flpab

They stamped it when I got back into Dublin btw. I don't get stamped out of the US, the airlines and TSA check it but don't stamp.

tedgale

Stamped when leaving Canada? Certainly not.

There is no record on one's passport or in any computer system, apparently, when citizens or permanent residents leave the country.

(When you return, you may be asked to scan your passport before going through Immigration Control. But those machines may not be available in all airports.)

Here's the thing:

Permanent residents are required to be present in Canada a set percentage of the time, to maintain their permanent resident status. Some -- we don't know how many -- go home or to a 3rd country to work for long periods, thus breaching the (very liberal) residency requirements.

But there's no easy verification tool. Our government tells us that it operates on an "honour system" re: when you left the country and when you returned.

It seems incredible but that's what I read in the papers.

sartoric

Thanks Tedgale, I had no idea Canada was so trusting of its population.

I checked my current and old Australian passports to see what we do. The last exit stamp was in March 2012, so no more stamping here either. I'm sure we get scanned though, feet on the painted footprints, stare at the camera, sometimes awkward questions.....

jamikins

UK and Ireland have a special agreement so that you don't need to go through passport control between the two countries, you just need to show your boarding pass and you are through.

jamikins

The permanent residence status in Canada relates to our tax system so if you are out if the country a certain number of days you need to report your taxes as a non resident and you have different (higher) tax rates. Again this is an honour system unless you get audited in which case you would need evidence to prove you were in the country when you said you were.

We don't have passport control on exit.

bilboburgler

"Guess I better next time, because nothing is worse than being bitched at by a German official."

You've not met a bored USA official then

Jamikins is right about UK/Ireland

eastave

This is off topic from my OP...

But, as a permanent resident of Canada let me say I wish they kept track of my residency for me. It is a big pain every five years to have to remember every time I have been out of Canada. Once I started keeping track of travel on my online calendar things got easier.

They have also changed the process since I last renewed. This last time we had to show proof of taxes paid to Canada (notice of assessment) and I think maybe even school records for our daughter. So, they are trying to limit the renewal of people who aren't meeting the residency requirement.

flanneruk

"UK and Ireland have a special agreement so that you don't need to go through passport control between the two countries,"

Not quite accurate.

Britain and the Irish Republic operate a common travel area. Citizens of neither country require ID to travel to the other (though some airlines and shipping cos may require something, I usually use my Oxfordshire bus pass), and the UK doesn't routinely inspect any arrivals from Ireland, though local police forces will inspect all passengers if the security status locally is heightened.

There are almost always ID checks when entering the Irish Republic by air from any destination.Though my Oxfordshire bus pass works just fine, citizens of other countries are asked to show a passport or (for most European countries) national ID card when entering and must conform to the Republic's visa requirements (which aren't always identical with Britain's).

Though the land border between the two countries is not normally patrolled (and these days is invisible), cross-border trains and buses are subject to ID checks - and, unless you're a citizen of the UK or the Republic, you do need a passport or (for some) a national ID card.

eastave

When we flew from London to Cork in 2010, we got our passports stamped.

yorkshire

bilboburgler on Sep 3, 14 at 3:37am

"Guess I better next time, because nothing is worse than being bitched at by a German official."

You've not met a bored USA official then

Yeah Bilbo, but that is on my own turf--I can handle them!

dfourh

Just as a FYI: Schengen has wanted to have an integrated passport central database, but is so far behind in its grand data plans that they barely have registered criminals in it. It is up to each passport-stamper to determine whether a person has stayed too long, and in most cases they are not going to spend 10 or 20 minutes calculating all the comings and goings if there are multiple entries.

HappyTrvlr

My passport hasn't been stamped entering and/or exiting other countries many times, never a problem leaving. They scan the passport into their systems so thought that data was universal.

bilboburgler

yorkshire, that is the point isn't it, you know exactly how to handle your own clowns.

Sarah_11

Hey just a question. Does that mean that can't tell which county's you have been to with out a stamp ? I left the UK and have been to Prague and Budapest. Will they not know how long I have been here for ?

uhoh_busted

Who knows?

purplemangs

I arrived into melpensa Milan where the passport officer was too busy on his phone when he stamped my passport that you couldn't read the date. Two months later when leaving from Frankfurt to go back to Australia, I was grilled over it and it took 5 minutes before she would let me thru to fly home.

UNCalum

I flew into Rome last summer a few weeks after a fire in one of their arrival areas. We were directed to an adjacent area which was clearly handling more than its usual share of arriving passengers. The passport control people were just waving everyone through without a word or a stamp! I flew out of Athens where no one bothered to check on much of anything.

PhillyFan

<I've heard of people having the same exit problem in Amsterdam.

It never occurred to me to make sure my passport was stamped upon arrival. But in March in Amsterdam, I did have a similar issue. When I arrived in AMS, my passport was stamped, but it was very difficult to see the day. When leaving, the control officer was scrutinizing my passport for quite a while and called another person over. I finally asked if there was a problem and he explained that they couldn't make out the date. I offered to show them my boarding pass (which I actually had - I rarely would have it available and readily able to offer it). They didn't want to see it, looked even closer at my passport, determined the date was OK and finally let me through.

annhig

when we were leaving Havana airport to fly home, a woman in front of us in the queue to board was pulled over because her passport had not been stamped on arrival. This was despite her having her tourist card which showed her entry and her departure.

I don't know how they resolved the problem but i noticed that she was on the flight so they must have done it somehow.

When we travel within Europe we are never stamped so asking for someone to stamp a passport [when I'm not sure if they are supposed to do it or not anyway] would rather go against the grain.

Cowboy1968

Last month, one in our small group of three did not get his passport stamped upon entry at Denver International Airport.
He did not notice. I am not sure I would have noticed as they always stamp foreign passports.

Two weeks later, the laziness of the immigration officer in Denver gave us an extra half hour at the checkpoint in Southern AZ, in the middle of nowhere when driving back from Bisbee to Tucson.
Until the border police was able to tap into the respective database which had recorded my friend's legal entry.