Swampy Passport Control

[tw25rw]

An electronic permit to travel type arrangement might be an alternative to these landing cards. They would already have your info when they scan your passport.

[frno63]

An electronic permit to travel type arrangement might be an alternative to these landing cards. They would already have your info when they scan your passport.

Yes, and since most passports are machine-readable anyway, what is all the keying about? I think there is a lot that can be done to speed up the process, it really should not take 3 minutes to process the passport at departure. But This is Thailand, so what can you expect.

[FarangBuddha]

I too think a big part of the problem is the departure (and arrival) cards. Thailand gets many (majority?) visitors for which English is not their first language. Therefore, many times the cards are not completed or completed incorrectly so inn. officers have to complete/correct them. Not much can be done about this until the cards are done away with.

Also, until Swampy starts to score poorly in various travel publication surveys, and the imm. process is one of the reasons why, I don't see much push to solve the problem.

[PattayaParent]

^I remember at Don Muang that Immigration officers used to turn people away who had not filled in the arrival cards properly and they had to join the back of the queue but at Swampy they don't do that.

[frno63]

^I remember at Don Muang that Immigration officers used to turn people away who had not filled in the arrival cards properly and they had to join the back of the queue but at Swampy they don't do that.

That probably doesn't work too well when the queue is more than 300 meters long, but they do have to step aside and complete the form while the immigration officer handles other passengers.

Anyway the main problem seems to be too few immigration officers. With 20 officers to handle all foreign passengers, the capacity is about 600 passengers per hour if each officer can process 30 passports per hour. At the busiest times the traffic is probably a lot heavier than that, so there you have it.

[geriatrickid]

My recent experience this month was 40 min and 50 min waits. Departure was mid day, and early morning. Desks were 2/3 staffed but That long, long line was about 5 lines deep, There were some airport staff taking people out of line but were very disorganized.

I don't think the problem is immigration. It is the preflight passport and immigration form checkers at the end of the line before you get to immigration. As well there were the few idiots that hadn't bothered to complete the form. There were only 2 gals working and there was always about a 30 sec time span before someone made it from the line to the immigration desk. I can see why there is a delay. They need to change to have more people checking the documents and to start checking the documents sooner. If you are incomplete to the side you go and let others pass.

[007]

The worst thing about those long passport control queues is your luggage is going around and around on the carousel.

Anybody can pick up your luggage and walk straight out of the terminal with it.

Who would do something like that? The illegal taxi touts standing right in the baggage claim area next to the customs staff?

(From King Power and their theft-scam to illegal taxi touts in the baggage claim area.. This is all mafia-controlled; just look up 'Suvarnabhumi airport' in Wikipedia.)

Thailand - Land of smiles?? Think again; it's more about scamming. Not just foreign tourists but everyone.

Edited January 27, 2011 by 007

[Mighty Mouse]

So it's not lack of staff that causes it.

It's not lack of staff, it's staff slackness.

Have you ever seen a Thai passport official work up a sweat stamping passports? They are slower than a week of Songkran.

Turn this page, turn that page, place the passport in front of the scanner, check the passport photo, compare it with the tourist, move the tourist in front of the camera, take a photo of the tourist, have a joke with the Thai official sitting in the adjacent booth,stamp this page, stamp that page, stamp on a cockroach, staple in the arrival card, hand back the passport............all in very slow motion. :sleepy:

[FarangBuddha]

So it's not lack of staff that causes it.

It's not lack of staff, it's staff slackness.

Have you ever seen a Thai passport official work up a sweat stamping passports? They are slower than a week of Songkran.

Turn this page, turn that page, place the passport in front of the scanner, check the passport photo, compare it with the tourist, move the tourist in front of the camera, take a photo of the tourist, have a joke with the Thai official sitting in the adjacent booth,stamp this page, stamp that page, stamp on a cockroach, staple in the arrival card, hand back the passport............all in very slow motion. :sleepy:

To close out this thread, passport control in and out of the Philippines on PAL, using the newish Terminal 2 [Philippine Airlines exclusively] was a breeze. I was in and out within 15 minutes both times. However, I do know that times can sometimes be much longer (up to 45 minutes for check-in and passport control) in the old Terminal 1.

To my delight, immigration at Swampy on my return (Friday 28th around 22:30) was basically empty, with lines of 2-3 people and through the line in minutes.

[mickj88]

Haven't been through swampy since last April when I came through on my own and had to que for about 45 mins but when returning a month later I went through the Thai channel with my wife ( was told to go in this channel by the staff). The time before I came in with the wife and went through the Thai passports and went straight through no bother.

I will be coming through again early April with the Mrs so will try the Thai passport line again, problem is will be leaving 30 days later on my own so looks like will have the queing to do with everyone else.

On all the many occasions I have come through passport control other than the last 2 times I have had to que for a good 50 mins but the staff have always been polite toward me.

I have to say I have had more issues with passport control in both Manchester and Heathrow the first couple of times the wife came over to the UK, I got a little agitated with 1 jumped up little twerp at Manchester once and found myself and the Mrs having all our baggage searched( he must of tipped off customs) nothing found but delayed us for another hour and half which after a total of 21 hours travelling was totally unwelcome.The customs guys were actually very nice and apologetic for the delay though.