1 minute ago, DrJack54 said:

And that was done in front of you.

Why not complain

No. It was done in the hour or so when my extension was being processed after submission of application. It was the 90 day report reminder that they give for the first extension.

" why not complain " . IME , most IOs are grumpy and stressed, and in Thai culture criticism is often taken as an insult. No wonder then that people don't want to make a fuss . Jomtien stapled my TM30 into my pp. Don't know why they do this , but that seems to be routine. Ironic , in a way , because they rejected my application to extend a SETV a few years ago because of damage to the pp. 🤪

3 hours ago, Upnotover said:

Genuine CW staple holes.....

If I had those holes you got there, I wouldn't made the flight yesterday. Anyway, those small marks in my passport, have been there for years, and first time I had any remarks about them.

13 hours ago, novacova said:

Use paper clips, keep enough for the 90day receipt, tm30 and a couple extra.

The last page of my previous passport had so many staple holes in it, it looked like a cullender. Main culprit was the IO at my local office (Nakhon Pathom) each time I went for my 90 day report. He'd tear the old slip out and staple the new one in. It got so bad that after a couple of years I used a small Binder Clip as per photo below. Easy to remove and reuse. He got the message - No more staple holes or tears.

Of course when 90 day came available online it was an easy DIY job to put the new TM47 slip in the back of the passport.

13 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

There is zero necessity to keep 90 receipt or TM30 with pp.

Nor TM6 (when previously it existed)

I wonder why the TM47 reciept has a little box in the left hand corner with the words KEEP IN PASSPORT printed in it?

11 minutes ago, 007 RED said:

I wonder why the TM47 reciept has a little box in the left hand corner with the words KEEP IN PASSPORT printed in it?

Immigration think they are being helpful. They are not.

Zero reason to keep TM47 receipt + (old days) TM6 in pp.

Can the OP be more specific about where this happened (which airline/country). All my family's passports are riddled with staple holes, and have been for a long time, and it's never been an issue before. If there's been a change of policy, is it for a particular airline or country? Worrying!

17 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Can the OP be more specific about where this happened (which airline/country). All my family's passports are riddled with staple holes, and have been for a long time, and it's never been an issue before. If there's been a change of policy, is it for a particular airline or country? Worrying!

Norway Norse and I'm the second on this forum a I'm aware of. I couldn't find the other tread by forum search. But quite sure it was 6-7 months ago, maybe more

1 minute ago, Hummin said:

Norway Norse and I'm the second on this forum a I'm aware of. I couldn't find the other tread by forum search. But quite sure it was 6-7 months ago, maybe more

Thanks! Let's hope it's a one-off, or many will be affected.

I recently got a new 10 year UK passport, I asked my agent when getting stamps transferred to ask immigration not to staple, she said words to the effect, "its what they do, sorry"

My last one was littered with staple holes

Just renewed 1 year visa, no staples, so maybe they are learning as more people ask them not to

17 hours ago, Hummin said:

I got this on the first pages and further out

Much ado about extremely little on the part of the miserable jobsworth check-in assistant whom you clearly had the misfortune to encounter when boarding your recent flight, it seems to me.

That said, I do agree that it is totally unacceptable for immigration officers to be gleefully stapling TM30, TM47, etc receipts in our passports with reckless abandon, leading to individual pages being unnecessarily peppered with holes in due course as a result.

48 minutes ago, OJAS said:

Much ado about extremely little on the part of the miserable jobsworth check-in assistant whom you clearly had the misfortune to encounter when boarding your recent flight, it seems to me.

I believe so to, but she was nice even I had to move one kg between my bags also, which they normally do not do.

Got 17kg in one bag, and 24,5 in another, so she had me moving one kg, since the weight for my bags on this flight was 23kg pr bag.

8 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

That's one immigration office and does things in the Jomtiem way.

Fortunately not typical.

So you actually know how typical it is or isn't? We already have reports here of it happening in multiple offices.

8 hours ago, DrJack54 said:

Never stated that.

What I stated is that there should be no items (eg TM47 receipt etc) stapled into passport.

The fact that an office has that practice is just down to bad habit.

For others where the passports are not held, suggest if the io starts to staple your pp, politely request that not be done.

Your one word response of NONSENSE was quite dismissive and came off as suggestive that we have control of immigration office internal procedures when we're not even there.

Coincidentally, I did my 90-day at CW today. I do not remember them ever stapling the 90-day report in.

