No Passport Stamp - How Screwed Am I?

Robdude

I'm a US citizen who came to Ireland about three months ago. When I entered the country, an Irish official stamped my passport showing the date. I was told I had three months to visit before I had to leave.

While in Ireland, I found a job after I'd been here for about six weeks. The company applied for a green card/work permit for me that is currently being processed, but it can take months for the green card to be processed and I was told the best thing to do is to simply leave Ireland before my three months are up and wait for my green card to show up.

I was told, several times, to not stay past the 90 days or I'd risk losing my green card completely.

So I left. Today Thursday morning, got on a plane, and flew back to the US. Here's the problem - NOBODY stamped my passport saying that I left. I got my first stamp when I entered Dublin, so I figured I'd get my second stamp when I entered the US - but there was no customs or stamping to go through. I had to look and ask people, but I found a homeland security desk that told me, 'Nah, they should have done that in Ireland - I can't stamp anything for you'.

What the hell do I do now?

Paulw

Robdude wrote: »

So I left. Today Thursday morning, got on a plane, and flew back to the US. Here's the problem - NOBODY stamped my passport saying that I left. I got my first stamp when I entered Dublin, so I figured I'd get my second stamp when I entered the US - but there was no customs or stamping to go through. I had to look and ask people, but I found a homeland security desk that told me, 'Nah, they should have done that in Ireland - I can't stamp anything for you'.

Your passport is never stamped when leaving the country. Only on entry.

source

When you re-enter Ireland you'll get another stamp. This will say that you had left the country. As in order to get a new entry stamp you must have left the country. Also hold onto your flight documents as proof that you returned to the US.

BrianD

How do they know if you've left then? let's say I never come back, am I still here?

In the OP case, I'm sure if he can produce boarding passes it will help his case.

Mind you, he already breached his original visa by working in the first place which of course negates whether you overstayed or not.

We Irish would never do that in the States!!

pat1981

I can't really understand why a passport is not stamped when leaving Ireland (non eu passports), it may prevent people overstaying if such checks were carried out/kept. I would imagine it would be very easy if someone who had overstayed and wished to return could simply lose their passport, reapply for a new one and apply for a new visa.
I remember on my travels abroad one particular country I overstayed in checked my passport on departure, realized I had overstayed and I was fined by the amount of days overstayed and if I refused jail.

Robdude

BrianD wrote: »

How do they know if you've left then? let's say I never come back, am I still here?

In the OP case, I'm sure if he can produce boarding passes it will help his case.

Mind you, he already breached his original visa by working in the first place which of course negates whether you overstayed or not.

We Irish would never do that in the States!!

I'm sorry for the confusion; but that's not true. I haven't started working yet. I applied for a job/went to a job interview, but I was not an employee, I've performed no actual work, and I haven't been paid.

My start date isn't until January.

Paulw

For all the places I've ever visited, I've never had my passport stamped when leaving a country. Only on entry.

Once you keep your flight details, ticket stubs and stuff, it should be clear that you left the country.

i71jskz5xu42pb

Paulw wrote: »

For all the places I've ever visited, I've never had my passport stamped when leaving a country. Only on entry.

It's really common to have your passport stamped on entry and exit. Places that don't stamp on exit may have a departure card instead.

I'm with everybody else, what the point stamping on entry otherwise?

Robdude

Paulw wrote: »

For all the places I've ever visited, I've never had my passport stamped when leaving a country. Only on entry.

Once you keep your flight details, ticket stubs and stuff, it should be clear that you left the country.

Maybe I'm worried over nothing; if this is a common thing. I guess I'll see what happens when I try to re-enter - I do have my boarding pass and the fact that I'm showing up to Ireland on a flight from the US would mean I had to have left Ireland at some point.

JohnK

It does seem to be a common enough thing alright; of 5 countries I've visited 2 (USA & New Zealand) stamped on entry only and 3 (Thailand, Malaysia & Australia) stamped on both entry & exit so its seems like a fairly even split. I have to admit I was a bit surprised I wasn't stamped leaving the US though.

Marcusm

In my experience, UK, Ireland, US are some of the few countries without passport controls on exit. For the OP, if you were particularly worried about it, you would have had to exit from a country other than Ireland (and outside the common travel area). Because you are not subject to immigration controls in the US, you did not get an entry stamp.

