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| Burj Khalifa - Layover in Dubai U.A.E. |
I had entered Dubai on my way back to San Francisco from south India for an overnight layover. As I approached my turn in the immigration line, the U.A.E. official looked at my passport, then paused and looked up at me through the small window glass “If you return to U.A.E. and you don’t have more blank pages in your passport book, you will NOT be able to enter…” he informed me with a stoic stare. I had four blank pages left at the time. He let me enter the country as having pages added to my passport went to the top of my to do list.
The US State Department suggests adding visa pages to your passport if you have 2-4 left. In order to do so, you need to complete Form DS-4085 – Application for Additional Visa Pages. You need to have a current valid US passport and of course, there’s a fee. Yes, there’s a fee. It’s a fee of $82.00.
Usually if you need to add visa pages to your passport, you’re someone who travels frequently and you probably want to have your passport returned with the new pages as soon as possible. Don’t be surprised, but there’s a fee to expedite the process. That’s right, there’s an additional fee. It’s a fee of $60.
Back in the day, you could walk into a U.S. embassy anywhere in the world and ask for additional visa pages for your passport and it was free. These days, it’s in your best interest to request 52 pages when you renew your passport. There’s a check box at the top of the form in small print that allows you to make this request and amazingly there’s no additional fee to do so.
Time for a new passport….52 pages - check! (Next up: Traveling with valid multi entry visas within an expired passport)
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