Immigration -what Do They Actually Check ?

[Lauriedog123]

When you hand over your passport to the immigration officer at Swampy what is it that they actually check, do they look on their computer for a Thai police record, an international arrest warrant or, non payment of bar fine in Phuket, or ??

They always look so important they must be checking something !!

[Falcon]

Hi,

Well, it all depends on how they feel on thte day. They can check for several things but most times they are just imputting your deails in to the computer, name, passport number, date of birth, country, etc.if you see themswipe it through the card reader they are simply imputting the information easier as it reads the magnetic strip on your passport and has the necessary info on it. If, on the other hand, you see them put the passport on the flat plate then they are also checking your passport isnt on the lost/stolen interpol database (there are literally '000's of reported lost/stolen passports and numbers on their database and any check through this will bring it up if its on there (hopefully not, eh!!).

there is no way that any country regardless of what anyone will try to tell you that they can check on anything other than the above details through a simple passport check, if they want to check further whether you have any international warrants out for you or anything similar then they would have to ask you to follow them to a side room and send off a physical request to either your home country (country of passport issue) or to interpol.

Hope this helps,

Falcon

[benton]

Hi,

Well, it all depends on how they feel on thte day. They can check for several things but most times they are just imputting your deails in to the computer, name, passport number, date of birth, country, etc.if you see themswipe it through the card reader they are simply imputting the information easier as it reads the magnetic strip on your passport and has the necessary info on it. If, on the other hand, you see them put the passport on the flat plate then they are also checking your passport isnt on the lost/stolen interpol database (there are literally '000's of reported lost/stolen passports and numbers on their database and any check through this will bring it up if its on there (hopefully not, eh!!).

there is no way that any country regardless of what anyone will try to tell you that they can check on anything other than the above details through a simple passport check, if they want to check further whether you have any international warrants out for you or anything similar then they would have to ask you to follow them to a side room and send off a physical request to either your home country (country of passport issue) or to interpol.

Hope this helps,

Falcon

Not quite correct..there will be a 'flag' appear once your details come up..be it from Royal Thai Police or International Police with who they have extradition agreement if you're wanted.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Benton is correct.

[budmak]

Passport No in NSA wheels churn 10 seconds later no alarm welcome to LOS

[chuang]

When you hand over your passport to the immigration officer at Swampy what is it that they actually check, do they look on their computer for a Thai police record, an international arrest warrant or, non payment of bar fine in Phuket, or ??

They always look so important they must be checking something !!

....YOU.....

[fantuzi]

Hi,

Well, it all depends on how they feel on thte day. They can check for several things but most times they are just imputting your deails in to the computer, name, passport number, date of birth, country, etc.if you see themswipe it through the card reader they are simply imputting the information easier as it reads the magnetic strip on your passport and has the necessary info on it. If, on the other hand, you see them put the passport on the flat plate then they are also checking your passport isnt on the lost/stolen interpol database (there are literally '000's of reported lost/stolen passports and numbers on their database and any check through this will bring it up if its on there (hopefully not, eh!!).

there is no way that any country regardless of what anyone will try to tell you that they can check on anything other than the above details through a simple passport check, if they want to check further whether you have any international warrants out for you or anything similar then they would have to ask you to follow them to a side room and send off a physical request to either your home country (country of passport issue) or to interpol.

Hope this helps,

Falcon

I am quite sure - your information is not accurate.No ofence intented - I am just correcting information.

First - look in your passport,you will not find any magnetic strip,there is no magnetic strip - you mix up your passport with your ATM card or Visa.Passport scanner can read printed information in your document on the page where you see your photo.

There are many types of readers and some require swipe(they can not read photo),others work like document scanners - they might scan your photo.

I am sure,that they check their own black list automatically..At BKK airport they have separate terminals ,behind immo posts,where they have access to other lists.The last,but not least - you may noticed yourself photocameras;they are used to take souvenir shot of you,

which is digitized on fly and what happens later - I am not sure.Souvenir shot!

I am not any authority,I saw it myself or I remember reading it somewhere.I have read,that they want to use fingerprints as well.

[martin81]

You are right there are no magnetic stripe on most passports but most new passports has an optical readable stripe on it.

My passport like many newer passports also has a RFID chip with some info that they can read if they have a reader for this.

[RCR]

The old scanners have a slit where the machine readable lines on the edge of a passport are swiped through. This gets passport country, name, date of birth, passport number, DOB, expiry date, and verification code into the computer.

Thai and American passports often come up with an "Error" warning because the expiry date on the biodata page has expired and a renewal date has been written in on another page. The operator will simply check for the new expiry date and cancel the warning. Most countries insist their citizens get a brand new passport instead of an extension after expiry.

The passenger information is automatically checked by the computer against various databases, including Customs, Immigration, Police, and any other local/international agencies that want to be involved in monitoring the border. The databases involved depend on the politics and motivation of the individual country.

If the information is a fuzzy match to a person of interest, a message will come up on the computer telling the operator what to do. If there is no match, the computer will come up with a message okaying the passenger.

The later model passport scanner has a flat glass plate that looks at the whole biodata page. It compares that image to a database of what a passport from that country should look like (text fonts, text location, security features). A message comes up on the computer saying if the passport is valid or not. Once the passport is considered valid, the computer carries out the database check on the passenger information as above.

This only works for modern passports. If a passport is in an obscure or old fashioned format and can't be machine read, the operator will key the information into the computer by hand. Some modern passports also have a microchip but the readers for these microchips are not widespread yet.