Just from the last year I have entry and exit stamps from Canada, Barbados, Brazil, Argentina and Japan. Plus entry stamps (multiple) from the US and Australia. My passport us scarred with entry/exit stamps from Hong Kong, Sing and Thailand from 6 months spent working there. I must have 50 stamps and sticker inserts.

Paulw

Marcusm wrote: »

Just from the last year I have entry and exit stamps from Canada.

I've been to Canada 5-6 times and have never had an exit stamp. Where do you exit from?

I've driven from Canada across the border in to the US, I've flown in to the US, and I've flown from Canada to the UK, without ever having an exit stamp on my passport.

BrianD

Robdude wrote: »

I'm sorry for the confusion; but that's not true. I haven't started working yet. I applied for a job/went to a job interview, but I was not an employee, I've performed no actual work, and I haven't been paid.

My start date isn't until January.

Fair enough, I misread that but you mentioned that "you found a job" which means that you were seeking employment. Apologies for that. BTW working without pay would still breach your visa.

Many countries scan your passport on arrival/departure which would perform the same function as a stamp. I've never seen Gardai scan a passport.

lynchie

Paulw wrote: »

I've been to Canada 5-6 times and have never had an exit stamp. Where do you exit from?

I've driven from Canada across the border in to the US, I've flown in to the US, and I've flown from Canada to the UK, without ever having an exit stamp on my passport.

Me neither.. haven travelled back and forth across the border at detroit into Canada and never had an exit stamp.

As for the US, CBP get a list of all passport numbers scanned by airlines on departure (for international flights) which acts as your exit record, prior to this (or for countries still using the i94w forms) the stapled part was removed and forwarded onto CBP.

ardmacha

Me neither.. haven travelled back and forth across the border at detroit into Canada and never had an exit stamp.

In this case, the Canadian entry stamp is evidence that you left the US.

blueythebear

I hate to tell you OP but if you are a US Citizen and applied for a Green Card, you could have remained here awaiting a decision in your Green Card applicaiton. Green Card applicaitons only take a few weeks for a decision normally also.

The decision will go to your employer if they were listed as the applicant on the form or it will go to the address you supplied in Ireland if you were the applicant. II hope you have someone to collect your post in Ireland!

Robdude

blueythebear wrote: »

I hate to tell you OP but if you are a US Citizen and applied for a Green Card, you could have remained here awaiting a decision in your Green Card applicaiton. Green Card applicaitons only take a few weeks for a decision normally also.

The decision will go to your employer if they were listed as the applicant on the form or it will go to the address you supplied in Ireland if you were the applicant. II hope you have someone to collect your post in Ireland!

I wasn't able to find anything official looking that said I could stay in Ireland for longer than 90 days if my application was pending.

If my count is right, my 90 days would be up on November 29th, and the DJEI says they've processed applications up to October 18th, and mine was submitted on October 28th. And the result has to go through the post, so I thought that would add another day or two.

The HR lady at the company that paid my application fee told me to make sure I didn't stay past 90 days, so I figured I'd respect their wishes. Everyone made it seem like, if I stay past 90 days, I'd be a criminal/illegal immigrant and that alone would be enough for them to deny my green card.

So that's why I was so worried about having the stamp that proves I didn't stay past 90 days. But if what you are saying is right, I could have just chilled in Ireland this whole time?

It sucks that I wasted the airline ticket back to the US; but hopefully that means I won't actually have any trouble when I get back to Ireland. So that's good. I feel a lot better now.

LovelyHurling

In response to someone who asked, I presume the reason why your passport is stamped on entry is to establish the date of entry for the GNIB (should you wish to apply for a student visa) or should you be suspected of having committed a crime.

If you don't come to the attention of the Gardai (which is a bit of a gamble, because anyone can inadvertently be asked to produce their identity) then you can pretty much stay in Ireland as long as you wish to and leave whenever you wish without detection.

In fact, an ex flatmate of mine overstayed by about 6 weeks last year, then enrolled in a new course here, went to the GNIB, got his passport stamped with a Stamp 2 visa,and no more was said about it.

It seems as though the GNIB tend to be reasonably open minded about short overstays.

Robdude

Came back to Ireland yesterday....they didn't even notice the first stamp, much less try to determine if I'd left in time.

The guy at the airport opened to a blank page on my passport, stamped it, and said, 'have a nice day'.