Leaving; Thailand going through passport control last week, this happed. The wife was in the queue in front of me -she's Thai- she passed through no problem. But for me I was transferred to a supervisor (a women) after solving the problem of her computer not working by going back to the kiosks, she looked through my passport several times, glared in to the computer screen for a while and then she took me to a counter, where I was told to sit down opposite.Three other officers spent some time looking through my documents. Which are: extension of stay based on supporting a Thai National ( which was renewed last March) and a re-entry permit; acquired two weeks ago. At this I thought it a good idea to enquire as to situation and offer  any knowledge as to resolve the issue. I was just told to sit down. At this the other three officers departed and left the lady on her own to sort it out. I then thought! she's looking for  my visa, which is in my old passport. I've not produced my old passport / visa during the last two trips back to the UK. She just glanced at the visa and put it to one side, after a period of frowning, head shaking and scratching she called me over, stamped my passport and handed it to me.

So I asked is there anything I need to know about what has happened. The officer called the wife over and went off on one. The wife responded like for like. I'm thinking is this it. Is this where I get deported? After I asked the wife about what she had said. The wife said that I should keep the receipts of any transactions with the immigration to prove that the stamps in my passports are valid, in case there is a problem. I said what's the problem? The wife said she didn't say. But she did say why did I produce my old passport? It has the original visa in it.

I'm now worried about re-entry. Has anyone out there experienced this or something similar. A

ny informative thoughts on this would be appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

Joe.

 

 

 

 

I cant see how anyone could give advise about re-entry. As no one including yourself knows qhy this happened. As it seems there was no note put in your passport. I would say it is heavly against any problem getting back in.

Old passport? You have an extension of stay in your new passport and there should be a reference to the non o it was gained on in new passport.

All i can think is she maybe thought the stamp was fake.

Your wife saying you should keep receipts is a strong indication to that.

Ps i always do for  any extensions or visa from any country. Keep receipts that is.

Edited September 18, 20178 yr by jeab1980

Hmmmhhh... The first thing I'd say is that there might have been a discrepancy between all your transactions recorded in their database and those shown on your passport. As this is Thailand they will never accept any glitch on their part and try to put you at fault.

1 hour ago, jeab1980 said:

I cant see how anyone could give advise about re-entry. As no one including yourself knows qhy this happened. As it seems there was no note put in your passport. I would say it is heavly against any problem getting back in.

Old passport? You have an extension of stay in your new passport and there should be a reference to the non o it was gained on in new passport.

All i can think is she maybe thought the stamp was fake.

Your wife saying you should keep receipts is a strong indication to that.

Ps i always do for  any extensions or visa from any country. Keep receipts that is.

from memory, i have never been given a receipt for any visa issued at the Hull consulate in the UK.

6 minutes ago, steve187 said:

from memory, i have never been given a receipt for any visa issued at the Hull consulate in the UK.

I was got plenty from Hull back in the day of 3 back to back TV always got a recipt. In fact if i could be bothered to go into shed into my paperwork archive i will find them. Plus ive got proof as visa's are still in old passports if required.

Edited September 18, 20178 yr by jeab1980

I would not worry about it. Perhaps a new immigration officer at the airport that got confused or had never seen stamps like you have.

Yeh I would say incompetence on their part looking at something that not an issue to start with (visa in old passport) then just painted over it with usual rudeness and illogical reasoning to hide it.

Main thing is always be super polite and don't panic or feel threatened, cool head and smooth tongue works wonders with thai incompetence, complaining or pressing the errors just escalates into drama you really don't want be in lol . I dealt with most of my old companies staff visa problems and had couple interesting times myself at immigration so understand you concern and confusion . I would expect your reentry be smooth .

 

3 minutes ago, BuckBee said:

Yeh I would say incompetence on their part looking at something that not an issue to start with (visa in old passport) then just painted over it with usual rudeness and illogical reasoning to hide it.

