Thai Or Foreign Passport Line At Suvarnabhumi

[up-country_sinclair]

I'm married to a Thai and have a Non-0 visa. When travelling through Suvarnabhumi with my wife, can I join her in the Thai passport line or do I have to stay in the usually much longer line for foreigners?

Sorry if this is in the wrong section.

[TravelerEastWest]

I am in the same situation and I use the Thai line without a problem.

[dvdlock]

I've always used the Thai side, even when I used to come in on a Tourist Visa.

Came back in just over a week ago on a multi-O and used Thai side again.

No problems so far.

[theoldgit]

I think it depends on the mood of the Immigration Officer, if the queues are shorter, my gf and I always line up at the Thai line, she goes first and asks if they will deal with me, like others we have always been ok.

[Mario2008]

Policy is that when you travel with your Thai spouse (or Thai child) you can use the line for Thai passport holders together.

[maccaroni man]

Policy is that when you travel with your Thai spouse (or Thai child) you can use the line for Thai passport holders together.

this is true but be sure to check what they do with your stamp; i am on an O visa and the imm officer gave me 30 days until, thanfully i double checked what was doneand it was corrected immediatly.

[CharlieH]

Policy is that when you travel with your Thai spouse (or Thai child) you can use the line for Thai passport holders together.

I think most immigrations are the same in that if you are travelling together they treat you as a "fanily" and can be processed together. I have never had any problem in Thailand using the Thai queue and the same in the UK, wife goes through UK line with me and not "foriegn" line (huge queue where once i waited nearly 2 hours for wife to go through until immigration officer told me we can stay together as a "family"). Travelling alone might be a different matter.

[lopburi3]

I have had problems both in Thailand and USA so it is not a given. Previous trips we were told to process together using resident line in US but last time it was rudely refused and wife had to process in foreign line (which was long as all New York pax had to clear in Seattle POE). A female officer noticed wife was not strong enough for a second queue and allowed entry at front. But believe policy in US is not to allow now - have not returned to test it.

In Thailand never had an issue on arrival but several times did outbound. Most times just get in foreign line but had wife and grandchild one time so gave mine and two Thai passports and got 'your not Thai' and responded two out of three are and got processed but no smile.

[OJAS]

I think most immigrations are the same in that if you are travelling together they treat you as a "fanily" and can be processed together. I have never had any problem in Thailand using the Thai queue and the same in the UK, wife goes through UK line with me and not "foriegn" line (huge queue where once i waited nearly 2 hours for wife to go through until immigration officer told me we can stay together as a "family"). Travelling alone might be a different matter.

My Thai wife & I had a similar experience on our trip to the UK in Aug last year, when we both joined the "All Other" queue at LHR only to be informed by the immigration officer who eventually processed us that we could have both joined the EC/EEA queue instead. In our case the wait was only 30 mins, fortunately. However the immigration officer did make it clear to us that, had she been travelling alone, she would still have had to join the "All Other" queue.

Upon our return to BKK we both joined a "foreigner" queue which, mercifully, was not too long. Unfortunately, the immigration officer who processed us did not follow the helpful lead of his LHR counterpart and inform my wife (at any rate) that we could have both joined a Thai queue. We shall therefore bear this in mind the next time we are travelling together and encounter horrendously long "foreigner" queues on our return to BKK.

Edited November 22, 2010 by OJAS

[Atmos]

Just my/our experienceThree trips in/out of Bangkok since April this year with my Thai partner and have used the Thai queue each time, never been questioned apart from once a guy came across from the 'foreign passports' queue to point out I was not Thai , and was in the wrong line. Politely - he just thought I'd made a mistake.As both names appear on the ticketing documents, makes sense.