Excellent Immigration Today

[davee58]

I have seen so many posts about slow immigration and impolite immigration officers, but our experience arriving in Suvarnabhumi from Kuala Lumpur today was so different...

We arrived at about 15:00, and as the first immigration area was busy a pleasant lady directed us to the second area. The shortest queue there was about 8 people and the processing was rapid.

The immigration officers were all dressed in casual beach shirts and all looked cool and relaxed.

After processing our passports and arrival cards our officer had a quick flick through my passport, saw my previous stamps, gave a big smile, and said "Welcome Home xxxxxx" (I could not make out the last word but am certain it was polite).

He was so pleasant I thought for a moment that he was going to reach under the counter to pull out a bottle of Black Label and glasses.

Is this a new era for immigration, or is because it was Songkran ?

[ALFREDO]

So you lucky with Thai Immigration, I cannot say a bad thing about the Thai airport Immi. yesterday i was on a one day Visa-borderrun in Singapore from Phuket and when coming back I had a nice chat with three Immigration officers.

But leaving yesterday from Singapore from the Budget Terminal at Changi Singapore airport, they surprised me.

Not only is all the staff at the airport and Immi. in Changi very polite and friendly, but on every Passport-Immigration-check counter is a bucket with candys for the Tourist-Businessman, for everybody!

Thats a service, leave Singapore with sweet cady in your mouth, sponsord by the Immigration or the Singapore Tourist board.

Nice.

[pmarlin]

Maybe the fact no flights from europe has something to do with it. When I came in 1130pm 16 Apr no lines ar passport control and no large crowds of arrivals anywhere. Also the polical situation in Bangkok has a lot to do with it.

[kerm99]

I have arrived in Suvarnabhumi about 20 times in the last two year. I never had a bad experience. A good attitude (smile) when you are the desk and proper documentation is key.

I don't understand all these people that complaint about immigration at Suvarnabhumi. I think they actually bring that onto themselves

[retiredusn]

I have arrived in Suvarnabhumi about 20 times in the last two year. I never had a bad experience. A good attitude (smile) when you are the desk and proper documentation is key.

I don't understand all these people that complaint about immigration at Suvarnabhumi. I think they actually bring that onto themselves

I completely agree.................Never had a problem and service has always been excellant with a "Wecome home added"

[syd barrett]

I have arrived in Suvarnabhumi about 20 times in the last two year. I never had a bad experience. A good attitude (smile) when you are the desk and proper documentation is key.

I don't understand all these people that complaint about immigration at Suvarnabhumi. I think they actually bring that onto themselves

I completely agree.................Never had a problem and service has always been excellant with a "Wecome home added"

I always laugh at fictitious posts like this.

Never, in more than one hundred arrivals into Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi have Immigration staff uttered any more than a grunt at me to look at the camera. 95% of arrivals were made in silence and I have to admit on only one or two occasions has my experience been bad. (Late night rudeness or curtness perhaps).

I also make a habit of watching the people in front of me going through Immigration, and to both sides of the queues, and I have never witnessed any greeting or pleasantry ever!

People who make incredulous posts on this forum are either confabulating or else deluded into thinking that their own ingratiating greeting was in fact reciprocated by the Immigration Officer.

[Khun Jean]

Poor syd, it does happen you know, good experiences.

All of the times i (we) arrived it was friendly, quick and even helpful with some luggage a few times.

I guess you never seen a immigration officer carrying bags before? It happened to us when we arrived with lots of stuff and the extra hands were very welcome.

'Have a nice stay', 'welcome home sir' is often heard from the male staff, the woman are more business like, faster still friendly but less talk.

But i must have just imagined it, and it was just 'fictitious'.

[syd barrett]

......and even helpful with some luggage a few times.

I guess you never seen a immigration officer carrying bags before? It happened to us when we arrived with lots of stuff and the extra hands were very welcome.

Yes, I can just imagine it. The Immigration Officer leaving his post with a one hundred metre queue to help you with you over-limits hand luggage.

I must try that next time: "Please Sir, could you just carry my hand luggage to the baggage arrival area?"

This is 'Thai Visa' not 'Jackanory-Online'.

[Khun Jean]

I have more stories like that, you want to hear them, or are they all 'fictitious' by your standards.

For me these kinds of experiences is why i like Thailand. but i guess you have to be very unlucky if it never happens to you, because it is happening all the time to a lot of people.

[PhilHarries]

I'm with Syd on this one. Don't know offhand how many arrivals I've put in but it's 18 years worth, and although I've never had a bad experience I also have never had an immi officer speak to me*. There was, however, once where one of the officers out in the hall directed me away from the foreign passports queues to the Thai ones. She was pleasant but to be honst she could have said "You can <deleted> off over there" and I'd have been just as happy.

I make a habit of travelling in shirt, jeans and trainers (casual but smart) so it's not like I'm there in singlet, shorts and thongs. I always have all my travel documents ready and hand them over, not just drop them on the counter, and ensure I am standing in the right place for the photo.

