3 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

It's already underway.

At Suvarnabhumi Airport, automated immigration processing is expanding rapidly. Departure e-gates are already being used by both Thai nationals and eligible foreign travellers, while automated arrival processing for foreigners is being rolled out, with further expansion planned.

There will, of course, still be immigration officers on hand to deal with exceptions, queries, and travellers who cannot be processed automatically.

The key point is that immigration control is increasingly driven by the central database rather than passport stamps. The system can instantly flag anomalies, unusual travel patterns, overstays, visa issues, or travellers who fall outside predefined risk parameters. Anyone triggering those criteria can simply be referred to a staffed immigration desk for further scrutiny.

For holders of Non-Immigrant visas, re-entry permits, Elite visas, DTVs, and other long-term permissions, routine arrivals and departures should become increasingly seamless. Provided everything aligns with the records held in the system, the process may eventually become little more than a passport scan and facial recognition check.

First-time arrivals and those whose biometric information has not yet been fully enrolled may still require manual processing until their details are properly registered and verified.

In reality, this is simply the direction many countries have already taken. Low-risk, routine travellers pass through automated systems with minimal delay, while those who fall outside normal patterns are diverted for human assessment.

The technology speeds up the processing of the majority, allowing immigration officers to focus their attention on the minority who warrant closer examination.

The next logical step, in my view, would be the evolution of the Pink ID Card into a genuine foreign resident ID card.

As immigration records become increasingly digital, it makes little sense for long-term residents to carry passports for routine identification, banking, domestic travel, or immigration checks. A secure card linked directly to the national database would streamline all of these functions and fit naturally with Thailand's move towards biometric verification and automated border processing.

I follow all that and think it’s great.

But I do have a stamp in my passport saying departed on 21st May from Phuket when I went to Singapore for a medical check up.

And a stamp dated 22 May when I re entered at Suvarnabhumi because I was meeting my daughter in Bangkok before flying back to Phuket.

Each stamp, in and out, has the renewal date of my retirement visa written on it in blue pen by the respective IO.

So it all sounds great, I’m just saying that there doesn’t seem to be actual roll out for the general public yet. I’m assuming my Singapore passport would qualify me as being eligible.

At Suvarnabhumi I do recall some e gates on the right hand side, but an official was standing there and wasn’t allowing foreigners to go in those lanes.

I’m not too sure if you are recounting personal experience or recent announcements by the authorities? I am simply stating my personal experience.

3 hours ago, JerryM said:

I think you read that wrong. It says:

... as a return for inducting or having induced,

by dishonest or unlawful means (IE a bribe), or

by using his influence,

any official, ... to exercise or not to exercise any of his functions (or use his/her discretion as interpreted by many) , which is advantageous or disadvantageous to any person (IE the client).

And this Section is addressing the activities of a facilitator, not the IO.

Plenty of quotes, zero examples. They did make the deposit more difficult so perhaps things will change. I'm not losing sleep over it.

6 minutes ago, flaming dragon said:

Plenty of quotes, zero examples.

One example: The Chuwit in Khon Kaen. But unless there is somehow some promised internal audit of "legitimate reason" extensions, it probably probably would take someone with a severe grudge to file a complaint.

On 6/15/2026 at 2:21 AM, flaming dragon said:

Looks a little pale for a denizen of Croydon. IQ level sounds about right.

"Another fine mess you've got me into..."

On 6/15/2026 at 10:21 AM, Iron Tongue said:

So this chap pled guilty and went to prison for forged documents, how then, would other countries allow a convicted felon to enter their countries?

That is the first thing Immigration officers check for.

How do immigration officers do that?

Headed to Oz a while back, had to get a visa, can't count the number of times I encountered warnings YOU NEED A VISA! So stepped up to imm. at entry, she scans my passport after nary a glance at it, hands it back to me. I asked "aren't you going to check the visa?" she said "we got it all right here." Actually a few times I got the impression Ozzie authorities were nice to me because I was a Yank; it wasn't that long after 9//11 so they probably figure the enforcement there really puts us through the ringer. Or maybe it's the Olivia Newton-John thing.

Malaysia scans your fingerprints on entry, even by land at Sadao. Been doing so for nearly 20 years.

On 6/16/2026 at 2:18 PM, richard_smith237 said:

As immigration records become increasingly digital

Information in the grey area that could not be linked 5 or 10 years ago with improved computer horse-power can tend to make the 'grey' area more black or white.

6 hours ago, bendejo said:

So stepped up to imm. at entry, she scans my passport after nary a glance at it, hands it back to me. I asked "aren't you going to check the visa?" she said "we got it all right here.

Most countries are like that these days...

Visas are already 'in the system' and as soon as you show your passport and it scans biometrics the visa pops up.

