New E-Gates for Thai Passports Debut at Suvarnabhumi Airport

[josephbloggs]

30 minutes ago, fleccer said:

For Thai nationals only? Completely useless given the small number of Thais who pass through. And instead we have to continue to put up with long and exhausting queues

 

Tell us all about the last long and exhausting queue you had on departures. I have never had one and I travel quite a lot. What was your experience? Sounds like you somehow get them all the time, such bad luck!

[josephbloggs]

Repeat post.

Edited July 2 by josephbloggs

[josephbloggs]

Repeat post.

Edited July 2 by josephbloggs

[fleccer]

2 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

Tell us all about the last long and exhausting queue you had on departures. I have never had one and I travel quite a lot. What was your experience? Sounds like you somehow get them all the time, such bad luck!

I've never met issues at departure probably you just been lucky

[Captain Monday]

”Flipping” through the passport？to identify those who should be grilled or denied entry for ”coming too many times”

 

How will this work with auto gates?

 

[retayl]

14 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Yes... In reality... 

 

I'm currently resident of a few countries (due to work).

Two of them, I simply scan my Passport In and Out without getting any stamp.

 

Thus: I think this could be implemented for those on a Resident Visa (i.e. Non-Imm B / O / OA etc)...  or even those on long term Visas (i.e. Thai Elite etc)....

 

But for regular tourists and those arriving on Tourist Visa's / Visa Exemption stamps I think e-gates would be more difficult to implement, and IMO unlikely. 

 

 

 

 

I’d be interested to know which countries you visit without needing a stamp and what is your domicile country? We concur on TV & visa exempt entries.

[Mr Meeseeks]

7 hours ago, retayl said:

I’d be interested to know which countries you visit without needing a stamp and what is your domicile country? We concur on TV & visa exempt entries.

 

Both Singapore and Malaysia no longer require stamps. 

 

Fully automated entry and exit through e-gates in both countries. 

[Tomtomtom69]

What a misleading article. I was at the airport this morning to send wife's relative off and after he went through departures, I took a peak inside the immigration area, which is separated from the public area by a glass partition.

 

I made out TWO auto gate channels labeled "ALL NATIONALITIES". Next to that on the far end of the terminal building, were maybe 5 or 6 auto gates for Thais. 

 

In front of both of the auto gates marked "all nationalities" were a bunch of foreign nationals, 7 or 8 in each row waiting to get through. Why they didn't use the manned counters with no one waiting behind them beats me.

 

In the main departure area in the central part of the terminal, there were 8 or 10 auto gates for Thais and again, just 2 for other nationalities. Again, there was a queue in front of both foreigner auto gates, a minimal queue in front of the traditional manned counters and maybe 1 Thai person using the Thai auto gates. 

 

I personally endeavor to never use auto gates. They're dystopian and actually take longer than passing through a traditional manned counter. 

 

Another case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

They've had auto gates at larger land borders such as Nong Khai and Mukdahan (for Thais only) for years but they've just sat there for like 10 years completely unused. Why even bother? Just employ sufficient immigration agents. Isn't that hard.

Edited July 3 by Tomtomtom69

[richard_smith237]

19 minutes ago, Tomtomtom69 said:

I personally endeavor to never use auto gates. They're dystopian and actually take longer than passing through a traditional manned counter. 

 

Another case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

Not really - The E-Gates I've used in the past are pretty quick...   

 

Additionally....  "it is broke"...  Thailand has had issues providing sufficient Immigration Personnel to man the  immigration counters for over a decade with arrivals (and departures) complaining of long waits up to an hour - that seems broke to me.....   E-Gates are an obvious solution. 

 

 

I suspect those claiming this is dystopian may also have a dislike for digital payments society is moving towards (QR Codes, TrueWallet, Prompt Pay etc)... seems more distrust of new things.

 

 

Edited July 3 by richard_smith237

[kickstart]

I come back here last Sunday, got to Heathrow and the self-check in, put my passport etc. in the machine, then a flag appeared "seek assistances" I did, first thing the woman   said where are going, I said Thailand, she said let me look at your passport, then the penny dropped.

