I'm returning after a couple of weeks abroad and would like to know if the immigration lines are long these days (am thinking of using the fast track service)?

Obviously it depends on the time of day/how many planes just landed/how many immigration staff on duty etc., but I just want some general impressions.

Over in the suvarnabhumi-airport-forum you most likely find your answer in the immigration-line-at-present ... lastest report was on Friday.

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I arrived 06:50 a week ago and the queues were down 'the ramp'.

No fault of Immigration, all desks were open and manned. Fast track also had a healthy queue but nothing like so bad

As you say, much depends on arrival time.

I arrived just after 07:00 3 weeks ago. Immigration queue in the first arrival hall was down the ramp spilling into the duty free area. I expected the worse as I only had 2 hours to catch my omestic flight.

Airport staff were redirecting everyone to the next arrival ramp. That arrival area had a 2 line queue before opening to the desk area. All immigration desks were manned.

I was impressed. Things went smoothly and I quickly cleared immigration, collected my suitcase and had checked in for a domestic Thai airways flight 45 minutes after my international flight landed.

I returned from Hong Kong about noontime this past Friday. The density of people in the main corridor from the arrivals gate indicated that several flights had arrived concurrently and the line at immigration was several loops long.

The Thai line attendants managed the line quite efficiently and I was stamped through within about 20 minutes, certainly a reasonable wait.

All to do with the time of day and what day of the week you arrive..

I think the longest I've waited was 45 mins (which, granted, by world standards is not a long time) and that was an early morning arrival, the shortest being just last week arriving at 2030hrs, parking at a remote stand (over near the TG maintenance hangars) bussed in from there, then negotiating the mini-maze into a open spaced immigration area! (I was fearing the worst, given we were parked on a remote stand, which usually implies a full airport - at least in every other airport I've visited)

If it weren't for the passengers who didn't fill out their immigration forms correctly - from plane to car, it would have taken about 15mins..

they finally managed to organize things more properly. even it may loook like a long wait ahead, the queues move quite fast. But of course it all depends what time you arrive. now is still high season (Chinese new year), so if there are 5 A-380 and B-747 spitting out their PAX within ten minutes, it is unavoidable that it will take a while for immigration-staff to clear them all.

My own most recent experience:

Wednesday Jan 30, early afternoon, outbound: less than 10 minutes,

Wednesday Feb 6, late evening, inbound: less than 2 minutes

they definitely employ more staff now

I also enjoy the banter between Customs and Indian passengers when I'm waiting in line.

There's just such a language barrier and the frustration becomes evident after a few minutes until a senior customs officer steps in and 'calms' the situation.

You couldn't script a better comedy

I also enjoy the banter between Customs and Indian passengers when I'm waiting in line.

There's just such a language barrier and the frustration becomes evident after a few minutes until a senior customs officer steps in and 'calms' the situation.

You couldn't script a better comedy

It seems to be our Indian friends who always try to queue jump. An elbow, as used with Katoeys on Soi 4, gets the message through.

I seem to have a sense of humour failure around 7am after a long flight

Still took me almost 1.1/2 hours even with Immigration fully staffed and doing their best.

I returned to Thailand just after New Year. The queue at Immigration was horrendous, after my very long treck from my gate, phew.....

I arrived approx 7 am in the Morning, surprisingly though, the queue moved quite quickly, I got through after approx 45 mins.

How long would a line be to be actually uncomfortable? I never could relate to this problem.

When 10 persons are in front of me i keep waiting. When 50 persons are in front of me i go of to relax somewhere and wait until the line has gone.

It does get pretty disheartening when you're walking up to the ramp and you see hoards of people..

Does it make it uncomfortable? Not really, as you know a lot of them will be told to step out of the line because they didn't fill out their departure card...

And there's always entertainment when in the queue generally provided by our Indian friends arguing with the customs officer - call me easily entertained but that has yet to stop me from smiling when I see it..