Travelling EU countries Without passport stamp!?

Question

I am a japanese english learning student. I have an one year student visa for UK. I want to travel EU countries, but I don't want to have stamp on my passport in private reason. How can I travel EU countries without stamp and Which country can I travel or can not?

Answer 1

Drive. I recently drove from Edinburgh and now live in Switzerland, I got the boat from Dover to Dunkirk once in Mainland Europe the borders are not manned and barely marked. Even Switzerland they just look at you. They will check if you leave the EU though.

Answer 2

Sorry, when you travel from the UK to the EU, your passport is going to be stamped.  The UK is not a Schengen country.  

Answer 3

Once you leave the UK to mainland Europe then you will need to present your passport and more than likely it will be stamped (as you will need to get a Schengen visa anyway as the UK is not part of the Schengen zone and your UK student visa will not entitle you to travel to mainland Europe).

You can of course ask for it not to be stamped but this could be perceived as "dodgey" by immigration officials as to your motives for not wanting it stamped and therefore personally I would not recommend you drawing attention to yourself like that

I got my passport stamped in my home airport upon arrival from a business trip here in the Netherlands.  I asked the official why it was being stamped as I lived here, and his answer was "because I want to", which there was effectively no response to!

Answer 4

I have never received a stamp on my passport unless I asked for it ( I like to have them as souvenirs ) But I am an EU citizen

You could always ask them if they really had to stamp it, explain if the reason is not too personal. E.g. "I do not want my mother to know I traveled to Spain because she is old fashioned and she would be worried."

However there's no guarantee they'll agree.

However if you can think of any illegal reasons why someone would not want their passport stamped maybe don't say anything, they might get suspicious and you might get stuck for half an hour with people looking through your bags.

Unrelated advice: as you are learning English and I am an English teacher!

"an one year"

As you know it's "a" for a vowel sound and "an" for a consonant sound.

One is spelled with a vowel, but pronounced with a consonant... like "won"

I know it's very confusing, English spelling is so inconsistent.

Answer 5

Since you are falling under the visa waiver program of the Schengen countries as a Japanese citizen, the stamp in your passport is the only proof of legal entry into a Schengen country. It is mandatory to be able to verify your entitlement to stay within Schengen countries for tourist purposes up to 90 days. Being checked by the Police or any authorities without your passport stamped, you could be considered being on illegal stay, causing your deportation of Schengen countries and a ban for further visits in your records. Don't do that. Just enjoy the visa free travel of up to 90 days, and when you get back to the U.K. you'll have the stamps of entry and exit in your passport. But who cares, since documents can get lost or may be stolen?

The following Schengen countries can be travelled without any further requirements for up to 90 days in a 180 day period:

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden