Singapore Expats

Hi All,

As above, my passport wasn’t stamped when i left London. I took Eurostar from Paris to London and I got my Schengen visa stamped by the French border guard, the stamp showing the date I departed. Then, the UK border guard did inspect my passport and my UK visa, she scanned it and stamped on my visa the date I arrived. When i left London, one of the airport staff just asked me to scan my boarding pass (not passport) at the airport in order to get into the gate. I was too tired to think about it that my passport wasn’t stamped. I only noticed that my passport doesn’t have a departure custom stamp like the French when i was home. So I’m wondering if anyone else faces the same issue. Is it a norm that UK custom only scans our passports instead of custom stamps?

Thanks in advance for any input.

B

Stamping of passports isn't mandatory, but you can ask for it to be stamped if you so desire! I'd guess all the information is stored electronically these days.

Australia doesn't stamp on exit, too.

Several countries don't stamp on exit now and Israel no longer stamp on entry or exit.

It is a pain when trying to recall exact dates of travel though especially when applying for a Chinese visa when they want to know the ins and outs of everything!

I should keep a list I know, never quite seem to get around to it......

Steve1960 wrote:Several countries don't stamp on exit now and Israel no longer stamp on entry or exit.

It is a pain when trying to recall exact dates of travel though especially when applying for a Chinese visa when they want to know the ins and outs of everything!

I should keep a list I know, never quite seem to get around to it......

I just keep a simple list, on a back tab in my Excel 'Accounts spreadsheet'. But there's no reason not to simply note it on a Post-It stuck in the middle of your passport.

For example:
Date Dep Date Return Place #days
23/4/14 30/4/14 KL 7

If you're running close to the tax residency thresholds, then you can consider carefully rules like, 'Were you within a foreign jurisdiction at midnight on the day or arrival, or departure?'

It can make a (big) difference if you're pushing limits on staying within, or outside your home country.

For example, stay in the UK for an average of 90 days per year, measured over 3 years, and that can make you tax resident.

Move to SG 300 days into a tax year, spend the next two tax years in SG, then move back in say August, spending the next 210 days there until the end of the tax year... and you are UK resident.

Big ramifications if you happily sell a UK property during those intervening years in SG.... without realising the consequences.

It's much easier to keep a running note of this as and when, than have Mr Customs Man in your face 5+ years later demanding to know precisely what days you spent in and out of the country.

beedao wrote:Hi All,

As above, my passport wasn’t stamped when i left London. I took Eurostar from Paris to London and I got my Schengen visa stamped by the French border guard, the stamp showing the date I departed. Then, the UK border guard did inspect my passport and my UK visa, she scanned it and stamped on my visa the date I arrived. When i left London, one of the airport staff just asked me to scan my boarding pass (not passport) at the airport in order to get into the gate. I was too tired to think about it that my passport wasn’t stamped. I only noticed that my passport doesn’t have a departure custom stamp like the French when i was home. So I’m wondering if anyone else faces the same issue. Is it a norm that UK custom only scans our passports instead of custom stamps?

Thanks in advance for any input.

B

There tends not to be a formal passport check on departure from UK ports and airports. You sometimes see UKBA staff conducting spot checks, but more often than not the only people to look at your passport are the airline staff.

BillB: i did have my passport stamped at the Australian custom on arrival and departure in 2011. It's just weird that the UK stamped the arrival date on my passport but not the departure date. Actually, we couldn’t see a custom counter for the passport check at Heathrow airport. There were just some machines for the boarding pass scanning. We didn’t really look around for the custom though

BillyB wrote:Stamping of passports isn't mandatory, but you can ask for it to be stamped if you so desire! I'd guess all the information is stored electronically these days.

Australia doesn't stamp on exit, too.

beedao wrote: We didn’t really look around for the custom though

Immigration deal with passports, visas etc, not Customs (as I'm sure you know).

Well, they are different. The reason people use the terms interchangeably is that at many border crossings (especially at airports) one set of people handle both. This is not an English debate and English is not my first language anyway. So, more inputs on the mentioned question will be much more appreciated. Thank you so much.

JR8 wrote:

beedao wrote: We didn’t really look around for the custom though

Immigration deal with passports, visas etc, not Customs (as I'm sure you know).

