"a market for immigration authorities to offer an optional fancy stamp"

Trouble is, many continental airports and railway stations make travellers from Schengen countries exit through areas where there isn't anyone checking passports.

It MIGHT be worth the poster's while to get hold of maps to the airports he's using, to see if he can sneak into the bit flights from non-Schengen arrive at, where there will be passport officers.

Sounds tricky. But sometimes, you can see the passport booths from a baggage claim area that serves both Schengen and non-Schengen arrivals. The poster might try walking up to them, and just asking for a stamp. Airport authorities use so much energy stopping people going where they don't want them to go, they often don't bother stopping them going where it really doesn't matter.

And most Continental airports don't have the elaborate system of barriers and doors between immigration and baggage claim that's common in the UK and US.

An American friend of mine who was living illegally in France for six years got an expulsion notice once, so she took the train to Amsterdam for the weekend. She hunted down the immigration office at Gare du Nord to get them to stamp her passport, explaining that she was forced to leave the country and wanted proof that she was doing it. So they stamped her passport with an exit stamp.

After the weekend, she just took the train back to Paris and went on with her life.

I remember watching Rick Steves' video that in San Marino, there is such place to getting the passport stamped for a fee. But I don't know whether that is possible in France or Italy.

Hi
can you please tell me if will i get a stamp for transit in Europe? as have the Schengen visa from Germany and I'm traveling from Cairo to Dusseldorf but will transit in venice, i have been told that the first Schengen stamp in my passport must be from the country i took its visa (which is Germany not Italy)otherwise they will refuse to renew my visa.

thank you

You will be in the electronic Schengen system whether or not they stamp your passport. If they do not stamp it, it is wise to keep your boarding passes and such just in case a question arises.

Two things to make this short and clear:

You arrive at an In-Schengen airport from a non-Schengen airport, you walk down hallways and entry gates that lead you to an immigration official, and you may or may not get a stamp. About customs - unless you are picked out as a random check, you walk out through the green "nothing to declare" exit

You arrive at an In-Schengen airport from another In-Schengen airport, you will pass through different halls and entry gates and not see an immigration official and get no stamp. There is no customs check.