Passport stamps have been considered a souvenir of sorts for decades but if you have been on a trip overseas recently you might have noticed some countries are no longer inking your passport.
Soon, some, including Singapore, will do away with physical passports entirely.
It’s left some travellers feeling nostalgic as they face the prospect of a blank or completely digital passport in the near future.
“It’s heaps of fun to sort of go back through your passport,” Sydney-based travel blogger Michael Turtle said.
After needing to renew his passport recently, Mr Turtle said he counted 155 stamps accumulated over 10 years.
“I look at my old passports and there are a lot of happy memories there. You know, the stamps often remind you of trips that you’d kind of forgotten about.”
Australia was the first country to remove the physical entry and exit stamp system in December 2012, replacing it with the SmartGate system.
SmartGates allow passengers to be processed through passport control automatically using facial recognition technology and the passport’s electronic chip.
Israel, Argentina, Hong Kong, Singapore and Macau are the other countries that have stopped using stamps when people arrive or depart.
Next in line to remove them is the European Union (EU).
Why the change?
Border security expert from Macquarie University Dalbir Ahlawat said it was all about making travel safer as stamps could be tampered with or counterfeited.
But he said they were not the only parts of a passport that could easily be manipulated.
“I have seen the passports where they have replaced the picture, they’ve taken the visa label from one passport to the other, passports are stolen, they are tampered with, or pictures are removed or added,” Dr Ahlawat said.
In a statement, a European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said the EU was in the process of “modernising” its system to improve border security.
“[We are] saying goodbye to manual passport controls and welcoming electronic checks [to] speed up queues and improve security,” she said.
The Entry/Exit System will allow the EU to access more reliable data on border crossings and provide automatic detections of overstayers.
End of paper passports?
Singapore has recently announced it is introducing “automated, passport-free immigration clearance”.
Dr Ahlawat said it was likely physical passports would be entirely phased out around the world in the future.
“It appears that in the next 10 years, the physical passport can be replaced, at least on a trial basis, with a digital passport,” he said.
However, he said it was unlikely our passports would be uploaded to our mobile phones like our credit cards have been.
“Because your battery may go flat, you may lose your mobile phone, [or] you may not have internet access in some of the countries,” he said.
He said advancements in using “biometrics” to confirm a person’s identity could remove the need for a passport altogether.
“Your picture is being taken, palm prints are taken, and fingerprints,” he said.
“For people who are lost then there will be DNA sampling also.
“So, it will be a complex dataset and this dataset has to match [the records].”
But he admitted there was still a lot of work to do before the entire world moved away from the stamping system. So, don’t throw out your passport yet.
“Mainly in Africa, Asian countries and Latin America more work needs to be done,” he said.
“And whether all countries would like to join or not is also an issue. Some countries are involved in their own national security challenges or economic challenges.”
A bittersweet farewell
Australian travel blogger Jarryd Salem said he would be sad to see passports phased out.
“Even though social media and blogs create long-lasting memories, we still consider passport stamps to be one of our favourite souvenirs; they are unique and tangible,” he said.
“There’s something special about a passport that you can physically touch and flick through.”
Mr Turtle said as a frequent traveller, passports could be a “hassle” because it did not take long for his to fill up with stamps.
He said a move away from them would be “bittersweet”.
“There is some very happy memories in here but there’s also a bit of a logistical issue,” he said.
“So you know, it’d be nice not to have that anymore.”