My passport is four years old, I've been in and out of the country a few times and I do not appear to have any holes anywhere.

Whatever I want to keep in the passport I just tuck under the plastic cover, no clips or staples

In any case I have "invested" in a staple remover.

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

In any case I have "invested" in a staple remover.

It's safer to just straighten them out with your thumbnail and pull them out.

5 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

In any case I have "invested" in a staple remover.

A staple remover will tear them out, this can create holes, you need to remove them surgically

4 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

A staple remover will tear them out, this can create holes, you need to remove them surgically

I have used different methods including a knife depending on the staple in question.

So far all OK..

I've just removed mine using a small knife to straighten and then carefully pull out . Leaves 2 tiny holes that are hardly noticeable. Thanks to the OP , otherwise I might have left the card in the pp. and risked it being ripped out at a later date by some careless IO.

I miss Ubon Joe!

5 minutes ago, curtklay said:

I miss Ubon Joe!

Here you go, down memory lane....

The enemy here is the airline check-in staff. They can be very strict, especially with Low Cost Carriers as they are afraid of getting fined and having to return passengers from a country in case they are denied entry (at airline cost). Reality is that Thai arrivals immigration don't give a rat's, as it was their organisation that likely created the staple holes!

So, back to using staples, problem solved. That's how I've been doing it for 20 years without any problems!

On 2/20/2026 at 7:35 AM, Mutt Daeng said:

Years ago, an IO at Buriram put a plastic sleeve over the last page of my passport and placed my TM6, TM30 & TM47 inside it. No more staples for me.

Years ago i got a strong plastic passport "cover" which has a couple of small "pockets" or "sleeves" in it.

I put, as you do, those important blue receipts in these sleeves with the passport. (but not B1900 extension receipts or re-entry etc which I keep but put on my larger zip folder).

This cover always gets removed by IO's, so have to watch that things don't fall out.

Since my new passport on 2023 I haven't had anything stapled in it.

Maybe they're catching on?

As DrJack54 says, receipts do not need to be kept in the passport,but funnily, on one extension application the IO suddenly wanted some receipt (TM30 or 90days maybe?).

I dumped the whole pile in front of her and she quickly sorted through them until ....." Ah, yes, this one".

Still no idea which one it was, but she was happy (well as 'happy ' as they ever get) and off I went.

Saved some time having hoarded these numerous blue slips and kept them handy.

1 minute ago, orchidfan said:

Years ago i got a strong plastic passport "cover" which has a couple of small "pockets" or "sleeves" in it.

I put, as you do, those important blue receipts in these sleeves with the passport. (but not B1900 extension receipts or re-entry etc which I keep but put on my larger zip folder).

This cover always gets removed by IO's, so have to watch that things don't fall out.

Since my new passport on 2023 I haven't had anything stapled in it.

Maybe they're catching on?

As DrJack54 says, receipts do not need to be kept in the passport,but funnily, on one extension application the IO suddenly wanted some receipt (TM30 or 90days maybe?).

I dumped the whole pile in front of her and she quickly sorted through them until ....." Ah, yes, this one".

Still no idea which one it was, but she was happy (well as 'happy ' as they ever get) and off I went.

Saved some time having hoarded these numerous blue slips and kept them handy.

Ha Baht

5 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Ha Baht

I think that my one was free from a Travel agent (shows how old it is).

I did consider it was probably a good place to slip in 'ha pun baht' should the need ever arise...but it never has ....at least not at airports 😜

On 2/19/2026 at 2:52 PM, Jingthing said:

Easier said than done!

It's already stapled in when my passport is returned with an extension.

On 2/19/2026 at 8:48 PM, DrJack54 said:

While it's common in Thailand for some io to staple pp.

In reality it's illegal. Do not allow, any immigration officer to staple anything into your pp.

That should be fun for the Imm. Officer you are preventing, (not allowing) - but much less fun if he/she is a bad-tempered kind ofperson and bans you from the country you are entering....

57 minutes ago, BusyB said:

It's already stapled in when my passport is returned with an extension.

Nonsense.

Apparently that is very rare

55555

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Nonsense.

Apparently that is very rare

55555

For all my offices I have used, all of them have stapled my passport with no exemption all these years. But it hopefully ends now. Will get a new passport next time going home, and start the process transfer the visa/extension of stay to the new one, even I do not think I will experience the same again by using another airline next time.