The Hidden Messages of Passport Stamps

I have always been fascinated by passports, even made my own for a frog toy I took to germany as a lad. 

Get a gander at the ones this guy has and read the stories behind them. 

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The Hidden Messages of Passport Stamps

A few years ago in West Africa, I had to travel overland between Benin and Nigeria twice. This border crossing is known as one of the most corrupt in the world, and it certainly met my expectations for entrepreneurial activity among the numerous officials.

From the moment I entered the Nigerian side, I encountered at least ten requests for bribes. The first one was pretty straightforward—a soldier took my passport, put it behind his back, and asked, "What do you have for me today?"

I thought that was pretty considerate. No need to waste time with formalities or explain the technical details of why you need to pay up.

I told him I had a visa that I had already paid more than $100 for. Because the visa was so expensive, I said, regretfully I had no more money to pay at the border.

He let me go, and I had similar encounters with the next five or six guys. (I'm not exaggerating.) In each encounter I managed to get away without paying anything, which I considered to be a great success. They were clearly trying to intimidate visitors, reasoning that many of them will pay at least something to get through unobstructed.

That experience caused me to think more about passport stamps and visas. I've come up with a theory that you can learn a lot about a country by observing what they put in your passport.

Here are 13 examples from my own travels (click to enlarge any image):

Belgium, Denmark, Holland, etc. – All very easy. They don't take up much space, and most European Union immigration guys will happily stamp wherever you tell them to. Even better, for U.S. passports they often won't stamp at all, saving up needed space for later. Sometimes I've even been waved through as soon as they see the passport, which I'm not sure is the best security, but I shouldn't complain about quick immigration.

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