Which countries still stamp passports in 2026?
Country-by-country: who still inks your passport, who stopped, and who only stamps if you skip the e-gate. Each answer sourced.
Border ink is disappearing, but not at the same speed everywhere. Here is the country-by-country position, each one with the source behind it.
| Country | Status | Short answer |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | Still stamps | Yes - Brazil still uses an ink stamp at immigration, but the Federal Police are explicit that not every passport gets one. |
| Canada | Not at the e-gate | Not automatically. At any airport with Primary Inspection Kiosks the entry is recorded electronically, and you have to ask an officer for the stamp. |
| France | Stopped | No. France finished switching to the EU Entry/Exit System in April 2026, and non-EU short-stay visitors are no longer stamped in or out. |
| Japan | Not at the e-gate | Yes, but not at the automated gate - and Japan is unusually good about giving you one if you ask afterwards. |
| Mexico | Phasing it out | Less and less. The paper FMM is being retired and the big tourist airports have moved to e-gates that issue a receipt or a digital record instead. |
| United Kingdom | Not at the e-gate | Only if you skip the e-gate. UK e-gates never stamp, and the Electronic Travel Authorisation is routing more visitors through them every year. |
| United States | Phasing it out | Decreasingly - the US never stamps on exit, and CBP is retiring the ink entry stamp port by port in favour of the digital I-94. |
Country not listed?
This list only covers countries whose current practice we could confirm against an official source or solid reporting. We would rather leave a country out than publish a guess about its border. It grows as we confirm more.
Why the stamps are going
Two separate things emptied the passport. The first is regulatory: the EU Entry/Exit System became fully operational on 10 April 2026 and replaced manual stamping with a biometric record across 29 European countries at once.
The second is quieter, and much broader: the automated gate. The UK, Canada, Japan and Mexico never announced the end of stamping - they built lanes in which nobody stamps. When an e-gate reads your passport and matches your face, there is no officer holding an ink pad.
But the practical result is the same either way. Your crossing is still recorded, in a database you cannot easily see, and the one copy that belonged to you - the page in your passport - has stopped being produced.
What to do about it
If the record of your travels matters to you, it is now your job. Stamp Hunt keeps the countries you have visited on your own iPhone, at five proof tiers: from a one-tap claim up to a scan of the real stamp with GPS. No account, no server, no feed.
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Frequently asked questions
Does Brazil still stamp passports in 2026?
Yes - Brazil still uses an ink stamp at immigration, but the Federal Police are explicit that not every passport gets one.
Does the US still stamp passports in 2026?
Decreasingly - the US never stamps on exit, and CBP is retiring the ink entry stamp port by port in favour of the digital I-94.
Does the UK still stamp passports in 2026?
Only if you skip the e-gate. UK e-gates never stamp, and the Electronic Travel Authorisation is routing more visitors through them every year.
Does Japan still stamp passports in 2026?
Yes, but not at the automated gate - and Japan is unusually good about giving you one if you ask afterwards.
Does a missing stamp mean my entry was not recorded?
No. Border authorities keep an electronic record of entries and exits regardless of whether ink goes in the passport. The stamp is a copy of the record, not the record itself.