1 hour ago, khunjeff said:

I spent many years as a visa and passport officer, and in some countries we would regularly see souvenir stamps in applicants' passports (most commonly from Anchorage, Alaska, where many flights used to stop for refueling before longer range aircraft made that unnecessary). We paid no attention to those stamps, and they didn't affect our decisions at all.

Frankly, I would be more concerned by the Thai immigration officers who use passports like personal memo pads, scrawling lengthy handwritten notes that should properly be in their computer system rather than on a passport page.

Exactly right, finally someone with actual firsthand experience and common sense.

17 hours ago, Georgealbert said:

staff decided his passport was damaged because it carried a souvenir stamp from Peru's Machu Picchu.

Absolutely BS , they just made it up. Airlines are professional for making up stories by what they don’t like.

More than 10 years ago I was checking in at Narita to fly back to BKK. JR at the counter did not check me in due to not having any visa in my passport 😳. I told them that Americans can get 30 day on arrival with not having any visa in pass. They still refused (I arrived Japan by same Airlines without any Japan visa in my passport and got 90 days on arrival) 😂. After some phone calls and 2 hrs waiting they told me that I can check in and that was only a “suggestion by airlines”. 🤨

On 8/18/2026 at 3:35 PM, khunjeff said:

I spent many years as a visa and passport officer, and in some countries we would regularly see souvenir stamps in applicants' passports (most commonly from Anchorage, Alaska, where many flights used to stop for refueling before longer range aircraft made that unnecessary). We paid no attention to those stamps, and they didn't affect our decisions at all.

Seems you were not very good at your job... The U.S. government views any unofficial novelty or souvenir stamps inside any passport as potential defacement or unauthorized alteration of an official legal document. Moreover, The U.S. government maintains that unofficial novelty or souvenir stamps are strictly not allowed inside official U.S. passports. The U.S. Department of State warns that adding these decorative marks can lead to foreign border or airline authorities viewing the document as altered or damaged, which risks travelers being denied boarding or entry.

On 8/18/2026 at 2:26 AM, Liverpool Lou said:

By whom? The person selling it to you?

I hiked in with a group tour since hikers are required to go with your and the tour company gets a hiking permit. The guides encouraged you to put the stamp in your passport and I think the sign at the stamp station does too.

On 8/18/2026 at 4:47 PM, Jim Waldron said:

While we're on the subject of passport damage, remember the old TM.6 departure card system (finally replaced in 2022) where the Immigration officers would staple it into your passport, leaving behind permanent holes in the pages.

When I picked up my newly issued passport in February with my yearly visa extension stamp immigration had stapled the receipt and another form inside the passport. I thought they didn't do that anymore. I quickly removed the paper and smoothed over the holes. Too many countries are picky about how your passport looks. I keep mine under lock and key unless I go to the bank or immigration.

On 8/18/2026 at 1:52 PM, Briggsy said:

The bank teller in my local SCB branch put a form of adhesive tape on the pages of my passport so he could take a photo of the information he needed without other passport stamps in the photo.

I sat there aghast at what he was doing. I said if he damaged the passport I would be several thousand baht out of pocket. He dismissed my concerns. It was obviously part of his procedure for this process which he had done before. (I can't recall fully, perhaps changing the phone number linked to the account or the passport number, not sure.)

Fortunately his confidence was not misplaced. The relatively low-level adhesive tape was removed without damaging the passport.

Précis:

SCB caused no damage, whatsoever, to my passport!

Both Bangkok Bank and Kasikorn have never caused any damage to my passport, either, on numerous occasions.

Edited yesterday at 02:52 AM1 day by Liverpool Lou

On 8/18/2026 at 3:35 PM, khunjeff said:

I spent many years as a visa and passport officer, and in some countries, we would regularly see souvenir stamps in applicants' passports (most commonly from Anchorage, Alaska, where many flights used to stop for refueling before longer range aircraft made that unnecessary). We paid no attention to those stamps, and they didn't affect our decisions at all.

Frankly, I would be more concerned by the Thai immigration officers who use passports like personal memo pads, scrawling lengthy handwritten notes that should properly be in their computer system rather than on a passport page.

I also had many years' experience as an SII at international airports, and often had such stamps and stickers referred to me from the primary line. Unless the PP was badly defaced, I would usually just advise the pax that they risked being refused entry, or uplift, in some countries, including Australia. In most cases I would simply cancel the bogus cachet so there would be no confusion as to its legitimacy.

In Australia we had a farmer who declared his farm to be an independent state and himself it's Prince. It became quite a successful tourist destination, and many fools collected his" Hutt River Province" stamps in their passport. When travelling, they were usually given the standard lecture about ownership and defacement of the document.

You're quite right, an officer shouldn't be writing notes all over a passport. We had a computer alert system to use for the purpose. It would trigger each time the passport was scanned.

How do Peruvians at Machu Picchu get hold of a passport?

On 8/18/2026 at 12:17 PM, 241195_1469957797 said:

Pure harassment. Only the passport-issuing country can declare it invalid, and that's it! Bureaucracy in Asia is mostly based on a lack of education among the relevant personnel!

Hate to blow your mind, but I've determined many foreign passports presented at my border to be invalid, refused entry to the holder, and confiscated the document. See if you can think of any reasons for this.

Sometimes we would retain the document permanently, other times it would be returned to the Embassy or given to the plane's Purser with instruction to pass to Immigration only at the home Port.

The airline had an obligation to remove a person refused entry on the next available flight, so, when it was necessary, I would issue an ICAO travel document for that travel.