But he is lying .He did not forge the documents - the thais did . But Thailand got him to confess to another thai's crime in order to halve his sentence - are you proud of that law Thailand ?because it is stunningly disingenious......Can we have stats on the number of shady visa operators - nearly all my friends have had a bad story- It's endemic....hopefully the DTV visa will eliminate the poor human decisions made at the borders and dodgy visa enablers /disablers- .... the mechanism with dealing with foreigners is 2 tier - like the policing in UK. Thais in general believe they are above the law because they know someone and have gotten away with it before ...doe'snt make it right. Did the investigator find the muay thai visa application office that took money and not provide legit visa . because if it didnt - they are culpable- if i was this young man i would sue the Thai govt -because they have not provided safe channels for visa applications and false imprisonment. which means the police are not policing - what are they doing? running gambling sites ...? borrowing huge sums from soapy massage venues employing underage women. The thai have an image problem . one rule for you one rule for us....

On 6/15/2026 at 2:31 AM, mfd101 said:

Warning to morons everywhere: Do not visit Thailand. Ever.

People often visit Thailand for a holiday but stay to be FT morons.

The lower cost of living and lack of rules and pressures appears to enable that but stay long enough and act moronically enough and it's FAFO / deadly. Sabai sabai lulls people into assuming it's not a serious place.

On 6/16/2026 at 2:08 PM, richard_smith237 said:

From time to time there are highly publicised crackdowns, investigations, and arrests. These occur when abuses become too visible, attract media attention, generate public pressure, or inconvenience someone with sufficient influence to demand action.

Until then, many such arrangements continue to exist in the grey area between what is officially permitted and what is quietly tolerated.

This from Bangkok Post:

The Immigration Bureau will lead operations with relevant agencies to inspect foreigner databases, verify documents and evidence, review visa extension requests and examine foreign business operations.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/3253894/thailand-moves-to-uproot-illegal-foreign-activities

And if they are looking at persons staying over 90 days, versus extension of like tourist visas, one easy thing to audit is the upcountry "legitimate reason" discretion one-year extensions of stay that approach the expat population of the province

What you you say other than "DUMMY!"

On 6/15/2026 at 5:37 PM, JerryM said:

And those agents 'work' with Immigration to induce the IMM officer to invoke the "legitimate reason" 5. discretion clause and waive any financial requirement otherwise necessitated.

But as they only do so when paid a large amounts it's corruption. Also, extensions are sometimes from another province up country, which is definately illegal.

Good Luck with your travels 👍

11 hours ago, visalady said:

But as they only do so when paid a large amounts it's corruption. Also, extensions are sometimes from another province up country, which is definately illegal.

But if you post something like that on the VISA forum section you will only get laughing emojis.

3 hours ago, JerryM said:

But if you post something like that on the VISA forum section you will only get laughing emojis.

But if you post something like that on the VISA forum section you will only get laughing emojis.

Nervous laughs perhaps from people bribing officials for years. If it was legal as they claim why bother with an agent at all- just go into immigration and pay the money over yourself, after all they can make up a legitimate reason to ignore the financials, so go on just cut out the middle man.😀

18 minutes ago, visalady said:

Nervous laughs perhaps from people bribing officials for years.

Largely as a matter of their interpretation of the words "legitimate reason" in the current Immigration order, one of the resident experts said on the VISA forum said:

"They (IMM Officers) are the ones who get to decide whether or not to issue a visa/extension and under what criteria. They can both add AND remove criteria at their discretion.

To which I responded:

Last time I heard an explanation like that it was for the Infallibility of the Pope.

On 6/16/2026 at 3:32 AM, flaming dragon said:

The IO has the right to exercise discretion in the process, thus it is not illegal and doesn't fall under the purview of this law. No crime has been committed.

Yes that may apply to waiving the 800K bank provision according to ORDER OF THE IMMIGRATION BUREAU No. 327/2557 at clause 5. but in no way does it authorize a payment via an agent in excess of the 1900 baht (2000 max.) in Section 35 of the Immigration Act.

Over on the VISA forum one of the honchos has said: So if the office determines 10,000 baht backhander means it's legitimate, then it is.

Meaning the 10K or so baht that is given to the agent by the retirement extension applicant and is somehow authorized the Police Order which is subject to Section 35 of the IMM Act.

But what I write had been referred to as drivel rather than the VISA forum cognoscenti as drivel rather than their making up their own language to the Police Order.

So to say 'No crime has been committed" is not true. A bribe has been paid.

Edited August 9Aug 9 by JerryM

While reading the article, I figured this guy was trying to skirt the rules and bend them, if not maybe just dumb...then I read something that left me laughing. The Wooden Sticks, cracks me up just typing it. Guards get drunk and come to practice some Field Hockey.

On 6/16/2026 at 2:08 PM, richard_smith237 said:

Until then, many such arrangements continue to exist in the grey area between what is officially permitted and what is quietly tolerated.

Good chance that is what those in the (non-financially viable) nominee ownership realm have been telling themselves until recently.

Besides it isn't grey -- it is illegal:

Section 144 Thai Penal Code -- Whoever, giving, offering or agreeing to give the property or any other benefit to the official, member of State Legislative Assembly, member of Provincial Assembly or member of Municipal Assembly so as to induce such person to do or not to do any act, or to delay the doing of any act contrary to one's own duty, shall be imprisoned not out of five years or fined not out of ten thousand Baht, or both.

Edited August 9Aug 9 by JerryM

On 6/15/2026 at 8:06 AM, JohnO958 said:

“You can't fix stupid!!” - This idiot should have gotten five years!! If you are going to be a moron - STAY HOME!!!

