Questions and Answers

Hi Ben!
My name is Nelson Moreira. It is for several years I read and appreciate your blog, Congrats for that!
First of all, I want to appolagise for my bad English, wich isn’t my mothertounge.
I have a question on wich I would like to have your opinion.
Me too I fly around the globe, but for work. I have my own business with it’s Head office in Belgium and Branch in Portugal and another in Brazil. By myself I fly about 5 to 600.000 miles a year since I started my business back in 1996. I have in total, over the three offices about 25 employees who fly almost the same. We handdle On Board Courier Services. ([URL=”http://www.ibero.be”]www.ibero.be[/URL])
Just like you I have two Passports, a Belgian and a Portuguese. I don’t know how long the Passports in the US and Germany lasts but in Belgium and Portugal it is 5 years. Before in Belgium we could choose for 5 or 1 year, wich was perfect for me. Unfortunatly not anymore, the only option is 5 years.
So I wonder how you manage this while traveling a lot and fill up pages of your Passport with stamps and visa.
In my experience I have to renew my both Passports almost every year, not because they expired but because they are fully stamped. In the case Germany & US have the same policy, I guess you struggle with the same problem.
Thanks in advance for your reply and keep up the good work!!
Best regards,

Nelson.

Not sure about foreign passports but the US had a passport with the standard number of pages (28?) and a thicker 52 page version. Both cost the same but you had to specifically request the 52 page book if you wanted it. The 52 page book is now the only one that is issued and adult passports are good for 10 years. Up until earlier this year (or last year?) we could pay a fee to add more pages to the passport but I believe this has been phased out, meaning if its filled up, a new one has to be applied for.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 23283, member: 29″]Not sure about foreign passports but the US had a passport with the standard number of pages (28?) and a thicker 52 page version. Both cost the same but you had to specifically request the 52 page book if you wanted it. The 52 page book is now the only one that is issued and adult passports are good for 10 years. Up until earlier this year (or last year?) we could pay a fee to add more pages to the passport but I believe this has been phased out, meaning if its filled up, a new one has to be applied for.[/QUOTE]
Thanks David! We don’t have that possibility. 5 Years or fully stamped.

In several countries you can ask for a SECOND passport, so you would have TWO. I had it in the past. I recommend you check it with both passport agencies.

[QUOTE=”Daniel B, post: 23288, member: 1592″]In several countries you can ask for a SECOND passport, so you would have TWO. I had it in the past. I recommend you check it with both passport agencies.[/QUOTE]
In my both countries you cannot. But even if you could it would cost the same as a new one I guess. So same issue.

I’m ready to renew my US passport after ten years and I still have a little room left after making around six international trips per year (about 180 stamps). Clearly, I don’t travel as much as you, however, my book is full of over stamps, all from EU countries – not sure anyone cares if it’s readable. One thing that has helped me is the US Global Entry program – no more stamps from Homeland Security upon re-entry into the USA so that eliminates a third of my stamps. I have an Italian passport but I only use it while transiting EU countries and my stamps are kept to a minimum.

Since just about every country records one’s passage electronically, it seems of little use to even bother with passport stamps- one has to wonder how long they will be around.

The biggest challenge for me is countries with visa stamps/stickers. Egypt, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, etc. — they all took a full page or more!

So if you’re going to those types of countries, I can see running out of pages much more quickly.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 23332, member: 7″]The biggest challenge for me is countries with visa stamps/stickers. Egypt, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, etc. — they all took a full page or more!

So if you’re going to those types of countries, I can see running out of pages much more quickly.[/QUOTE]
You are right Tiffany. You get about the same when traveling to Brazil. I don’t need Visa but they fill in one page with two stamps and don’t allow a 3th. Even if you would put the stamps correctly you could put up to 4 easy.