Has anyone else been offered a "special service" (guaranteed entry) at Swampy airport? My experience flying into BKK last night

[hello55060]

I would just like to post my experience last night flying into Suvarnabhumi airport last night as it was quite interesting.

 

If you just want to know about the "special service" I was offered then scroll to the bottom. If you want to know the full story then it may be a long winded post so apologies in advance, I was just curious if anyone else had been offered this or knew anyone who did this?

 

So I was flying with my wife and my son into Thailand for the second time this year. Our first trip was 58 days (my wife and son had a tourist visa (Chinese passports, I just use the visa exempt 30 days UK passport) and extended it for a further 30 days. Our last visit prior to the previous one this year was about a year ago so basically in the last 365 days we've spent 60 days in Thailand, last year early 2018 we spent about 4 months there (roughly 2 months on and off). Prior that year 2017 I went once for 14 days... so I don't have a massive Thai immigration history compared to some I'd guess. This was the very first time I had decided to make the tourist visa for Thailand as we planned to stay for about 3 months before returning back to Singapore where we actually live, so we made the tourists visas in SG before we came, we got them no issue other than the consulate saying my wife wouldn't be able to get another tourist visa there because it's her 3rd tourist visa but she wasn't even the problem, it was my passport. The first time we flew in this year we went Don Maung and we were all stamped in 2 minutes very fast which is supposedly the harder airport to get into, well not for me at least judging by last night. 

 

That's our background info, so we arrive at Suvarnabhumi yesterday evening and head to the immigration. Can tell them the woman immigration officer is a bit of a bad mood, as we are walking as family with a young baby so one of us has to hold him and as we went to the counter the woman strongly said "only 1 at a time" it doesn't sound that bad, but it was the tone she used it was just strong and you could tell she wasn't in a smiley mood. before we can all go to counter as family (every country we've been to since our son was born we never had an issue like this) and one of us just move to the side and take turns holding baby for when our photos are taken and stuff. As said Don Maung was no problem the lady there was nice let us all come to counter, smile at our son etc. very nice, this the opposite. 

 

So I go up to the counter first and she starts going through the pages I think here we go lol something's going to happen, she's flicking through making some comments in Thai to her fellow immigration officer examining every page in detail "visa blah blah", " another one blah blah" muttering away to her colleague (my wife can speak Thai and could hear). She then passes my passport to her supervisor or manager, it was a guy this time. Anyway so he starts looking through my passport and he asks "what are you doing here in Thailand, why you just come here last week and go and come again?"  As we stayed for 2 months, then we to SG for 2 weeks, then back Thailand last night.  I said for a holiday,  he then said "where you live?" I said  I work in Singapore you can see my work visa... you can see I come into Thailand just 1 time in the last 365 days, you can see I am not working, I just like Thailand and my wife has lots of friends here as she worked here for 4 years previously. My wife history doesn't have anything to do with this as her passport was never looked at, just mine and she has a new passport last year so the IO officer wouldn't have been able to tell her history from just looking at the passport (only if she looked her up on their system which she didn't do). My wife then starts speaking to the guy in Thai help explain the circumstances that we live in SG as our base and come visit Thailand. The IO officer then just asked "how many days will you stay this time" we told him 3 months as we planned to extend our tourist visas. So after this he starts speaking to me and say many farang have problem when come to Thailand about the visas. I just acted like I didn't know and surprised, then this is the part it gets interesting.

He says to me "next time if you want to come to Thailand when you want there is a special service you can use and you can get into Thailand as many times as you want a year if you just come for Holiday/Tourism" He carries on to say that he have lots of farang who use this service. You send $150 , you tell me when you are coming to Thailand and I will make sure you come inside, you send a photo of yourself, your flight ticket and then I will tell you what time I am working, my working schedule and I will get someone to take you from the plane when you get off and bring you directly to me so you can get into Thailand fast and easy. He then proceeds to show me his phone and there must be at least 20 chats with farang on there he opens a few and I see some selfies, flight tickets etc. of a few of these farang basically backing up what he said to me prior. So he asks if I have line and then scans my QR code and add me then just says next time tell me first and send the money and I will get your family in no problem. 

 

The guy was friendly and spoke nice to my wife and me just explaining how lots farang come here and live here full time or work without the right visa so they have to be careful etc.  then stamped us in without another question and no money exchanging hands, for this time at least! So our  tourist visas are fine and we weren't denied entry it just was a bit of ball ache getting in as I've never experienced that before.

 

I expect this sort of stuff to happen and land border crossing, but I was very surprised to be basically offered to pay a IO officer prior to my arrival to guarantee entry at an international airport.  And although I haven't been on these forums a while I've never heard of this happening to anyone before so just wanted to post my experience as I was surprised by it all and interested to know if anyone else has been offered this service?

 

Thanks for reading this long wall of text and apologise for grammar and spelling in advance as I'm half asleep still so it may not read the best. 

 

 

 

 

[GeorgeCross]

so they expect us to pay a bribe even if we ARE actually legit tourists!!?

 

seriously the balls on these 'people' ????

 

i think this is called racketeering elsewhere in the world? pay me, or trouble for you..

 

disgusting

 

 

[LazySlipper]

Can I have his number?

[ThaiBunny]

Sensational. I've inferred from other posts that the Immigration regulations confer wide powers of discretion on IOs of a certain rank and above, which is how visa agents "facilitate" extensions that don't comply with the standard regulations. Evidently this particular IO has decided to go into business for himself. Since - if my inference is correct - he's not exceeding his authority but merely exercising the discretion the regulations give him, I can't see where the objection is apart from the straightforward bribe (or facilitation fee) that he's charging 

[KittenKong]

20 minutes ago, GeorgeCross said:

so they expect us to pay a bribe even if we ARE actually legit tourists!!?

