapest last summer, we went through CDG, but since we were just connecting through, they routed us so that we didn't go through immigration at all. I found that surprising, but it apparently wasn't a problem.

Have fun. That sounds like a wonderful opportunity. What are you studying?

Schengen is the agreement that governs border checks, not EU. There are some Schengen countries which are not part of EU as well as some EU countries which are not part of Schengen.

Kellye,
The reason you didn't go through immigration at CDG last summer was because Hungary was not part of Schengen at that time (joined Dec 2007). If you connected through CDG today to Hungary (or to any one of the 24 Schengen countries), you'd go through immigration at CDG.

Hi SA,

>...once I arrive in Amsterdam from Prague, will they stamp my passport,...<

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how the agent feels at the time.

((I))

Well, I don't know if this makes a difference, but I am FLYING from Prague to Amsterdam. I am not going by land.

NO stamp, unless you beg for one and find an immigration officer. "FLYING from Prague to Amsterdam" there won't be any!! But they must be some, somewhere inside the airport.

Think of Prague to Amsterdam as similar to a US domestic flight. There will be no immigration check.

Are you specifically wanting a stamp? If so, on arrival at Amsterdam, you'll be on the Schengen side of the airport. From your arrival gate, walk towards the international departure gates (piers E, F, G, etc) until you reach the passport control point between the Schengen and international sides of the airport. Try asking if you can cross over to the other side and if they can stamp your passport (technically you'll be exiting the Schengen area). Amsterdam airport is usually pretty good about letting you cross back and forth but you may need to give them a reason for doing so if you don't have an onward boarding pass. Once you're on the international side, you'll need to turn around and go back through passport control again to get back on the Schengen side (you may need to explain again why you're doing this). You may encounter queues on both sides.

don't mess around unnecessarily with immigration officers. just follow their drill. pulling the kind of nonsense that patty describes is only asking for trouble.

i once saw someone simply ask (and receive) a stamp. once the officer finally figured out that person was stamped when they shouldn't have been, a right fuss erupted with a lot of confusion that took a long time to resolve....supervisor had to be called to cancel the stamp and the person was questioned for a long time.

i'm sure some people do this and get away without a fuss but immigration officers are not known for their humour and they are focussed on detecting funny business. even if it's innocent anything out of the ordinary can make them very suspicious.

find another souvenir of your trip.

I'm all for collecting Passport stamps. They're fun to look at. But for the EU they are all the same except that the port of entry is named. Studying Abroad may not care about collecting stamps and may be glad to hear that it will be a quick and easy arrival! Whichever it is have fun once you get there!