Slow Getting Through Passport Control

[jdinasia]

I have cleared the new airport faster than I ever did at DM .. and faster than in the USA OR Oz

[bangkokrick]

I have cleared the new airport faster than I ever did at DM .. and faster than in the USA OR Oz

It took me 3 hours to get through Shanghai imigration as 5 jumbos arrived at the same time. Have you ried Heathrow lately. Why knock Bangkok.

[orchis]

I landed 6/21 at 4.05 AM and was in a taxi at 4.45, that's not bad at all.

[Carmine6]

... When I arrived back from Manila yesterday, there were queues for foreigners, but the Thai counters were initially empty. Several Thai counters were swiftly changed to foreign counters and the queues disappeared quickly.

...

Same experience here. 6:10AM arrival, LAX to BKK. Was 3rd in line behind a guy with no exit ticket. While the guy tried to bs his way into the country, and with basically a max of 10 people per line, they opened 2 of the Thai citizen lines to foreign passports. There probably were 6 other lines opened so it went pretty fast other than my line. Someone finally came over and took the guy aside to free up the line.

On my departure I arrived to find lines all of 2 to 3 people deep. Should have been a quick process, but I think the Officer hadn't worked the lines in a while. Must have taken 10 minutes just for me. I think she had more ribbons than I've ever seen and from her facial expressions I think she had made some typing errors or something. She apologized for the delay afterwards.

Have to admit that for a few minutes I was wondering if the ex was pissed at me and had done something crazy.

[realthaideal]

Got in from a short trip to Oz the other night - about 11:30pm. Didn't know about the fabled 2nd further-up-ahead immigration control point and I chose the worst f'ing line ever. Only when you get half way up or better did I realize that 1) I was standing behind several groups of people whereas other lines had people neatly forming lines - ie my line looked shorter than it was due to it's sideways bulkiness. 2) Then you see that my line leads to just one counter whereas the other lines sometimes have two counters and that's why other lines advanced past me so quickly. Seriously quickly.... sadly some people who defected after 40 mins ended up passing me in their new lines even though I was only 5 back or so. Dangit!!! 3) Maybe my guy was just a stooge. Every time someone got up there and hadn't filled their arrival form out right, or had missed something he let them fix it and made everybody wait. Totally should have those idiots step aside. Sorry, if you can't llok at a form and fill it out - sepecially while cueing up for an hour, then get the F !!! out of my F'ing way! So, long story, it took 1.5 hrs and my luggage was among the last left on the carousel.

Upshot... next time I'm going to Imm pt #2. Also always getting an idea of which lines have 2 officers at their disposal. And looking for the slow meatheads that work way tooo s l o w l y.

I was so pissed I just had to write about it!

[A_Traveller]

Arrived Saturday at 15:00 SIN-BKK the immigration area was as bad as I ever saw it at DM. Took over 25 minutes to clear, all queues back out into the cross corridor for all stations. Each person was taking circa 5 minutes to process at all counters. {Note all desks were operational, and only 2 set aside for Thai + 1 air crew, yes I had the time to check } To be fair this is the worst I've had it at SU but it is wrong for people to say that there are no problems. Anecdotally it seems the introduction of the scanners {and I'm told an update to the 'system'} have made processing slower recently.

Regards

/edit typo //

Edited July 5, 2007 by A_Traveller

[totlanh]

I passed through the airport on the 28th June and to be honest i have never heard such twaddle talked i would go as far as to suggest some people who claimed to have come through have not!!

Firstly this airport is FAR SUPERIOR to DM in every aspect.

Secondadly,we cleared immigration in record time i would say no longer than 10 minute

and lastly we WERE NOT asked for proof of onward travel and that included my wife who is travelling on a Vietnam passport.

[Crossy]

Came in 5.30AM monday, through immigration in 2 minutes flat (shame the bags weren't as quick)

Was asked for boarding pass. Noted that the signs requiring onward ticket have been removed, don't know if the requirement has gone (got a visa).

[A_Traveller]

I passed through the airport on the 28th June and to be honest i have never heard such twaddle talked i would go as far as to suggest some people who claimed to have come through have not!!<snip>

Since your post directly follows mine I do hope that you are not calling me a liar. I stated clearly and unequivocally my experience including date and time. Perhaps I should post a scan of my boarding pass etc.

As I stated, that was as bad as I've seen DM, it was also the worst experience by far of SU, at least in terms of immigration.

Regards

[baabaabobo]

Arrived from Hong Kong on the 25th of June at lunchtime went through to domestic with my e-ticket and was told to queue for my boarding pass at the Thai counter. Huge queue with only three Thai staff working. One was at a reservations desk where a scruffy hand drawn sign above her said "boarding pass next counter" with an arrow. Luckily I spotted that sign as many queued for a long time only to be told they were in the wrong line.

I spent ONE WHOLE HOUR in that queue clutching my magic e-ticket. Every now and then we shuffled forward and then a tour operator would push to the front with a stack of passports ignoring our cries of "unfair". Once I got my boarding pass I then had to queue again at immigration for a further 15 minutes so by the time I got through I had to run for my flight to Phuket. SO I agree with the OP that improvements can be made.

[onlooker]

Flew in from KL on AirAsia 27 June landed at around 8am. Straight through passport control and was at the carousel before the first bag arrived. But I noticed that there were three areas with Immigration desks in them. But from each area you can't see the other areas and so have no idea they are there. When I walked out towards the baggage claim one area was packed with people, yet the one I'd just passed through was almost deserted.

[Soju]

Just went through immigration and only one person in line in front of me. Plenty of other booths with only one or a couple people as well. The normal for me. The processing time was shorter than most my other trips recently - 80 seconds. It was one of the few times I travelled with checked luggage and surpisingly my luggage was already out as I arrived at the carousel. But I was delayed a few minutes at the plane being we got bused and needed to wait a bit for a bus to arrive. Not a single taxi tout in the arrival hall as they now seem to be banned. Took a taxi from the departure level, but took much longer than usual due to the rain and lots of traffic on the roads. Quite a lovely experience as far as airports go. I wish all airports could be as efficient as BKK was on this trip.

[IMA_FARANG]

Amazing Thailand! It took almost as long to fly from Australia to Thailand as it did to get through Passport Control the other morning. Thai Airways TG992 landed on time at 6.25am. Two other flights landed within 10 minutes of us.

Passport Control at Suvarnabhumi Airport has 7 control counters for 'Thai Passport' and 15 control points for Foreign Passport.

At 6.30am, all 7 Thai passport counters were open - only 6 of the 15 Foreign control points were manned.

Result: It took 1hr and 45 mins of queueing before we were able to 'enter Thailand.' Foreunaely my BF was through in 3 minutes and was able to retrieve our bags from the luggage carousel.

Suggestion to Airports of Thailand: Eliminate the Thai/Foreign Passport discrimination - and call it Passport Control ... and make sure ALL the control points are manned.

Then it will really be: Welcome to Thailand.

Peter

I arrived on 5 June at about the same time in the morning......was a VERY long queue at all passport control that were open. Fortunately they had about 4 or 5 uniformed customs officers walking around asking the crowd their nationality and if they were allowed a stamp (visa) on enterance, the officials took their passport and a ticket for out of country exit and then went and processed the entry stamp. Returned it to me in about 5 minutes, all properly stamped with a 30 day entry. I've never seen this before, but it was a big help, as I never actually go thru the passport control post. While I was waiting I saw 3 o4 4 others, one a farang couple ,who got the same service.

I guess you just never know in Thailand.....but I think you've been there long enough to know sometimes it can amaze you....for the good.