Shelly went through first, had a visa stamped in her passport, turned to wait for him.

Francesca Duranti's new novel takes place on an estate in Tuscany, but her characters - at least when it comes to their complicated sexual lives - might easily have been imported from Updike country, with visas stamped by Iris Murdoch.

A less persistent visitor would probably have given up, but with the appropriate visas firmly stamped in their passports, Abel and Florentyna set off in a hired car for Slonim.

If you are going from Israel to Jordan you'll need a Jordanian visa already stamped in your passport - these are not sold at the border.

That gathering has failed to materialize, especially because in the wake of Sept. 11, Yemen expelled foreigners deemed undesirable and detained any locals who became suspects because they had Pakistani visas stamped in their passports or for other reasons.

But if Shirley was so terrified that entering Iran illegally would land him in prison, why didn't he just take his chances and try to hook up with a tour after getting an official visa stamped in his passport?

From watching the news, we thought that crossing over wouldn't take much time, but there were so many people that it took three hours in line to get the visas stamped and our personal identity cards.

The journalists from Radio Free Asia, which has frequently drawn protests from Beijing over its coverage of human rights abuses in China, have Chinese visas stamped in their passports.

Some sources claim Jews could only visit the wall if they traveled through Jordan (which was not an option for Israelis) and did not have an Israeli visa stamped in their passports.