If you are going to some countries you are supposed to have a ticket out of that country, she was only interested in my visa, she looked at my visa stamp, Thai, Non-O, and cleared me to go through.

Now, if I went through that E-gate with no stamp in my passport, I would have said I could not come back to Thailand they had no way of checking if I had a Thai visa, I would have to go and buy an air ticket to say, Lao's or Cambodia as an onward journey.

This is the second time I have had this problem at Heathrow check-in, I will use the guy and his stamp, and just hope all immigration office's do not go on to E- visa's.

[paulikens]

On 7/2/2024 at 7:56 AM, webfact said:

During his visit, Pol. Lt. Gen. Itthiphol also shared a meal with on-duty immigration officers, ensuring their welfare by stressing the importance of good quality and tasty food

This was the most important issue of the day.

[StevieAus]

On 7/2/2024 at 11:47 AM, BigStar said:

 

Good they're testing it out on Thais first and iron out the bugs using them. Otherwise, farang would flood the forums with whinges and sneers.

 

 

Predictions here are a baht a dozen. Wait and see.

 

 

Some Farang not all of us

[Tomtomtom69]

23 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

 

Not really - The E-Gates I've used in the past are pretty quick...   

 

Additionally....  "it is broke"...  Thailand has had issues providing sufficient Immigration Personnel to man the  immigration counters for over a decade with arrivals (and departures) complaining of long waits up to an hour - that seems broke to me.....   E-Gates are an obvious solution. 

 

 

I suspect those claiming this is dystopian may also have a dislike for digital payments society is moving towards (QR Codes, TrueWallet, Prompt Pay etc)... seems more distrust of new things.

 

 

 

Yes, new dystopian things. Cashless payments using QR codes are dystopian. So are auto gates. Fortunately, Thailand will take years or even decades to perfect them so I will continue to have an officer stamp me in and out. 

[josephbloggs]

1 hour ago, Tomtomtom69 said:

 

Yes, new dystopian things. Cashless payments using QR codes are dystopian. So are auto gates. Fortunately, Thailand will take years or even decades to perfect them so I will continue to have an officer stamp me in and out. 

Hiarious.

How are auto gates more (or less) dystopian than being stamped in or out except for not wasting a bit of paper in your passport?

The back-end is exactly the same: the IO takes your passport from you, places it in a scanner, your info is read, then you have fingerprints and photo taken for the automated biometric checks. If all checks out he gives you an irrelevant and pointless stamp then hands your passport back.

With auto gates you enter your passport directly in to the scanner yourself, you have your fingerprints and photo taken for the automatic biometric check. If all checks out the gates open and off you go.  Tell me how that is somehow dystopian - doing the exact same thing, but in a quicker and more efficient manner.

Honestly you guys who deliberately make your life more inconvenient because of imagined and paranoid reasons are hilarious. 

[Tomtomtom69]

On 7/4/2024 at 7:45 PM, josephbloggs said:

Hiarious.

How are auto gates more (or less) dystopian than being stamped in or out except for not wasting a bit of paper in your passport?

The back-end is exactly the same: the IO takes your passport from you, places it in a scanner, your info is read, then you have fingerprints and photo taken for the automated biometric checks. If all checks out he gives you an irrelevant and pointless stamp then hands your passport back.

With auto gates you enter your passport directly in to the scanner yourself, you have your fingerprints and photo taken for the automatic biometric check. If all checks out the gates open and off you go.  Tell me how that is somehow dystopian - doing the exact same thing, but in a quicker and more efficient manner.

Honestly you guys who deliberately make your life more inconvenient because of imagined and paranoid reasons are hilarious. 

 

You really have no idea. Imagine a day in the future (this already happened during Covid) when you won't be able to pass an immigration auto gate because you didn't get vaccinated. Or because you didn't pay your taxes. Or you said something you shouldn't have on social media?

 

All these things can be overridden by a manual officer, but with a machine it's one size fits all. You either meet their requirements or you don't.

 

Also, auto gates are slower than manual processing. Case in point is at Brisbane in Australia, where even babies are forced to use the auto gates on departure and it takes like 3 minutes to process each child because being children they're not going to be looking at the camera the way an officer wants.