Main thing is always be super polite and don't panic or feel threatened, cool head and smooth tongue works wonders with thai incompetence, complaining or pressing the errors just escalates into drama you really don't want be in lol . I dealt with most of my old companies staff visa problems and had couple interesting times myself at immigration so understand you concern and confusion . I would expect your reentry be smooth .

 

I really do fail to see the Thai incompetence here. She was or seemed to be doing her job. Spot something wrong or what looks wrong and investigate. Once investigated passport stamped and away you go. Based on what OP says his wife told him it seems to me she maybe thought a stamp or something was wrong. If i read it right didnt the op in fact show her the old passport without being asked?. Storm in a T cup.

^ Leaving 2 people confused with no sensible explanation or coutesy is incompetence in my book .

7 hours ago, Joedoebarinio said:

After I asked the wife about what she had said. The wife said that I should keep the receipts of any transactions with the immigration to prove that the stamps in my passports are valid, in case there is a problem

It seems likely that the information in immigration's system did not tally with the stamps in your passport. It is unclear whether this was human error at the time the information should have been entered into the system, or some kind of system malfunction. Anyway, I consider it 99.99% certain the discrepancy was resolved, and your return to Thailand will be routine. What immigration was saying is that, because of the risk they will screw up, you should keep a full record of your interactions with them. This puts you in the best position to show them how to correct their errors in the future. The officials are naturally a bit defensive about this but, under the circumstances, the advice your wife was given is good advice.

Two inflammatory unhelpful posts meant to derail the topic have been removed.

I would have thought you needed to get the visa in your old passport transferred to your new passport at your local immigration office. 

Just your typical " I dont know what I am doing" immigration officer  Dont be stunned there are a lot of them

 

I had added pages to my passport and they could not find my stamps in and out So I papercliped them and showed them where they are

Never a problem with that 

 

Just make sure you have all your visa info available in the passport 

18 hours ago, steve187 said:

from memory, i have never been given a receipt for any visa issued at the Hull consulate in the UK.

Don't Know Why......I Was ALWAYS Issued a receipt in Liverpool in the day.....

18 hours ago, steve187 said:

from memory, i have never been given a receipt for any visa issued at the Hull consulate in the UK.

Interesting.  I've NEVER had any dealings with Thai Immigration OR any of the consulates, anywhere, in Thailand or out, where a fee was paid and I didn't get a receipt, even when it was something done by mail.  Just because, I hang on to the receipts and tuck them in to the last page of the passport, but if I had ever failed to get a receipt, I can't say I'd have tried to do anything about it.

 

 Thanks for the comments everyone one. My first thoughts were that something is missing on the database. I would just like to know what it is, instead of being kept in the dark. As far as keeping the receipts as proof of transaction. I think is just a cop out. The transactions are in the passport. Know if someone was to loose their passport that's a different issue. The forgery issue is self defeating. I would say it is easier to forge the receipts that the stamps in the passport. 

Thanks for your help.

Joe.

On 9/18/2017 at 11:18 PM, BuckBee said:

^ Leaving 2 people confused with no sensible explanation or coutesy is incompetence in my book .

 

Thats nothing... A Thai friend of mine entering the UK to attend Uni for his Masters was rejected entry, at the Immigration Check point his Medical Certification in his Checked luggage (this was a the time of SARS). He had to wait 4-5 hours for a doctor to check him over while his baggage with the MCU certification sat there less than 50m away on a baggage carousel.

 

He was then refused entry because he couldn't give them an address...  He was going to stay in a hotel for a couple of weeks while finding a more permanent place to live for the year. He met all other requirements, had letters from his Uni, had a Student Visa etc...  

 

Guess what he does for a living now ??????....  An officer in the RTP Immigration bureau - the irony isn't lost on either of us !... 

 

 

3 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Thats nothing... A Thai friend of mine entering the UK to attend Uni for his Masters was rejected entry, at the Immigration Check point his Medical Certification in his Checked luggage (this was a the time of SARS). He had to wait 4-5 hours for a doctor to check him over while his baggage with the MCU certification sat there less than 50m away on a baggage carousel.