Some may call it harassment to question passengers or refuse entry to the worlds criminal refuse; others understand that not all travellers have benign motives.

Ah, so a souvenir stamp in a passport is a criminal act. Am I understanding correctly? Not all travelers have benevolent motives, especially those with a souvenir stamp in their passport.... if you look at it that way, I say even more emphatically: denying someone entry for that reason is pure harassment based on bad goodwill.

You are probably a bureaucrat of the worst kind.🫣🫣🫣

Edited yesterday at 08:03 AM1 day by 241195_1469957797

On 8/18/2026 at 3:35 PM, khunjeff said:

Frankly, I would be more concerned by the Thai immigration officers who use passports like personal memo pads, scrawling lengthy handwritten notes that should properly be in their computer system rather than on a passport page.

Good post. I cringe when my bank asks to see my passport and the guy there bends it back and forth and roughly flips through the pages. When I renewed my Thai driving license the woman at the counter carelessly folded the bio page (seems ok though - luckily). I also keep it in a plastic sleeve to keep moisture, sweat, etc., from damaging it.

On 8/18/2026 at 7:57 AM, Jim Waldron said:

Wow, this is what I found out about "souvenir stamps"!

For the record, in 2020 British traveler Tina Sibley was denied boarding for a flight to Phuket by Qatar Airways due to a souvenir Machu Picchu stamp in her passport.

Sibley was forced to obtain an emergency passport and incur significant costs after the unauthorized stamp was deemed to deface the official document.

It seems that it's the airlines blocking travelers at the check-in gate. Because, if an immigration officer rejects your passport at your destination, the airline is legally forced to fly you back at their own expense and also face government fines.

Reference: ICAO Annex 9, Chapter 5 (Inadmissible Persons and Deportees).

The Rule: Under international aviation law, the aircraft operator that transported the passenger to the destination country is legally bound to assume immediate responsibility for them if they are denied entry. The airline must transport the passenger back to their point of origin, or to another place where they are admissible, using its own next available flight.

While there is no single international treaty that explicitly lists "souvenir stamps", your passport is sovereign government property, meaning national legislation determines its validity.

For example, the US, UK, and AUS governments explicitly mandate that only authorized consular or immigration officials may alter the document. Placing a novelty stamp on government property technically constitutes unauthorized defacement, automatically giving other nations legal right to reject it!

Holders of passports with "Welcome to Scotland" stamps from Gretna, and "I saw Nessie" stamps from Inverness, take note.

1 hour ago, 241195_1469957797 said:

Ah, so a souvenir stamp in a passport is a criminal act. ...

No. It's an act of ignorance and stupidity.

On 8/18/2026 at 3:35 PM, khunjeff said:

Frankly, I would be more concerned by the Thai immigration officers who use passports like personal memo pads, scrawling lengthy handwritten notes that should properly be in their computer system rather than on a passport page.

Frankly, I think you're making up this claim about Thai IO's, "scrawling lengthy handwritten notes."

7 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Frankly, I think you're making up this claim about Thai IO's, "scrawling lengthy handwritten notes."

I just checked my PP. The only hand writing in it is Thai. However, I did change my one-year visa to an LTR and that caused a lot of stamps and cancels etc. Then notes hand written, something crossed off and then written in pen (a year). I think the point is that this is not a Thai passport, so there shouldn't be a bunch of (foreign - i.e. Thai) hand writing in it. As mentioned the passport is the property of my country, not a booklet that the Thais can mess around with

Edited yesterday at 09:23 AM1 day by ronnie50

1 hour ago, ronnie50 said:

I just checked my PP. The only hand writing in it is Thai. However, I did change my one-year visa to an LTR and that caused a lot of stamps and cancels etc. Then notes hand written, something crossed off and then written in pen (a year). I think the point is that this is not a Thai passport, so there shouldn't be a bunch of (foreign - i.e. Thai) hand writing in it. As mentioned the passport is the property of my country, not a booklet that the Thais can mess around with

A couple of passports ago, I had similar scribbles relating to visa or passport changes or work permits, but it certainly wasn't excessive. If the handwriting is done by Thai immigration to validate one's long stay in Thailand, they aren't causing one to break any covenant one has with the UK passport authority regarding looking after their travel document.

Note that it's airlines that ultimately bear the brunt of any immigration officer's opinion on what's acceptable or otherwise inside a passport. All very inconvenient yes, but if one choses to play silly buggers in Peru, that's the risk one takes.

2 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

if one choses to play silly buggers in Peru, that's the risk one takes.

Yes, agree with that.

Need souvenir passport to hold your souvenir stamps.

1 hour ago, NanLaew said:

Frankly, I think you're making up this claim about Thai IO's, "scrawling lengthy handwritten notes."

I had about four lines in handwritten ink put in my old passport when I retired from Mahidol. It noted my retirement, that I was no longer serviced by Nakhon Pathom immigration, and needed to change my passport business to Chaengwattana.

1 hour ago, John Drake said:

I had about four lines in handwritten ink put in my old passport when I retired from Mahidol. It noted my retirement, that I was no longer serviced by Nakhon Pathom immigration, and needed to change my passport business to Chaengwattana.

Four lines isn't really "scrawling and lengthy" though. But I can appreciate the earlier poster describing his experience as different.

18 hours ago, NanLaew said:

No. It's an act of ignorance and stupidity.

You're probably a bureaucrat of the worst kind, too. 🫣🫣🫣