Not much room in passport
 

Hi guys,

A new worry has just arose. I am leaving in a week to ride from Milwaukee to Tierra del Fuego and I noticed I only have 2 pages left for stamps in my US passport. I was planning to have some pages added until I found out it takes 4 weeks and a lot of money to do so now.

In your experience will they overlap a bit with entry exit stamps?

I have heard some countries use full pages for the motorbike itself. Could the back blank pages be used for this?

thanks guys

Yes, they overlap. But currently we are on to 4 pages since entering Mexico.

The only stamp for the bike so far has been in Panama, and they only used 1/3 of the page including the exit stamp.

Strangely the US and Canada stamped the front pages, and since Mexico everyone else stamps the back pages .

I rode down and back. I started with a brand new passport, and I've now got 30 pages full. Some stamps could've been squeezed together more efficiently, but others are full-page visas or bike import stamps. I don't think you're going to manage with two empty pages.

As I understand it you can no longer get pages added at embassies; you need to do it here in the States. You might verify that, since it used to be a simple thing to pop into almost any embassy and have pages added for free.

There are expediting agencies who'll get you visas, added pages or whole new passports really, really fast. Of course they're correspondingly expensive....but not as expensive as flying home from, say, Bolivia because they won't let you enter without room in your passport for a visa.

Good luck.

Mark

Not that this will help you out but to clear up markharf comment "As I understand it you can no longer get pages added at embassies"

Here in Rio Grande do Sul Brazil there is a US consulate office in Port Alegre. I contacted them last week to ask about getting pages added and they said to bring it in to their office and pay the fee and it would be sent to the US Embassy in Sao Paulo and the the pages added and returned to their office.
I did not ask how much it cost or how long it took as I am in no rush.

So, it can be done outside the US, or at least here in Brazil!:cool4:

Thanks for the info guys

I just got pages added in Montevideo, Uruguay. So you can do it. However, this is what is new. As it used to be free, now adding pages costs $82, cash.

Also, dont just go to the consulate as you may be wasting your time. In Uruguay, I had to make an appointment online. There were 2 appointments available per day, for only three days each week. So, they will see only 6 US citizens a week for new passport pages and charge you 82 bucks for the privilege. Your government and you tax dollars at work.................

The good thing is that they added the new pages while I waited.

Glad to hear I got it wrong. Eighty two bucks is still substantially cheaper than flying home (or even flying just the passport home) to have it done.

I now order my passports with extra pages from the start. I don't think I've paid more for this when ordering a new passport anyway, but whether I remember that correctly or not, the normal size passport is a waste of effort. If you're traveling, you need acreage.

Hope it all works out for the OP.

Mark

I just put new pages in at the consulate office in Guayaquil... 30min, $82 cash.

It's a really simple process that can be done at any US embassy or US consulate office... each country has one or two.

-Kyle