Passport stamp requirements

[Ian41]

I walked part of the Camino in 2016 from SJPDP and had to withdraw due to a crippling knee problem. Since returning to Australia I have had Total Knee Replacements for both knees. I am hoping to return early in 2020 to walk from Ponferrada to Santiago with my daughter. I have purchased a credential for my daughter from the Camino Store and have 2 questions. 1. There are no ruled spaces for stamps as on my credential i.e. pages are blank, and 2. Each page is headed PASSPORT STAMP REQUIREMENTS - You must have two stamps per day, dated to validate your journey.
Is this a new requirement for walking, or do I have the wrong credential?

 

[Deleted member 67185]

I do not know about the ruled spaces, but they are not important as to the validity of capturing your sellos.

The two stamps per day requirement applies only to the last 100 km of continuous progress into Santiago. That progress is demonstrated by the two stamp rule. Most will, at minimum, get a stamp after they start walking in the morning, and then at the place where they stop for the evening.

I always had mine stamped at the place I ate breakfast or a church nearby. Then at the place I spent the night. Of course, I sometimes collected other stamps in between, too.

 

[dougfitz]

Is this a new requirement for walking, or do I have the wrong credential?

This was the text on my credencial in 2010, so it's not new. But it continues to be clarified, and the pilgrim office website on this has changed in subtle ways over that time. As @davebugg says, the minimum distance for the compostella is 100km to the cathedral, and the requirement is to collect two stamps each day for that.

For any longer distance the credencial is used to identify you as a pilgrim, and gives you access to albergues. It will establish your start point for the distance certificate, etc, etc.

I don't think it should be an issue having a credencial with this older advice in it. It certainly never was for me.

 

[Deleted member 77020]

I walked part of the Camino in 2016 from SJPDP and had to withdraw due to a crippling knee problem. Since returning to Australia I have had Total Knee Replacements for both knees. I am hoping to return early in 2020 to walk from Ponferrada to Santiago with my daughter. I have purchased a credential for my daughter from the Camino Store and have 2 questions. 1. There are no ruled spaces for stamps as on my credential i.e. pages are blank, and 2. Each page is headed PASSPORT STAMP REQUIREMENTS - You must have two stamps per day, dated to validate your journey.
Is this a new requirement for walking, or do I have the wrong credential?

Ian41, glad your surgery was successful I also in my first Camino had to stop due to a severe chest cold. I started the next year from where I left off. But although a certificate is great for having accomplished a journey my belief now is I do the Camino because I enjoy it. I have done 10 Caminos and only have 4 certificates. I do not do a Camino for an acquired certificate I do the Camino for myself. This year I do the Camino again. Best on your Camino.

 

[jefferyonthecamino]

I walked part of the Camino in 2016 from SJPDP and had to withdraw due to a crippling knee problem. Since returning to Australia I have had Total Knee Replacements for both knees. I am hoping to return early in 2020 to walk from Ponferrada to Santiago with my daughter. I have purchased a credential for my daughter from the Camino Store and have 2 questions. 1. There are no ruled spaces for stamps as on my credential i.e. pages are blank, and 2. Each page is headed PASSPORT STAMP REQUIREMENTS - You must have two stamps per day, dated to validate your journey.
Is this a new requirement for walking, or do I have the wrong credential?

the two stamps requirement is only for the last 100 kms if walking - the heading leads to confusion.

stamping is compulsory beyond the 100 km mark if, a) you intend to stay at the municipal hostels (and perhaps many of the private ones), and b) if you intend to request a distance certificate the states where you started, and even then the office may not care if you are 'missing' a stamp between logroño and santo domingo...

you can also 'purchase' another credential and continue stamping on that one if you run out of space. these are easy enough to find along the way.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

The credential I have in front of me doesn't say you have to have two stamps a day over the last 100km to get a Compostela. What it actually says is:

The "Compostela" is granted only to those who make the pilgrimage with a Christian meaning "devotionis affectu, voti vel pietatis causa", and only those who reach the Tomb of the Apostle, having traveled at least 100 kilometers on foot or on horseback, which the last stage will be the one that leads to the tomb of the Apostle, the last 200 kilometers by bicycle or 100 nautical miles and ending the final kilometers on foot.

