I am about to apply for a B2 visa for travel to the US. I'm Danish, but since I have visited Sudan after March 1, 2011, I am not eligible for ESTA/VWP. Hence, a visa is required.

I only have two blank pages left in my passport. They are consecutive. Is that sufficient for a B2 visa and subsequent travel to the US?

I have been unable to find any documentation on the State Department's website and neither of the two related questions here and here specify the requirements for a visit to the US. This answer suggests that "several spare pages" are required, but provides no source for that and only the justification that "basically many countries including the US require more pages than you'd expect." Whatever that means.


The Foreign Affairs Manual, which tells US State Department employees how to do their jobs, says in 9 FAM 403.9-6(A)(b) that:

You must issue a separate MRV to each qualified applicant, even when the same passport includes multiple applicants. Therefore, a passport must contain at least one unmarked page for each visa issued. When possible, the page opposite the visa-ed page should also remain unmarked. This will provide space for the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer at the POE to annotate and/or stamp the applicant’s passport at the time CBP admits the applicant into the United States.

So, you need a bare minimum of one blank page per visa, and preferably the facing page should also be blank. This is because, on first use, CBP will place a stamp across the visa and the passport binding, in addition to the regular admission stamp, much like this.

US admission stamp across visa

  • Brilliant! Thank you very much :-) – XerXes Jul 12 '19 at 6:20

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