He looks like a clean cut sort of guy.....and no tatts, he is innocent!

He got completely scammed the first time and then the second place that did it used fake stamps ? Sure, he is dim. But I almost feel a little bit bad for the guy. He did serious jail time for some paperwork bs. No drugs, no attempted murder, none of that.

Yes, he will probably milk this. But he did lose a year of his life

On 6/15/2026 at 7:09 AM, richard_smith237 said:

I think that's certainly a possibility. Some operators may simply be running a scam, inserting counterfeit stamps, taking the money and disappearing the moment things go wrong.

What I suspect is more likely is that there are agents with contacts who can obtain genuine stamps or genuine access to official processes, but in a manner that is entirely improper or fraudulent. To the customer, everything appears legitimate because the stamp itself looks legitimate.

The difficulty is that the person paying for the service often has very little way of knowing where the line between "assistance" and outright fraud is actually being crossed.

Let's be honest, plenty of retirees have used nominee fund arrangements or similar services to satisfy financial requirements that they would not otherwise meet. Whether people like it or not, those arrangements exist in a legal grey area at best, and many are openly discussed and even recommended on forums such as this one.

The reality is that people become accustomed to hearing that "everyone does it" and that certain agents are "trusted".

After a while, it becomes easy to convince yourself that if a service is widely used, it must also be legitimate.

They're told the agent is "well connected", "knows the right people", or has been "doing this for years", and they assume the arrangement is authorised.

Yeah. There is some nuances here that many of the experts in the comments cant seem to see. And the most ironic thing is, some of them might have got the same service this guy got from an "agency" without even realizing it. Especially considering the age of them and how they were operating in the analog era back in the 70's and 80's. It was probably a fraud free for all.

I have some sympathy for this guy.

17 minutes ago, Harsh Jones said:

Yeah. There is some nuances here that many of the experts in the comments cant seem to see.

Saying that 'using' an agent for a no-money-in-the-bank extension is one thing; Saying it is completely legal is another. And while an analog old age expat might think it is OK, the Immigration officer knows that it isn't e.g. from Chonburi IMM

Meaning how much does it cost you to get the IMM officer to exercise (or not) his/her 'discretion

Edited August 10Aug 10 by JerryM

On 6/23/2026 at 8:59 AM, JerryM said:

"They (IMM Officers) are the ones who get to decide whether or not to issue a visa/extension and under what criteria. They can both add AND remove criteria at their discretion.

And for all the talk on here and on the VISA forum, note that the source of that 'discretion' is at Immigration Order 327/2557 Clause 5. and does NOT contain the word 'discretion' in the Bureau provided translation.

Edited August 10Aug 10 by JerryM

And to the confused party above:

5. In the case where an alien applicant does not meet the full qualifications stipulated by the criteria herein or in other cases not specified in this Order but a competent officer equivalent to or higher than inspector is of the opinion that the alien has legitimate reason for staying in the

Kingdom of Thailand, the application shall be forwarded to the Commander of the Royal Thai Police or an authorized competent officer for further consideration of the alien's application.

On 6/14/2026 at 10:36 PM, rocketboy2 said:

yes.

it's called Blow & Go.

Is that you Kenneth?

On 6/16/2026 at 1:34 AM, richard_smith237 said:

The immigration stamp itself is no longer regarded as definitive proof of entry or exit. In modern immigration systems, the authoritative record is the electronic entry within the national immigration database. The issue in this case appears to be that the stamps in the individual's passport did not correspond with any matching digital immigration records. In effect, the stamp becomes little more than a physical annotation; it is the immigration officer's entry into the central system that ultimately validates the movement.

Regarding your experience with Thailand's immigration e-gates, is your U.S. passport biometric (i.e. does it display the ICAO biometric passport symbol on the front cover)?

The Auto-e-Immigration Gate reads the MRZ (machined readable zone - bottom two lines of text) first to unlock and read the RFID information stored in the chip (process called basic access control) - The gate then compares the information stored on the chip with the live image captured by the gate camera to verify ID and then compare to the Immigration Database to verify status.

There maybe several reasons why an e-gate may reject you... i.e. poor positioning during scanning, a dirty scanner, lighting issues, or simply a temporary system fault - but repeated failure points to something else - damage on the MRZ, a variation in facial features (a lot fatter ? a lot skinner) resulting in a difference between stored Image and auto-gate identification, or possible damage to the passports embedded RFID chip (through physical damage, wear, or electronic failure etc) - hence you are diverted to a staffed immigration desk for manual processing.

Having used immigration e-gates across numerous countries, my experience has been that they are generally reliable, but sometimes hit-n-miss and occasionally one will reject a perfectly valid passport for no obvious reason, requiring intervention by an immigration officer.

BTW - the US passport biometric is in the back cover and not the front as in many countries. I kept failing entering German e-gates until one of the officers told me, common mistake.

On 6/16/2026 at 7:18 AM, richard_smith237 said:

The next logical step, in my view, would be the evolution of the Pink ID Card into a genuine foreign resident ID card.

What evolution would you expect with the pink ID card richard?