(though where you'd get stamps over your 100 nautical miles is up for debate)

EACH PAGE of the Credential is headed thus:



note the "al menos 2 por dia" (at least 2 each day)

Now my reading of this is that while you only qualify for the Compostela if you walk the last 100km before entering SdC, the "at least 2 stamps each day" applies over the whole of the Camino - it doesn't say anywhere that I can see that you just need "two stamps a day over the last 100kms" to qualify.

Discuss . . . .

 

[Deleted member 67185]

This is what the Pilgrim's Office in SdC states with regard to the stamping and distance requirements.

quote

To get the “Compostela” you must:

• Make the pilgrimage for religious or spiritual reasons, or at least an attitude of search.
• Do the last 100 km on foot or horseback, or the last 200 km by bicycle. It is understood that the pilgrimage starts at one point and from there you come to visit the Tomb of St. James.
• You must collect the stamps on the “Credencial del Peregrino” from the places you pass through to certify that you have been there. Stamps from churches, hostels, monasteries, cathedrals and all places related to the Way are preferred, but if not they can also be stamped in other institutions: town halls, cafés, etc. You have to stamp the Credencial twice a day at least on the last 100 km (for pilgrims on foot or on horseback) or on the last 200 km (for cyclists pilgrims).

You can do the Way in stages, provided they are in chronological and geographical order. However, if you only do the minimum required distance (last 100 or 200 km), you must always get your Credencial stamped at the start and end of each stage, including the corresponding date, to show that the pilgrim has resumed the Way in the same place where they last stopped (i.e. you should always get the stamp at the starting point even though you have already stamped the card in the same place at the end of the previous stage).

end quote

 

[David Tallan]

Now my reading of this is that while you only qualify for the Compostela if you walk the last 100km before entering SdC, the "at least 2 stamps each day" applies over the whole of the Camino - it doesn't say anywhere that I can see that you just need "two stamps a day over the last 100kms" to qualify.

Discuss . . . .

Ultimately, for the purpose of getting a Compostela, only the last 100 km have any bearing (200 by bicycle or horse). If you can show you walked the last 100 km continuously, with 2 stamps per day, you have earned the Compostela. It doesn't matter if you have got one stamp per day previously, or no stamps for significant sections (say, for example, taking a bus across the meseta). None of this will affect your qualifying for the Compostela. It may affect what they consider your start point, but that isn't recorded anywhere on the Compostela.

It could conceivably affect what they put on your distance certificate, if you ask for one, but even there I have never heard of anyone missing out because they didn't have 2 sellos per day in earlier parts of their Camino.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Ultimately, for the purpose of getting a Compostela, only the last 100 km have any bearing (200 by bicycle or horse). If you can show you walked the last 100 km continuously, with 2 stamps per day, you have earned the Compostela. It doesn't matter if you have got one stamp per day previously, or no stamps for significant sections (say, for example, taking a bus across the meseta). None of this will affect your qualifying for the Compostela. It may affect what they consider your start point, but that isn't recorded anywhere on the Compostela.

It could conceivably affect what they put on your distance certificate, if you ask for one, but even there I have never heard of anyone missing out because they didn't have 2 sellos per day in earlier parts of their Camino.

Personally I was happy to issue Compostelas to anybody who looked genuine and had an armful of stamps - and even some that didn't. Are you really going to refuse a half blind Spanish granny who has to be assisted in to the hall but has "walked all the way" from Sarria?
Some of the other clerks were a lot stricter especially with their fellow Spaniards and there were certainly refusals every shift I worked on.

 

[Ian41]

Thank you to all who have replied. As I found before starting in April 2016, everyone on this forum is so kind and helpful.
I have received some messages that my post is BLOCKED and that some others who tried to offer help could not do so.
I don't know how the blocking happened. How do I unblock my post?