Passport "Cleanup" ok?
 

This is undoubtedly a very stupid question, but these days, when you can't take your lip balm with you, who knows? So at the risk of being branded an idiot by all sophisticated fodorites: Is it ok to tear out the arrival/departure card (piece of paper, actually) that I got stapled into my passport last summer when I travelled to Russia? Do you have to leave everything intact? I'm not talking about the pasted in visa, just the stapled paper form for arrival and departure. I don't even know what it was used for, other than giving that horrible woman in Moscow license to glare at me. (At least I wasn't that poor woman with the off-colored passport who was also clueless, and kept getting denied and yelled at because like me, she also didn't read cyrillic...) I'm worried that this "clutter" will just confuse things for an upcoming trip to France/Italy, but at the same time, I don't want them to wonder about the holes left by the staples. As I was checking to make sure everything looked up to date, I was going to rip it out, and then thought I better double check.

I think you need to talk to an official at the State Department; no one here can give you a definitive answer.

I agree with Underhill but am not sure your assumption that the "clutter" will "confuse" things (for whom?) on any upcoming trip is valid.

BRR, besides our State Dept. there is the Italian/French immigration people.
Personally there is no way I would remove that paper from your passport. I would leave your passport "as is". Just my two cents.

I wouldn't do it. There is probably a stamp somewhere in your passport refering to this piece of paper and the holes left my the staples will alert the agents to the fact there was something there. My expired US TN Visa fell out of my passport and I got very stern admonishments from the US immigration officers when I went to reapply.

One purpose of a passport is to SHOW immigration where you've been. If you want to get rid of the paper, apply for a new passport.

Regards Ger

Just leave them in,
The "clutter" will not confuse the immigration officers in France and Italy. They have seen them all before.

The Italians and the French, and everyone else in Europe, who have traveled to the USA have those paperstrip in their passports.

I've got strips from Australia, USA, Dubai, Singapore, "very strip tells a story".

Leave them in and don't worry about it.

You can remove the Russian arrival/departure card. The pasted Russian visa has been used and has the arrival and departure stamp on it. When you initially received your visa, this card came with it and had some details printed on it.

But if you leave them in, no-one will get confused.

I've always removed these as soon as I get home - it is only for use in the relevant country, for that particular stay.

"One purpose of a passport is to SHOW immigration where you've been." So what happens when you've been to one of the vast majority of countries which no longer stamp passports ? I haven't had mine stamped for at least 5 years.

Well, Caroline I feel I must disagree with you. The fact that some countries do not stamp passports does not, IMO, negate one of the purposes of a passport which is documenting entry and exit.

If that weren't one of the purposes then why would you have any pages for stamps at all?

BRR, I have exactly what you have in my passport.

I went to Russia with my partner - we both therefore had the visa pasted in and the arrivals/departure card stapled in. On leaving, my partner had her's removed (she went through a different line) whereas mine was left in. I thought it was probably just an oversight.

So I still have mine in and my partner just has the staple. We both travel extensively, and no one has ever batted an eyelid.

"If that weren't one of the purposes then why would you have any pages for stamps at all?"

I've also regarded stamps in your passport as evidence for the country your visiting to keep track that you entered AND exited, rather than for any future countries to see where you've been. I have Cuban entry and exit stamps on the same page as my US entry/exit stamps which I've always found amusing. The cuban stamps were there first, but they merely show a number and a plane graphic, so US immigration don't recognise it!

My passport is full of staple holes from things I've pulled out from Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Cambodia, etc. They are of no concern to other countries that you visit. Lots of countries love to staple things to the passport because so many people lose them. But that doesn't mean they have to stay there forever.

I have 2 passports anyway, so there is no way that any country can figure out where I've been from looking at my passport.

My arrival/departure card was removed by an agent when I went through immigration departing Moscow last year, leaving just the staple in my passport. There's a departure stamp on the visa that's pasted in the passport. I've traveled internationally a few times since then (including France) without any issues.