US passport- unsuable pages

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camacho58

Registered Users (C)
Got my first US passport yesterday. I applied for a regular 28 page passport, but was surprised to see that only 20 pages are 'usable' for visas, immigration stamps, etc. I expected 2-4 pages being used for notes, etc, but not 8!

If you plan to travel a lot, you may want to apply for the 52 page passport, I don't think it costs more than a regular one.

I'll be pissed if I need to pay to add pages to my passport before it expires.
 
Yeah, Americans require a lot of useless information in the passport, apparently. I've seen German passports, and they have NONE of that information. They should just send a brochure with the information, and keep visa pages for just that - visas and stamps. Too bad you didn't apply for the 52 page one. You probably would have got it.
 
If I had known that only 20 pages would be available, I would definitely have applied for the 52 page one. Oh, well, lesson learned. My next one will definitely be a 52 page one.

I'm kinda surprised this hasn't been mentioned much on forums.
 
What hasn't been mentioned? That only 20 pages are usable? Well, most people don't travel enough to fill up 20 pages, even. To fill them up, you'd be surprised at how often once has to travel in 10 years. Compared to the majority, very few people go to places requiring full-page visas, for example.
 
Well, unlike other countries (when I was an Indian, they stamp my passport twice at entry and exit), American Customs does not stamp US citizen passports when arriving (no stamps for entering Canada either). Plus, we American need very few visas: In my extensive travels, I have only two visas (Argentina and India), so there is only a stamp for most other countries that I have traveled to all over the world. The net result is that passports of my wife and I are still largely empty despite extensive global travel. In other words, unless you are a jetsetter or travel mostly to countries that require visas for US citizens, no need to pay more.
 
Well, the 52 page passport is free. You just have to check the box.

Also, they do stamp US passports sometimes. They almost always stamp mine when I re-enter the country. Canada doesn't stamp US passports when you enter by land usually, but when you fly, they often do.

But, either way, you're right that the vast majority of US passports with 20 pages last a whole 10 years.
 
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