Collecting novelty or commemorative passport stamps can seem like a harmless way to mark your travels, but it may cause more trouble than it is worth. Some attractions and heritage sites offer souvenir ink stamps as keepsakes, yet immigration officers in certain places treat them as damage or unauthorised alterations. There have even been cases of travellers being refused boarding or entry because their passport contained a decorative stamp from a tourist site. The reasoning is simple: a passport is an official document, and anything that isn’t issued by a government authority risks undermining its validity.
There are also situations where official stamps themselves can create difficulties. In some regions, showing evidence of travel to politically sensitive destinations can result in delays, questioning, or even refusal of entry. Similarly, adding stickers or slogans to the document can be interpreted as tampering, making it invalid in the eyes of border officials. The safest approach is to keep passports strictly for official markings and, if you want mementoes, to collect them in a separate travel notebook. This avoids unnecessary complications and ensures your passport remains valid wherever your journeys take you.