 

He was then refused entry because he couldn't give them an address...  He was going to stay in a hotel for a couple of weeks while finding a more permanent place to live for the year. He met all other requirements, had letters from his Uni, had a Student Visa etc...  

 

Guess what he does for a living now ??????....  An officer in the RTP Immigration bureau - the irony isn't lost on either of us !... 

No doubt the UK, USA, and others are notorious for pointless rejections of entry.  Of course, in those cases, there is a strong financial-incentive for many to enter for illegal-work.  It's harder to make the case that Farangs are depressing Thai standards of living - quite the opposite, in fact. 

 

So sad if the Thais follow suit, just to emulate the worst of the others or 'retaliate' for bad-behaviour of IOs in our passport-countries, given the importance of visitors to the Thai economy and their citizens well-being - not to mention the well-being of those of us and our families, who are dependent on their permission to enter/stay here.

6 hours ago, JackThompson said:

No doubt the UK, USA, and others are notorious for pointless rejections of entry.  Of course, in those cases, there is a strong financial-incentive for many to enter for illegal-work.  It's harder to make the case that Farangs are depressing Thai standards of living - quite the opposite, in fact. 

 

So sad if the Thais follow suit, just to emulate the worst of the others or 'retaliate' for bad-behaviour of IOs in our passport-countries, given the importance of visitors to the Thai economy and their citizens well-being - not to mention the well-being of those of us and our families, who are dependent on their permission to enter/stay here.

"No doubt the UK, USA, and others are notorious for pointless rejections of entry.  Of course, in those cases, there is a strong financial-incentive for many to enter for illegal-work. "

Again that same old argument from you, looked at very one sided. The same applies here in Thailand, with many foreign illegal workers.

When I got a new passport I had the visa extension copied from the old to the new passport; I thought this was de rigueur. 

19 hours ago, Joedoebarinio said:

The forgery issue is self defeating. I would say it is easier to forge the receipts that the stamps in the passport. 

You think so! Not hard at all to forge a thai immigration stamp as many threads on here will tell you.

There was obviously something not quite right or not seen before in your passport. So you got held up a short while no big deal. 

All sorted in the end.

...the old passport gambit, aye..

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

"No doubt the UK, USA, and others are notorious for pointless rejections of entry.  Of course, in those cases, there is a strong financial-incentive for many to enter for illegal-work. "

Again that same old argument from you, looked at very one sided. The same applies here in Thailand, with many foreign illegal workers.

We do have a similar problem, where illegal foreign workers whose home nations are literally within "walking distance" are given easy-access and special visa options or non-enforcement - while those workers drive down wages / lives of our respective citizen-populations.  My point was, that people entering from the USA, Europe, and Australia to Thailand do not have a strong financial-work motivation.  Therefore, it is illogical to "retaliate" against those entering Thailand, based on poor-treatment of Thais entering nations with wages multiple times higher - as if the probability of the respective entrants seeking illegal-work was remotely comparable. 

 

This does not in any way excuse the poor-treatment and baseless-allegation denials of entry which Thais (and others) receive entering our passport-countries.  I wish it would stop everywhere.  The solution is prison time for Citizens Hiring Illegally, which would put an end to the need for Immigration officials to try to police labor-law violations with unsubstantiated guesswork.

Rarely been given a receipt for any of my dealings with immigration over the last 4 years, apart for a couple of extensions (usually not). Have got about 4 re-entries in the last 2 years and have never been given a receipt for those ......

27 minutes ago, rickudon said:

Rarely been given a receipt for any of my dealings with immigration over the last 4 years, apart for a couple of extensions (usually not). Have got about 4 re-entries in the last 2 years and have never been given a receipt for those ......

Whereas I've ALWAYS received a receipt, and over much more than 4 years..  Even when dealing with consulates by mail.  Strange.