Passport pages- South Africa

AlanS

From my research, according the Tauck "Before You Go" and the US State Dept., South Africa requires you have two blank, facing pages titled "visa" in your passport for the South Africa entry and departure stamps. The State Dept. website states, "South Africa strictly enforces entry and exit requirements and other immigration laws. Failure to observe these requirements may result in the traveler being denied entry, detained, deported, and/or deemed inadmissible to enter South Africa in the future." and "Two Consecutive Blank Visa Pages: South Africa requires travelers to have two completely blank visa pages in their passports upon every arrival in South Africa. You will be denied entry and forced to return to your point of origin if you do not have two blank visa pages." (I added emphasis). A number of posters on travel websites challenge this, saying only one page is really needed. Some claim the border officials don't enforce this while others say it is the airlines (following the old policy?) that won't let you board if you don't have two blank facing pages!

In any case, it seems prudent to have at a minimum two blank facing pages and at least one other blank page!!! *

While neither of us have an issue with the number of blank pages, I realized we may need more that just two blank facing pages.

*We are flying from Atlanta to Jo'burg's OR Tambo airport where we will leave the terminal to spend the night at the nearby InterContinental hotel before flying to Livingstone the next morning, so we will need to get our passports stamped upon entry and exit there. Then, we will need to get a Zambia (or Kaza Univisa) visa sticker and will need another blank page for the Botswana stamps. Then, since we will be entering (and departing) South Africa again in Cape Town, we will need another set of blank facing pages. So we might need up to 4 blank facing pages for South Africa, another blank page for Botswana, and space for the Zambia/Univisa sticker, for a total of 6 visa pages.

It is still no problem for us since we got new passports a year ago, but it could be a problem for someone who only has a few blank visa pages left in their passport.

British, since I believe you also spent a night (at the Protea outside the terminal) in Jo'burg, did you also have this issue?

taxare

Alan, On our trip in May one of the couples had a terrible time with this issue. When we checked in for our flight from Maun to Capetown the airline would not issue their boarding passes since they did not have the two consecutive blank pages in their passports. Our tour director did everything she could to convince the airline to issue the boarding passes, but was not successful. She also tried to call the US consulate/embassy but due to the fact that it was a Sunday was not successful with that either. They ended up having to fly to Lusaka that evening, got new passports the next morning (the consulate said they couldn't just add pages) and then they caught a flight to Capetown that afternoon. The couple acknowledged that the information was in the Tauck materials, but they didn't check their passports carefully before they left. When we went through immigration in Cape Town, we did have the two blank pages and the immigration officer flipped through our passport but ended up stamping a corner of a used page. I had forgotten about this until your post.

British

Like you Alan, we have fairly new passports so it was not an issue for us and I cannot remember, we are just about to leave for a final breakfast in this hotel and I dare not ask Mr B to look at the passports now, but when we have time later I will see if he can find the stamps.
I remember reading about the couple who were delayed at Maun
The US government stopped the ‘additional pages’ option you can have in your passports a couple of years ago, we knew about this. In fact the subject came up in our tour group this week and everyone is a well seasoned traveler but several did not know about the change.

Sealord

I had to get a new passport for our last trip due to this issue. Previously, I had asked for the big passport and they sent me the small one. So I had just enough pages ... if no immigration ‘person’ iinsisted on stamping a blank page, instead of using available space on another page. More than once I had an agent stamp a blank page after I had asked them to “please don’t use a blank page’. There are names for people like that, but being that customs agents, immigration agents, and Marine sentries are largely above the law, one best not use them. So it is best to have a plentiful supply of blank pages. I think I once got several stamps in Amsterdam because the only Starbucks was on the domestic side of the terminal, and we had a long layover.

British

Alan, I checked my passport and can only see one stamp for the first entry into SA amd one for the end of the tour.

Sealord

Just checked mine. One stamp in and one stamp out, and many other stamps on the same pages. ???

AlanS

Sealord wrote:

Just checked mine. One stamp in and one stamp out, and many other stamps on the same pages. ???

Did you leave the airport in Jo'Burg before flying to Livingstone? Were the other stamps already on the page or added later?

British

We stayed two nights at the Protea near the airport, not the one at the airport. We were not going to Livingstone last year, we were not on a Tauck

Sealord

AlanS wrote:

Did you leave the airport in Jo'Burg before flying to Livingstone? Were the other stamps already on the page or added later?

The other stamps were added later. But both SA stamps were on the same page. This 2 page thing may be an old rule, or perhaps for people who require visas. But from reading online it appears that the problem is people at other airports will not let you board your flight to SA if you don’t have the two blank pages. It sounds to me like a failure to communicate.

AlanS

Sealord wrote:

The other stamps were added later. But both SA stamps were on the same page. This 2 page thing may be an old rule, or perhaps for people who require visas. But from reading online it appears that the problem is people at other airports will not let you board your flight to SA if you don’t have the two blank pages. It sounds to me like a failure to communicate.

Concur 100% Kinda like a border agent not letting someone enter who doesn't have proof of a Yellow Fever shot even though they did not come from a designated country. Anyway, it is just something for people who have a limited number of visa pages in their passport to think about.