Ok, I’m not collecting stamps on my passport. I just want to make sure everything is right so i wont get into trouble. Anyway, I’ve got the reply from the British High Commission Singapore

Thank you for your email regarding UK Immigration stamps. On departure from the UK, passports are no longer stamped with an exit stamp. The process you have described for your departure is correct and the lack of a stamp will not affect any future trips to the UK

Anyway, while searching for the answers, i found something interesting from the UK border control website, the airlines have to send our info to the Border Force. Just sharing.

Before you board
Your ‘carrier’ (eg airline or transport provider) will check your passport and other travel documents. They’ll send this information electronically to Border Force.
You can ask to see the information about you that’s been sent by carriers. You’ll have to pay a £10 fee. (souce: https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control/be ... for-the-uk

beedao wrote:Ok, I’m not collecting stamps on my passport. I just want to make sure everything is right so i wont get into trouble. Anyway, I’ve got the reply from the British High Commission Singapore

Thank you for your email regarding UK Immigration stamps. On departure from the UK, passports are no longer stamped with an exit stamp. The process you have described for your departure is correct and the lack of a stamp will not affect any future trips to the UK

Anyway, while searching for the answers, i found something interesting from the UK border control website, the airlines have to send our info to the Border Force. Just sharing.

Before you board
Your ‘carrier’ (eg airline or transport provider) will check your passport and other travel documents. They’ll send this information electronically to Border Force.
You can ask to see the information about you that’s been sent by carriers. You’ll have to pay a £10 fee. (souce: https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control/be ... for-the-uk

US is the same way. Immigration checks only on entering. Many international flights even depart from domestic terminals without immigration facilities.

The US does sometimes have kiosks though that foreigners are supposed to "sign out" at. I've never seen anyone use one, and I've never heard of anyone being penalized of denied future entry for not using it.

zzm9980 wrote:US is the same way. Immigration checks only on entering. Many international flights even depart from domestic terminals without immigration facilities.

The US does sometimes have kiosks though that foreigners are supposed to "sign out" at. I've never seen anyone use one, and I've never heard of anyone being penalized of denied future entry for not using it.

Well you have now Very nearly*

If you have an option of getting an exit stamp I'd take it. I also keep all of my boarding cards... which as in the above linked topic, saved my skin re: US immigration.



* Please refer to my post in this topic ...
http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/sutra449047.html

JR8 wrote:

zzm9980 wrote:US is the same way. Immigration checks only on entering. Many international flights even depart from domestic terminals without immigration facilities.

The US does sometimes have kiosks though that foreigners are supposed to "sign out" at. I've never seen anyone use one, and I've never heard of anyone being penalized of denied future entry for not using it.

Well you have now Very nearly*

If you have an option of getting an exit stamp I'd take it. I also keep all of my boarding cards... which as in the above linked topic, saved my skin re: US immigration.



* Please refer to my post in this topic ...
http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/sutra449047.html

Strange since they're not even in every Airport, and the ones that have them have so few. SFO has maybe 3 or 4 of them (and in random non-obvious spots) for their entire international terminal. That's ~20-30 departure gates.

zzm9980 wrote:Strange since they're not even in every Airport, and the ones that have them have so few. SFO has maybe 3 or 4 of them (and in random non-obvious spots) for their entire international terminal. That's ~20-30 departure gates.

Oops ... to clarify.

I wasn't talking about 'stamping kiosks', or having used them.

I was referring to having had my passport manually stamped at immigration, but, USCB+P then losing the stub of my D/E-Visa Waiver card, after my departure. Hence them having no record of me having left on 4-5 occasions (late 90s IIRC, they much have had a systemic problem with record-keeping, in fact I know they did as plenty of others were being similarly impacted).

As a result I was getting pulled into 2ndary each time at Arrivals, given the 1.01 'shake-down interrogation', and so on, until it got to a point I had to go and get a visa (cost about £200), just to wipe their slate clean.


p.s. so now as said, I keep copies of al boarding cards, keep an excel list of all travel abroad, and scan-copy my passport pages when I remember, maybe annually.

Once inside the EU you don't get national entry/exit stamps. People lose passports. It's all about maintaining a provable record of where you've been should you lose your passport etc...

I have been really lazy and you are right it makes good sense to keep travel records.

I don't get anywhere near the thresholds for tax issues, tends to be a lot of short trips.

Think I will use some quiet time in a hotel room this trip to start building the records, I have two passports to go through!

That's one habit American have from year one as an expatriate as our income earned abroad exclusion has to list all dates entered & departed the US for arriving at the applicable percentage of income deduction. It's not a flat amount but a percentage dependent on the time spent in the US and abroad.