Getting a tourist visa sticker not put into passport, rather as a separate document

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For regular visitor visas, that's usually not possible, at least not because it would be convenient to you. Most consulates will require a passport with one or more blank pages or reject the application.

There are however a few cases in which you can enter a country with a loose document in lieu of a visa sticker:

  • Residence permits, e.g. when they are issued as plastic cards with a passport photo.

  • When the authorities refuse to put the sticker in the passport to make a point (e.g. I know it was – maybe still is – the case for passports from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, in a handful of countries that did accept them in practice, without recognising the legitimacy of the country itself.) As an example, article 29 of the Schengen Visa code explicitly mentions this possibility.

  • Special documents like the receipt for a renewal of a residence permit in France (together with the expired residence permit itself).

The only country I know that did routinely offer a loose-leaf visa on request for the convenience of the traveller is Israel (there is a dozen or so countries that refuse entry to people with an Israeli stamp or visa in their passport).

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Several countries offer loose-leaf entry Permits (aka e-visas), such as India and Azerbaijan, though you'd still get entry/Exit stamps in the passport

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