It is quite common here (and elsewhere) for people to invent problems in order to charge a fee for solving them. Lawyers and plumbers both try it on frequently.

The trick is not to be taken in.

[Tayaout]

But No tips they said! 

[GeorgeCross]

4 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

It is quite common here (and elsewhere) for people to invent problems in order to charge a fee for solving them. Lawyers and plumbers both try it on frequently.

The trick is not to be taken in.

 

yeah i'll remember that when i'm sitting smugly in IDC

 

"ha, i showed him"

 

 

[GeorgeCross]

3 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

But No tips they said! 

 

guess its back to business as usual now the big joke's gone..

 

..except now with a whole raft of new 'rules' to enforce exploit.

 

 

 

[Camillof]

hello55060, you have him on "Line". Please get him writing down something compromising on Line if you can, then report him to higher authorities or to the press. For the sake of all honest people entering and staying here legally.

[BritTim]

20 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

Sensational. I've inferred from other posts that the Immigration regulations confer wide powers of discretion on IOs of a certain rank and above, which is how visa agents "facilitate" extensions that don't comply with the standard regulations. Evidently this particular IO has decided to go into business for himself. Since - if my inference is correct - he's not exceeding his authority but merely exercising the discretion the regulations give him, I can't see where the objection is apart from the straightforward bribe (or facilitation fee) that he's charging 

The objection is the denial of entry for bogus reasons if the bribe is not paid.

[Pravda]

Not a bad service for a cheap charlie tourist digital nomad.

 

You should post this on facebook groups and take commission.

[jacko45k]

21 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

But No tips they said! 

That was Big Jok days, over and done with, back with a vengeance. 

[Briggsy]

Damn, I wish they had offered me that before I was denied entry. The cost of all the extra flights was way over $150 (Are we talking US here or Singaporean? Either way, a bargain)

[cowbee]

May I ask for his contact, please.


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[Orton Rd]

18 minutes ago, Kasane said:

Surprising that anyone will believe this cock and bull story. Corrupt officials are much more smarter than putting foreigners on LINE for bribes.

They don't need to be smart because they are never held to account for their greedy corrupt schemes

[Rimmer]

Baiting troll post and replies have been removed

[neeray]

48 minutes ago, Kasane said:

Surprising that anyone will believe this cock and bull story. Corrupt officials are much more smarter than putting foreigners on LINE for bribes.

Wow. Tell us how you really feel !

[LongTang]

The sad reality is that you should be grateful to have such an option handy. At least you can achieve a worry free entrance from now.

Some people pay big money to official programs to get the same service..

[ThaiBunny]

1 hour ago, KittenKong said:

It is quite common here (and elsewhere) for people to invent problems in order to charge a fee for solving them. Lawyers and plumbers both try it on frequently.

It even has a name - rent-seeking https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rentseeking.asp

[Snow Leopard]

Do everything correctly, Make sure everything is by the book and pay JACK SH*T. I came through Swampy last night and it seemed to be taking a lot longer per individual with the fingerprint scan. 

[LongTang]

5 minutes ago, Snow Leopard said:

Do everything correctly, Make sure everything is by the book and pay JACK SH*T.

 

AND you can still be screwed and denied entry if you fall on an immigration officer that woke on the wrong side of his bed..

[KittenKong]

2 hours ago, GeorgeCross said:

yeah i'll remember that when i'm sitting smugly in IDC

 

"ha, i showed him"

The point in this case was that there was no request for money to solve an immediate problem, and indeed there was no immediate problem. The OP was not going to be detained for anything yesterday.

 

It was a future payment to avoid imaginary future problems that was under discussion.

[monkeycu]

I am SO disappointed 

The headline of a special service ???? gave Immigration a new meaning until I read the story ????

[ThaiBunny]

55 minutes ago, monkeycu said:

I am SO disappointed 

The headline of a special service ???? gave Immigration a new meaning until I read the story ????

There was a happy ending of sorts

[CharlieH]

Reported post removed.

 

Please do not make suggestions/comment on illegal activity.

[nahkit]

I'm more interested in knowing where I can find a job like yours.

 

You spend two months in Thailand, go back to Singapore for two weeks and then return to Thailand with the intention of staying for three months and you say you work in Singapore?

[ThomasThBKK]

17 minutes ago, nahkit said:

I'm more interested in knowing where I can find a job like yours.

 

You spend two months in Thailand, go back to Singapore for two weeks and then return to Thailand with the intention of staying for three months and you say you work in Singapore?

It's called Finance, IT or Fintech - most likely as a consultant.

 

 

[nahkit]

7 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

It's called Finance, IT or Fintech - most likely as a consultant.

 

 

Spent 30+ years in IT, fair proportion of my early days were as a freelancer. I was never good enough to only have to work 2 weeks in 5 months.

 

Would be much more interested to hear from the OP how he manages it.

[hobz]

Big money ... Try to stop this and you will get transfered like big joke.

[ThomasThBKK]

Spent 30+ years in IT, fair proportion of my early days were as a freelancer. I was never good enough to only have to work 2 weeks in 5 months.
 
Would be much more interested to hear from the OP how he manages it.

That's not what he said, his prior trip was about a year ago before this years trips.

Plenty of time to safe money.

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