The only time I've ever seen them speak to people is to tell them to wait BEHIND the line (something some travellers seem to have a problem with) or to instruct the person to fill out the arrivals card (again some seemo not to be able to grasp this one).

* just recalled one did speak to me when I arrived with a tourist visa on a short stopover en route to VN and wanted a visa exempt stamp and keep the visa for my subsequent return. Both him and his supervisor were pleasant enough but the answer was still no was Jose. No problem I just got another visa in HCMC but it was another page gone.

As for speed of passage, it's already been said but 15:00 is arrival time for the overnight flights from Europe so that's why it's quiet. Ive arrived and been second in line but another time it's taken an hour, so it's very variable. Same with outbound passport control, sometimes quick and sometimes slow.

To be honest I don't expect them to be anything more than quietly efficient, it's a dull old job and they must get bored to hel_l.

[syd barrett]

I have more stories like that, you want to hear them

No thanks.

I prefer only truthful and realistic posts on Thai Visa.

I stand by my own testimony: I have never heard an Immigration Officer say to a farang " Welcome home Sir".

The mere idea of that being said I find hilarious!

[MB1]

Never, in more than one hundred arrivals into Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi have Immigration staff uttered any more than a grunt at me to look at the camera. 95% of arrivals were made in silence and I have to admit on only one or two occasions has my experience been bad. (Late night rudeness or curtness perhaps.

And I'm also in agreemnent with SydBarret, in all my arrivals/departures to and from Thailand IMO Immigration staff have always been like robots on a conveyer belt and programmed to be as unfreindly looking as possible, I've never once been witness to the pleasantries that have been mentioned in this thread.

[kerm99]

My original post was about never having had a bad experience. Yes, the officer are rarely smiling and i never received a "welcome back" message. But there are people on the forum who seems to have a tremendous hard time getting through immigration. That was the point of my post.

The officer are seeing thousands of person every shift they work, i don't expect them to be very friendly. I'm sure they have to deal with a lot of bullshit. So, when i arrive, i smile, do as i'm told and everything goes very well (every single time).

I just came back from Taipei and it was exactly the same. I simply don't understand why people bash Suvarnabhumi every single chance they get.

Kerm

[BusyBee123]

Never had a bad experience either, dont expect any special treatment and dont get any, just want to get a stamp and pick up my bags.

[RCR]

In defence of Immigration Officers:

I used to do this job in a western country. The time we took to process passengers was monitored - 35 seconds to process our own nationals, 45 seconds to process foreigners. If we went over those times too often we would get reprimanded. We would process easy cases as fast as possible, to build up a reserve of time to deal with difficult cases.

Supervisors were under pressure to process a flight in 35 minutes and would discourage us from chatting to passengers because it wasted valuable seconds.

Personally, I hated it when incoming passengers tried to get close to my counter and talk to me. After a nine hour plus flight, a passenger's breath is no longer minty fresh and the body odour...well...Yuk! Sometimes I had to keep my mouth shut and not breathe while an especially foul passenger was in front of me.

I would guess the performance of Thai Immigration Officers is monitored in a similar way, for far less money.

[Stjohnm]

I've never had a bad experience, there was one lady with a nice smile who worked at Don Meung who always greeted people with a smile I tried to go for her desk whenever possible, haven't seen her at Suvarnabhumi though.

[Boon Mee]

I have arrived in Suvarnabhumi about 20 times in the last two year. I never had a bad experience. A good attitude (smile) when you are the desk and proper documentation is key.

I don't understand all these people that complaint about immigration at Suvarnabhumi. I think they actually bring that onto themselves

I completely agree.................Never had a problem and service has always been excellant with a "Wecome home added"

I always laugh at fictitious posts like this.

Never, in more than one hundred arrivals into Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi have Immigration staff uttered any more than a grunt at me to look at the camera. 95% of arrivals were made in silence and I have to admit on only one or two occasions has my experience been bad. (Late night rudeness or curtness perhaps).

I also make a habit of watching the people in front of me going through Immigration, and to both sides of the queues, and I have never witnessed any greeting or pleasantry ever!

People who make incredulous posts on this forum are either confabulating or else deluded into thinking that their own ingratiating greeting was in fact reciprocated by the Immigration Officer.

Agree.

I'm thru Swampy twice a month and unless you get a "Fast Track" card from your airline, it's wait in the long lines for the Immigration Officer who gives two s*its whether or not you exist.

[Alex8]

In defence of Immigration Officers:

I used to do this job in a western country. The time we took to process passengers was monitored - 35 seconds to process our own nationals, 45 seconds to process foreigners. If we went over those times too often we would get reprimanded. We would process easy cases as fast as possible, to build up a reserve of time to deal with difficult cases.

Supervisors were under pressure to process a flight in 35 minutes and would discourage us from chatting to passengers because it wasted valuable seconds.

Personally, I hated it when incoming passengers tried to get close to my counter and talk to me. After a nine hour plus flight, a passenger's breath is no longer minty fresh and the body odour...well...Yuk! Sometimes I had to keep my mouth shut and not breathe while an especially foul passenger was in front of me.

