Passport stamp at Checkpoint Charlie

75

What a relief, KeeRee. I've been losing so much sleep worrying about this.

*http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com*

76

I just wanted to thank everyone so very much for all of your posts (with exception to #55). You have made my day. This has been by far the most amusing thread I have read.

77

Yes, greenthumbs, I also found this a very amusing thread although it is about a serious problem: invalidated passports.

If you google on passport AND stamp AND checkpoint charlie this thread now comes up first! I'm proud...

I still didn't receive a reply from the museum at Checkpoint Charlie on my question about the passport stamps. I don't understand why. Do they feel embarrassed about the situation? Do they have something to hide?

Anyway...I still don't know whether it is legal or not (although it seems that tourists with such a stamp in their passport didn't get serious troubles), while I expected to get a clear answer about the (il)legality of such a stamp (with a link to a reliable source). It surprises me a lot, I have to say.

So... I advise tourists not to get the Checkpoint Charlie stamp.

78

Stop it now!!! You've got plenty of answers, many links and info on the internet. The museum probably doesn't answer because they reckon your question is too ridiculous to worry about!

Paikea - "What the fo'shizzle!?"

life is fun, life is strange, it's silly, it's sad, it's good and sometimes bad, but most of all it's life.

79

I agree, this thread became much too long. This is "much ado about nothing".

KeeRee,
You are too afraid to use your passport and see what happens.
You are too afraid to phone your administration office and ask them.
You are too afraid to report it as lost and get a new one.

That leaves you only one solution: stay at home (afraid) and wait until your passport is expired. But i'm afraid that even then you will be too afraid to get a new one because you will have to bring your old one with you. So it's just a 'stay of execution' :)

80

This thread indeed became much too long...so many answers...I am more confused now than before starting the thread!

I really thought that on the website of some kind of government agency, or travel organisation there would be some kind of message like this: "You have to be very careful with your passport. Putting onofficial stamps in your passports is a criminal offence. For example, our embassy in Berlin gets a lot of tourists who have to renew their passport because of the Checkpoint Charlie stamp."

or like: "You have to be very careful with your passport. Putting onofficial stamps in your passports is a criminal offence, however, there is an exception for Checkpoint Charlie stamps."

or like: "At Checkpoint Charlie you can see this, do that, bla bla bla, but don't let them stamp your passport as this will bring you in trouble like all the other thousands and thousands of tourists each year who find out at the airport that their passport has been invalidated."

or like: "At Checkpoint Charlie, you can have your passport stamped! This is perfectly legal, since...."

or like: "In Berlin you have to watch out for pickpocketing in the U-Bahn, you have big chance of getting robbed in this and that area, you get ripped of if you take a taxi at Hauptbahnhoff and you should definitely not have your passport stamped at Checkpoint Charlie."

Oh, and artemis2, don't worry about me, I still got another passport which I can use (I paid 80 euro for it and never used it before, so, let's use it now because otherwise it would be a waste of money when it expires). I don't think I get that serious trouble when I renew my Dutch one (but it might be a different story when I use it to travel and the authorities of the country I go to make troubles about it).

81

Argh!!!

Paikea - "What the fo'shizzle!?"

life is fun, life is strange, it's silly, it's sad, it's good and sometimes bad, but most of all it's life.

82

Ok, here's my answer:

You have to be very careful with your passport. Putting onofficial stamps in your passports is a criminal offence. For example, our embassy in Berlin gets a lot of tourists who have to renew their passport because of the Checkpoint Charlie stamp.

Feel better now?

Paikea - "What the fo'shizzle!?"

life is fun, life is strange, it's silly, it's sad, it's good and sometimes bad, but most of all it's life.

83

I got Metallica to autograph my passport when I saw them in Germany cos I didnt have anything else for them to sign.

Still got back into the UK, but I was advised it was a criminal offence to deface a passport and I should get a new one straight away

84

19 and 11 are right- ask your own government. and dont pour coffee on your passport!

85

I know it's a bit out of date, but some replies in here made me laugh. I have also got a CC passport stamp. It's the big, obvious red one with DDR symbols and makes it perfectly clear it's a tourist stamp. I saw one guy (American If I remember correctly) getting 2 pages filled with all 10 stamps they had on offer. Would the Official Berlin Tourist board really recommend this as a souvenir if it was illegal? Would they offer it outside the official Berlin Wall museum if it was going to invalidate thousands of tourists passports, all for a few Euro?

I've never even had a second glance at it by any passport officer anywhere and so far I've been to:

Canada, USA, Ireland, Germany (4 times since I got it), Denmark, Switzerland, Liechtenstein (where I got another stamp at the tourist office) and tomorrow will be going to Luxembourg (where I fully intend on picking up another tourist stamp). I even have an exit, but no entry stamp for Switzerland, a reverse exit stamp from Hungary (smudged off my boarding pass which all get an exit stamp for some reason) and 2 stamps from Germany (which I asked for). So in total I have 6 stamps which "should not be" in my British Passport.

The US Border Guards at Niagara Falls, who I thought would moan, saw it and didn't care, they just flicked on past it. The German immigration guards at Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Bremen and Hahn airports didn't care either, they laughed in fact and then just let me walk on by. The UK Border patrol guards didn't even notice it.

In short, there is no problem with these stamps whatsoever.

Edited by: fishfishfish

Edited by: fishfishfish

Edited by: fishfishfish

86

fishfishfish - Welcome to the Thorntree!

87

For all those who contributed to this debate, there's a post that's relevant to this thread here.

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