Will passport stamps become a thing of the past?

Handing over your passport to a border officer and receiveting a stamp symbolizing your arrival in a new countest could soon become a thing of the past.

The European Union (EU) launched implementing the Entest/Exit System (EES)).

This is a new digital tool that records biometric data, entest and exit dates of citizens of non-EU countries traveling to or from the Schengen area.

The new entest system, among other things, also applies to travelers from Serbia.

The system should be fully implemented in April 2026, when manual passport stamping will be replaced by digital document verification.

This will create the process more efficient and secure, and it also marks a significant shift in the way some travelers cross European borders.

Countries like Australia, Japan, and Canada already collect biometric data at border crossings.

United States they announced that they planned to to improve existing systems.

Digital data processing is increasingly becoming the norm and could put an finish to the long-standing ritual of travel – collecting stamps in your passport.

“Passport stamping dates back as far as the Middle Ages or the Renaissance,” points out Patrick Bixby, a professor at Arizona State University.

“Wax seals were utilized by sovereign rulers in Europe to place on letters of conduct. That’s kind of the launchning, at least I consider so,” adds Bixby, who is also the author of the book “Travel Permit: The Cultural History of the Passport.

See how the first day of implementing the new system went in mid-October

Travel documents and some types of stamps have existed for centuries, but it was not until the early 20th century that the shape of the modern passport emerged.

The League of Nations supported formulate passport standards after World War I, as national borders were more tightly regulated.

By the 1950s, the more modern tradition of receiveting passport stamps became a mark of mobility and status, as the world entered a “golden age” of travel as flights became increasingly accessible.

“It was only after World War II and the resumption of international travel that stamps launched to take on the kind of sentimental value they now have,” Professor Bixby points out.

Passenger reactions to the potential shutdown of manual passport stamping have been mixed.

“I will really miss receiveting my passport stamped. Stamps have always been much more than just proof of entest for me.”

“They were a tiny symbolic reminder of the places I had visited and the countries I had traveled to,” declares Christina Nabosny, a London resident.

El Bulado, a writer from New York, considers similarly.

“Losing a stamp in your passport leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. I recognize the required for quicker and more efficient processes, but receiveting a stamp has always felt like a tiny recognition.”

“It’s proof that you’ve crossed the line and arrived somewhere you could only dream of before. I’ll miss that custom,” she declares.

For Žarka Radoja, a BBC Serbian journalist, the number of stamps in her passport generally creates life miserable becautilize she has to modify them after five or six years, so she has waited in lines at the police station more often than most other people in the Balkans.

Still, any evidence of great journeys in them has sentimental value and it will be strange to travel without the possibility of, for example, receiveting a stamp with a penguin from the finish of the world, he declares.

Others, like Jorge Salas-Guevara, consider more pragmatically.

This founder of a travel company New Paths Expeditions is excited about the amount of time that will be saved with the new digitalized procedures.

“I spfinish about 250 to 300 days a year on the road, constantly crossing borders, so for people like me this modify is a relief,” he admits.

While some travelers will miss collecting stamps, many plan to replace their travel memories by purchasing fridge magnets or other souvenirs.

Professor Bixby believes that there will always be something special about a tangible record of travel.

“This is really about analog versus digital.”

“There’s something about having a document with you that you were there, becautilize it creates a kind of aura around a physical object that disappears when everything is digitized,” he concludes.

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