I would guess the performance of Thai Immigration Officers is monitored in a similar way, for far less money.

At long last, the voice of reason, experience and sanity.

Alex8

[davee58]

As the original poster of this thread...

Yes, I was amazed, that is why I started the thread in the first place.

My past memories are of hour long queues, with all the other queues moving faster than mine

and the queue closing when I was near the front

and stony faced officials.

But as I said, on this occasion things were a LOT different, immigration was a pleasant experience, and it was not just at our check in counter, all the immigration staff seemed to be wearing the same style of relaxed, off duty, "on the beach" shirts, with matching attitudes.

And Syd, this is not a fictitious post.

[saakura]

About 150 transits through Don Mueang and Suwarnabhum airports in last many many years. Never ever had any problem whatsoever. But also never got any personal greeting, a smile or friendly nod, very rarely.

[neverdie]

Personally, I hated it when incoming passengers tried to get close to my counter and talk to me. After a nine hour plus flight, a passenger's breath is no longer minty fresh and the body odour...well...Yuk! Sometimes I had to keep my mouth shut and not breathe while an especially foul passenger was in front of me.

Recently a poster on this board posted regarding his experience with an alleged rude immigration officer & clearly from his post he was one of these people you descibed above. I mentioned exactly this to him and was shot down in flames. Its good to hear it straight from the horses mouth.

Its also good to see people here are posting about their good experiences with immigration officials, typically we only hear from the whingers. I have never had bad service from thai immigration on any of my 'few' entries & exits of the country.

[djlest]

Perhaps Poor Syd still hasn't grasped the fact that Good Karma and smiles means Good things come back to us...

I have seen and experienced some really nasty Immigration officers, but they were all human and as nasty as they can be, they can still show signs of humaine kindness

[swindonabroad]

Would just like to add that landing on Monday the 26th at about 6.30 pm there were only 2 people in front of me in the queue.

Actually got a small smile of appreciation from the officer when I directed her towards my re-entry permit.

I must admit I am one of the first to moan about the long waits and rude officials but this time the experience was excellent

[gk10002000]

I have made nine trips to the LOS. One was through Don Muang, the other eight through Suvarnabhumi. I really never had any bad delays or experiences. One night there were about 12 people in each line, so the wait was a bit long, but nothing over one hour. Usually the average line length was about 4 people in front of me. I have no issue with that, and should not, no matter how long or miserable the flight may have been.

Once I did see a lady got out of line, move one of the stanchions over and created her own line in front of what she thought would be a freshly opened line because an official had stepped into the booth. He shooed her away and moved the stanchion back. I was a bit amazed. Most airports do not tolerate moving line markers around!

I will admit the clerks rarely smile, and usually don't respond back to me when I greet them in Thai. My Northeast USA accent (Rhode Island) probably can mess up even Sawasdee and Sabai Dee Mai. But, as others have said. Smile, present the documents, step on the "feet" on the ground and move on when told.

Trip ten starts on May 7!

Happy trails

[needforspeed]

Excellent Immigration yesterday 21 May as well.

I was the only one .

[syd barrett]

I have more stories like that, you want to hear them

No thanks.

I prefer only truthful and realistic posts on Thai Visa.

I stand by my own testimony: I have never heard an Immigration Officer say to a farang " Welcome home Sir".

The mere idea of that being said I find hilarious!

I have never heard this. This is fiction.

[Khun Jean]

Commenting on your own posts. That is pure fiction!

[syd barrett]

Commenting on your own posts. That is pure fiction!

Your post #7 in this thread is risible.

If you want to make sensible contributions to this thread go ahead. But nobody welcomes your 'Walter Mitty' contributions. Don't make a fool of yourself.

Thanks.

[Chaimai]

I am also with Syd on this one.

40 flights in the last 5 years and maybe one 'warm' greeting.

Invariably, I will hand over my passport with a manly "Sawasdee Khrup" which is usually greeted by total indifference and the sense that they are looking for something that will deny you entry. One even told me to find the visa stamp as he could not. I replied that HIS embassy put it in there and guided him to the correct page.

What I would say is that when I flew out 2 weeks ago I was impressed with the Post Office queueing system. I may have been number 50 in the queue when I started but I was certainly the 50th to be checked. No more cursing because you are standing behind the guy who has mislaid his departure card.

[pmarlin]

I am also with Syd on this one.

40 flights in the last 5 years and maybe one 'warm' greeting.

Invariably, I will hand over my passport with a manly "Sawasdee Khrup" which is usually greeted by total indifference and the sense that they are looking for something that will deny you entry. One even told me to find the visa stamp as he could not. I replied that HIS embassy put it in there and guided him to the correct page.

What I would say is that when I flew out 2 weeks ago I was impressed with the Post Office queueing system. I may have been number 50 in the queue when I started but I was certainly the 50th to be checked. No more cursing because you are standing behind the guy who has mislaid his departure card.

don't forget about the A-Hole who skips a page in the passport for the entry stamp, which leaves you with a wortless unused page. Thailand is the only place that has happened to me.