Cuba: Stamps on passports
Bill & Kelly Peterson
passport when you go to Cuba. I've been twice, and you do indeed get a
stamp -- although it doesn't say "Cuba" on it anywhere.
What do the stamps look like these days. I haven't been in two years.
smsphoto
never had my passport stamped.
The last time I went I actually asked them to stamp it since it is legal
for me to travel there. They wouldn't comply.
Ken Tough
>I wouldn't necessarily call that a myth. I've been twice also and I've
>never had my passport stamped.
Have a very, very close look at page 16.
--
Ken Tough
Homer
On Sun, 12 Aug 2001 16:39:34 -0400, Ken Tough <k...@objectech.co.uk>
wrote:
smsphoto
last time and then asked them to stamp mine. Nothing doing.
I know what the stamp looks like (at least the last time I went) and I know
I didn't get it. They stamped my tourist card and slid my passport back
through the window. I slid it back and asked for a stamp to no avail.
I live in S. Fla. and of the many, many people I know who have been to
Cuba, only about half of them got a stamp.
Like I said, it's not a myth. Sometimes they just don't stamp passports.
Ken Tough wrote:
smsphoto
24.
Homer wrote:
Ken Tough
>I watched the passport control officer stamp my travel mate's passport this
>last time and then asked them to stamp mine. Nothing doing.
>I know what the stamp looks like (at least the last time I went) and I know
>I didn't get it. They stamped my tourist card and slid my passport back
>through the window. I slid it back and asked for a stamp to no avail.
I asked for my (UK) passport to be stamped and it was, with
the same stamp used for the tourist cards. It was also stamped
with a differently-shaped barely visible (probably fluorescent)
stamp on page 16, the same 'secret' stamp in my travel partner's
passport.
--
Ken Tough
Andy Carvin
Hi everyone... My girlfriend I and just got back from Havana on July
31. We traveled to Cuba on general licenses - my girlfriend, a tv
producer, shooting footage for a cable tv program, and myself
conducting research as senior writer for the online magazine
DigitalDivideNetwork.org.
As others have reported, we didn't have our passports stamped on the
way in, but they were indeed stamped on the way out. I might not even
have noticed if I hadn't known ahead of time that Cuban immigration
officers tend to stamp page 16 of a passport. On my passport, which
was actually completely blank since I just got it renewed, there was a
small stamp about one centimeter square in the top left margin of page
16. The stamp is so light you can barely make out what it looks like.
(Offhand, I'm not sure of what particular symbol was used - I'll have
to go home later and check my passport.) On my girlfriend's passport,
it was even harder to spot, since her passport is about nine years old
and each page is covered in numerous visas and stamps. Her Cuban stamp
blends in with the other older stamps, so we had to use my passport
stamp as reference in order to figure out where her stamp was.
Since we were traveling to Cuba for legitimate journalistic purposes,
we weren't concerned about Cuban authorities stamping our passports
(on the contrary - being avid passport stamp collectors, we would have
been disappointed if they hadn't.) But I thought it was interesting
that they went ahead and stamped it without asking us either way.
As a side note, we were both surprised how easy it was to go through
US immigration in Nassau, which apparently has a reputation for
skeptical US immigration agents. We were both prepared to pull out our
paper trail of editor's assignments, press credentials, business
receipts, etc, but they were never requested. The immigration officer
simply asked where we had been traveling ("Cuba - we're journalists,"
was all I said), how long we were in Cuba (less than a week), and were
we sure about the cost of good we'd brought back (about $35 in Havana
Club rum, t-shirts and tacky Che Guevara chotchkes). Otherwise, he
asked no questions about our reasons for being in Cuba, which
surprised us, considering Dubya's recent call for increased vigilence
by US immigrations officers. Of course, I wouldn't bank on this
happening to everyone thinking of traveling through Nassau
legitimately or otherwise, but it was still a surprise.
I'll try to post another message about the actual design of the stamp
once I can get home and pull out my passport. I'm also planning to
create a travel journal on our Havana visit, which I'll post to my
online travel page (http://edwebproject.org/andy/travels)....
thanks,
ac
Andy Carvin
Senior Associate, Benton Foundation
aca...@benton.org
http://edwebproject.org/andy
Ken Tough
>As others have reported, we didn't have our passports stamped on the
>way in, but they were indeed stamped on the way out.
Did you check them while you were there, or are you just
assuming because there seems to be one (barely visible) stamp?
They usually stamp in & out, but put the stamps exactly on top
of each other so if you can see it, it looks like just one.
>The stamp is so light you can barely make out what it looks like.
Sounds the same as on ours, a 1 cm square with what looks
like a beehive on it.
--
Ken Tough
Michael Barrett
--
Commander Bob
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