Scott Reynolds <scottreyn@gmail.com> wrote:

> Al wrote:
> > Scott Reynolds <scottreyn@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> exit stamp from the country you  just left
> >
> > No such things in most countries I have been to. :-)
>
> OK, but they stamp your J passport when you enter gaikoku, right?

Some countries do, some don't.

> What happens when you come back and there are no foreign stamps
> in your J passport at all?

Well, some countries, such as the US, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan,
seem to put stamps into passports, but other countries clip or staple
relevant permits into travelers' passports and remove them when the
visitors leave. And some countries don't seem to bother at all - I don't
recall getting any stamps into my passport when I went through Europe.
And nobody has ever asked me what the staple holes in some of the pages
of my passport meant, either. :-)

Have you ever been asked, at the time of entering any country, which
country you were _coming from_? Well, you might say, if the officer
looks at your ticket, they can tell. Yes, in that case they can tell
where you boarded the flight you came in on, but that does not tell them
terribly much. And I have actually never been asked to show my ticket
when entering a country whose passport I was presenting (i.e., upon
"coming home"), only when entering a country I was visiting.

FWIW, no guarantee any of the above said might not be different
tomorrow.

Al


Al