Hi,

37-year-old America here. In June 2006 my US passport was stolen in Bangkok. I had a replacement passport made later that year, and all is good. Except for one minor glitch: Every time I cross a Thai border (exit or entry) and the Immigration Officer runs my new passport through the immigration computer, it "locks" the computer system. The Immigration Officers have varying degrees of annoying reactions, they ask me what happened to my passport, I reply it was stolen and then they invariably have to request a higher-ranking officer to join them and "unlock" the system. Often, the original officer will take a super-duper long time stamping my passport and handing it back to me. Power play I'm sure. Then I'm on my way. It's not show-stopping, just really annoying!

I tried emaling the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no reply.

Any suggestions as to how I can have this corrected? I'll be going to Bangkok in the near future, so if I need to visit a Ministry I can.

Thanks,

Scott

Seems your passport is flagged for some reason. I suggest contacting your embassy, as they US government might have flagged it. Could be a simple mistake/mix-up about which passport is stolen and which is the replacement, either in US or Thai data-base.

Probably in the Thai database, as only there you have a problem.

Had to laugh as I had the same thing for years. Lost a passport in 2000 and every time I crossed a Thai border the immigration computer would give a double "beep" followed by a long stare from the officer with others huddled around looking at the computer. He would ask if I lost a passport before, I'd say yes, another long stare from him then I'd be stamped through.

Luckily for me, I have dual nationality, so just applied for and received a passport, which I then proceeded to use without any more long stares

Same same, lost passport, every time they had to get a supervisor out. Even got taken away once to a holding room. Was told that it will stay on the system for ever, but when I replace that passport [ran out of pages ] never had a problem again. Jim

You just have to accept it as the other posters have said it is locked forever .

It seems your passport annoys the immigration officers. Get a new passport maybe that will fix it.

Sorry to say that there's not much you can do.

It's been flagged due to it being stolen and due to heightend security

etc, it has to be cleared by someone further up the food chain.

Letters and emails to embassy's and other governtment departments

are only a waste of time.

You just have to grin and bear it.

Regards

Will

It seems your passport annoys the immigration officers. Get a new passport maybe that will fix it.

Not to mention the people behind him in the queue.

Does your first name begin with "John" and your middle and last name end with " Wayne Gassy "?

At some time you may encounter a border crossing where you may not find their reaction so amusing, like being thrown in a cell for a few days before it gets sorted out. Better straighten this out with the passport people of your own country, maybe just get a new one.