USA will issue “anyone” 2-3 valid passports at the same time. This is designed for two reasons:
1) you travel a lot and sometimes may need to mail your passport off to get a pre-travel visa from some consulate, while you are still outside the USA. This way you can send off one passport to get the visa for your next country, while keeping a valid passport with you while you’re abroad.
2) You need to travel between Israel and countries which have laws against visiting Israel (Historically, GCC countries). This way you can always present whichever passport doesn’t have Israel’s entry and exit stamps on it.
I’ve had two valid US passports at the same time, and I’m just a random nobody American.
But your passport is still tainted if you use any Israeli land crossing--they see the stamp from the other country and infer you were in Israel. Unlike what we saw in the 80s in Africa--so long as "South Africa" didn't appear you were ok. The border stamps into/out of South Africa didn't cause problems. The possession of a fair quantity of supplies with packaging in English/Afrikaans didn't matter--but the first day across the border the organizer had us stop and very carefully go over everything with a sharpie looking for labels that said "product of South Africa"--those had to be totally blotted out.
And to show how stupid things were--he also had a stamp he had made up to make forged entries on our yellow books. At that time your average joe certainly did not have an up-to-date smallpox shot--but at multiple border crossings they would hit you up for a bribe if you didn't have an up-to-date smallpox shot. Hence fake them. (Even around 2000 which was the last time I had occasion to have anything added to my yellow book there still was no anti-counterfeit protection.)
"Tainted" is an odd word. Any country that would reject a Jew from entering for having an Israeli stamp in their passport is a country I would never want to step foot in, whatever my views on Israeli politics.
> I visited Israel circa 2012 and this was true even then.
It used to depend on where you were coming from. When travelling to Israel for work a few years back, my passport (irish citizen) was not stamped, but my colleague's (at the time, a Turkish citizen) was.
No idea, Israeli border security are weird. Like, for the first few times I went there, they treated my like a terrorist (i am concerned that someone may have placed bombs in your bag etc). The last two times, OTOH, it's just been like a normal airport.
sad to hear this, but not suprised as much. according to wikipedia, turkey is one of the few countries/regions where israel requires a visa from; along with india, pakistan and arab countries.
1) you travel a lot and sometimes may need to mail your passport off to get a pre-travel visa from some consulate, while you are still outside the USA. This way you can send off one passport to get the visa for your next country, while keeping a valid passport with you while you’re abroad.
2) You need to travel between Israel and countries which have laws against visiting Israel (Historically, GCC countries). This way you can always present whichever passport doesn’t have Israel’s entry and exit stamps on it.
I’ve had two valid US passports at the same time, and I’m just a random nobody American.