This passport mistake could ruin your holiday — and it’s not the expiry date

Realising your passport isn’t valid for long enough isn’t the only thing that could put a spanner in your upcoming travel plans.

From baggage restrictions to banned items onboard, there’s a lot of admin for travellers to consider when taking a flight these days.

But before you even make it onto the plane, you need to ensure your passport is prepped and ready for inspection.

Most of us by now will be familiar with the fact that for most destinations, your passport needs to have at least three months of validity beyond your planned arrival or return date, with rules varying depending on the country you’re visiting.

But, what you might not know is that you could also be denied boarding if your passport is found to have too few blank pages.

‘We were supposed to go to Cambodia today, but apparently George doesn’t have enough blank pages in his passport left,’ travel influencer @remoteroams told her followers in a recent TikTok.

A somewhat lesser known policy in a number of countries — particularly across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East — require travellers to have two to four blank visa or stamp pages in their passport.

Some airlines may go as far as to deny boarding if your passport doesn’t meet the requirements.

The country that requires the most blank pages is Namibia — where you’ll be expected to have six blank passport pages at the ready. The Namibia stamp occupies almost an entire page, and if you need an extension permit in the Southern African country, they will stamp an additional page.

Other countries that demand three of more blank passport pages include: Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Brunei, South Africa, and Madagascar.

For travellers visiting destinations such as The Bahamas, Cuba, China, Singapore, or India, you’ll need to make sure you have two blank pages at the ready.

A lot of content creators have shared being caught out by this passport policy, with some having to apply for emergency passports in order to get home or leave the country.

One influencer, @Hales, had to go to the US Embassy in Ireland because of this exact reason. The travel vlogger, who’s visited over 40 countries, was warned by passport control upon her arrival in Europe that she’d likely not be able to continue on her trip across the continent without applying for a new one.

Thankfully, she was able to get a last minute emergency appointment.

Experts recommend always travelling with at least two blank pages in your passport to ensure a smooth travel experience.

But one saving grace to this tricky policy is that collecting stamps while travelling throughout Europe is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

In October 2025, the European Union began rolling out its Entry/Exit System (EES), a new digital border-management tool that records biometric data as well as entry and exit dates of non-EU nationals.

This means manual passport stamping will be gradually replaced in full with digital screening.

Due to be fully implemented by April 2026, all 29 countries in the Schengen area should have totally ditched ink.

So say a fond farewell to stamps from spots such as Denmark, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Sweden.

However, with a number of countries in other continents likely sticking with a manual stamp system for the time being, it’s important to check specific requirements before you start flip flop shopping.

One handy travel hack for frequent flyers is to apply for a ‘large book’ during the passport application process.

This ‘jumbo passport’ is designed for people who require extra space for visas and stamps, and typically has 54 pages compared to the standard 34 page size.

All British citizens can apply for this super size passport.

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