5 Passport Mistakes That Will DENY You from Boarding the Plane

Are you unknowingly making these mistakes with your passport that could cause major headaches at the airport? In this video I cover 5 things to make sure your passport is valid & works.

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About me - Aly Smalls:
I'm the CFF (Chief Fun Finder) of my travel website - Like Where You're Going.

A former Tourism Development Officer who now makes fun and easy to follow travel itineraries for your next trip. Wherever your travels take you, I'll help make sure you like where you're going!

My free travel and destination guides focus on unique & fresh itineraries - showcasing Canada, USA, Mexico and a bit of Europe.

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[CPO-Snarky]

I was detained at Amsterdam Schiphol for extensive questioning 20 years ago because a security agent insisted that my novelty passport from the Dorason train station in the Korean DMZ was a stamp from North Korea. During the conversation, I was able to give a remedial geography lesson and convince her superiors that I had never entered North Korea.

[missinformed]

An acquaintance got a new passport before a cruise vacation. Everything looked OK, so she put it in the safe until it was needed. The day before the trip, as she gathered her documents and tickets, she saw that the passport had her down as a male and she had not noticed previously. There was nothing she could do correct the error in the less than one day before she was due to start her cruise, so she hoped that it would not be noticed and it wasn't. 😅

[patobrien]

Passport went through the laundry one week before travelling to Ireland. Wife went through first, spent 5 minutes chatting with the agent, then my turn. Took one look at my freshly laundered passport and just went off on me, saying no way he could let me in the country with my mashed document. Noticed me looking towards the wife, turned to her and asked "Are you travelling with this man?" Wife gives a sweet smile and replied "I never met the man". Agent saw the look on my face, and could barely stop laughing long enough to wave me through. Keep the passport in a safe place weeks, if not months before you go, unless you're travelling with my smart aleck wife. Thanks for the tips Aly.

[toddjones]

Insist on a stamp when leaving any country. I was detained in France for over staying a work visa. I didn’t overstay, just forgot to get a stamp when I last left.

[helent]

For those of you who haven't traveled internationally in a while, you might want to know that getting a passport stamp when going through passport control is becoming a thing of the past, so running out of blank pages should not be an issue anymore. Many countries are installing electronic passport gates, where you simply scan and go.

[martinwhetter]

I didn’t know about the souvenir stamps, I have one from Antarctica and a couple other places. Hope no one notices. Like your videos - thanks.

[Jace]

I was at Stockholm Airport and was detained because I had a temporary passport as mine had been stolen on train in Germany. It took several Airline Employees and much anxiety on my part before they realized it was valid. My daughter was freaking out because she didn’t want to leave me in Sweden. Keep hold of passport at all times and if something feels off DO Not let anyone touch it!

[BrianRP]

I got a souvenir stamp for East Germany in 2007, never had any issue with it.
About passport validity after your travel dates, I learned that two weeks before I was due to leave for Rome and my passport was going to expire two months after my trip. No good. I had to get a new one in a hurry.
I heard someone else at the passport office say that where she was going, her passport needed to be good for a year after her travels.

[TommyG-qrci]

Very informative and, as someone who has traveled to over 80 countries in my career, spot on. I would add a sixth - Make sure you sign your passport in the appropriate place in ink and your signature matches your name as it appears on the passport. I personally witnessed a US citizen denied entry into the UK because his passport wasn't signed. They wouldn't just let him sign it there. In the end he may have been allowed into the country, but I would guess it was a hassle that he didn't need after a long flight.

[maysmith]

The last couple of flights I took to another country, no one stamped my passport. I thought it wasn't a thing anymore.

[HA-gxdg]

I just got a new passport however until a year ago i was an international flight attendant and i asked some hard to get into countries for a souvinier stamp. Yet i am glad i saw ur video.

[djm]

Good information. I definitely learned something.

[ianworthington]

US immigration is the worst I've experienced for burning through pages with single stamps on fresh pages. Happens so often I just assume it's deliberate.

[bunnyb]

I wish I would have found you a month ago. Got married last October and we booked our honeymoon prior in my maiden name. I had my passport done after the wedding in my married name and I had to pay $200 at the airport for name change to match my passport. I was soooo bummed as that kind of ruined the initial excitement of our honeymoon, but it was better than being denied.

[maxart]

You forgot to mention one thing: at the check-in, they sometimes stick the baggage tag on the back cover of your passport (instead of the boarding pass) and when removing it, the glue leaves some marks there and in some cases also damages the cover. So you have a damaged passport and it's not your fault. Has anybody have problems because of that?

[fotoeins]

Thanks for the reminders in your video, A.

[zamar]

Never heard of souvenir stamps till this video.

[alecedgeworth]

One problem with the bringing of an old passport for unofficial stamps is that when you are renewing the passport most countries require the old one be returned to the issuing country government

[williamearnshaw]

Wow... Didnt realise that. I have one... Amongst many others mind you, from Ecuadors Del Mundo Equator Never been pulled up on it..., yet!

[bobjacobson]

One can also request a passport book with about twice as many pages when getting either the first one or renewing it, at no extra charge.