First Entry on Thai Passport

[SpokaneAl]

We are part timers here, splitting our time between the US and Thailand, spending four months in Thailand last winter and after returning to the US for six months, just entered for a seven month visit. I am married to a Thai and in that we had been away for decades, on our last visit we both entered and exited on US passports. During that visit my wife obtained a new Thai ID card and Thai passport, in order to save some money and hassle on future visits.

Here is how our entry went last week:

Per advice on this website, and after traveling to Thailand on US passports, I kept her US passport with me and went through immigration. She headed to the Thai citizen entry point (which had absolutely no lines and at first she was a bit unsure if it was even open).

She presented her brand new Thai passport and the official (a man) immediately started complaining that she had no birthday on her passport (she has the month and year, but does not have a day - the info matches her Thai ID card). He also tried to tell her that she had been in the US too long.

Fortunately a nice lady (another immigration official) struck up a conversation with my wife, and as they waited, both ignored the guy doing the complaining. He inquired about her US passport and she told him I had it. He began telling her that he did not know if he could let her in the country because of the missing birth data. The other lady they stepped up and pointed out that they had just done the same thing previously for another lady. He complained some more and stamped her passport and she was through.

If not for that other lady I suspect my wife would have had to elevate the problem to a supervisor. My wife thanked her profusely.

Now, hopefully since she successfully entered the country, future issues will not crop up.

I just thought you might be interested in how things worked. I had asked questions and followed threads on TV over the last year to try get smart on both of our passport/visa issues, and appreciate the information, the willingness of other much smarter members to provide guidance, and the level of knowledge of everyone I have encountered here.

Thanks.

[Mario2008]

You could have joined your wife in the line for Thai passport holders.

Good to hear she was let trough with the help of a friendly immigration official.

[samran]

Excellent to hear. Next time she should just use the electronic gates on the way out and in.

[asiaexpat]

My wife had a similar experience years ago when arriving on her brand new e-passport. It took a while but they finally let her in. By the way, her ID had expired and added to the problem.

[Tomtomtom69]

My wife had a similar experience years ago when arriving on her brand new e-passport. It took a while but they finally let her in. By the way, her ID had expired and added to the problem.

How can a Thai experience problems entering their own country?! Absolutely unbelievable. Even if their passport has expired, they are still allowed entry. Also, who cares about her ID card. A passport is required for entering and exiting a country, not an ID card.

[paz]

My wife had a similar experience years ago when arriving on her brand new e-passport. It took a while but they finally let her in. By the way, her ID had expired and added to the problem.

How can a Thai experience problems entering their own country?! Absolutely unbelievable. Even if their passport has expired, they are still allowed entry. Also, who cares about her ID card. A passport is required for entering and exiting a country, not an ID card.

Well, the way I see it, is not real problems, just a bit a bickering from Officers with too much time on their hands. Not everyone is the same and not everyone is practical or friendly, that happens in every country.

[Dellie]

Uhm this might be a stupid question but how can you get a passport that doesn't say your birthday?

Seems ridicilous that they would even issue such a thing.

[ubonjoe]

It is not uncommon here in the past for birth records not to be complete. Some with only the year of birth.

[nurgut73]

ID card of my wife says birthday is June 6th, in reality it's October 3rd. Her old man just couldn't be arsed to pop down to the city hall earlier...

[johnlandy]

My wife had a similar experience years ago when arriving on her brand new e-passport. It took a while but they finally let her in. By the way, her ID had expired and added to the problem.

What's an e-passport? Do you mean a machine readable passport? If not I am curious.

[ubonjoe]

A passport with a RFID chip in it that has biometric data on it.

[paz]

My wife had a similar experience years ago when arriving on her brand new e-passport. It took a while but they finally let her in. By the way, her ID had expired and added to the problem.

What's an e-passport? Do you mean a machine readable passport? If not I am curious.

It does not need to be read as in "scanned", it uses a contactless chip. An e-border, can use face detection together with other data to compare passport data to the person carrying it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_passport

[Tomtomtom69]

My wife had a similar experience years ago when arriving on her brand new e-passport. It took a while but they finally let her in. By the way, her ID had expired and added to the problem.

How can a Thai experience problems entering their own country?! Absolutely unbelievable. Even if their passport has expired, they are still allowed entry. Also, who cares about her ID card. A passport is required for entering and exiting a country, not an ID card.

Well, the way I see it, is not real problems, just a bit a bickering from Officers with too much time on their hands. Not everyone is the same and not everyone is practical or friendly, that happens in every country.

Although I think the main problem here was the lack of a complete birth date. That needs to be sorted out otherwise there will be problems for her in the future.

[SpokaneAl]

My wife had a similar experience years ago when arriving on her brand new e-passport. It took a while but they finally let her in. By the way, her ID had expired and added to the problem.

How can a Thai experience problems entering their own country?! Absolutely unbelievable. Even if their passport has expired, they are still allowed entry. Also, who cares about her ID card. A passport is required for entering and exiting a country, not an ID card.

Well, the way I see it, is not real problems, just a bit a bickering from Officers with too much time on their hands. Not everyone is the same and not everyone is practical or friendly, that happens in every country.

Although I think the main problem here was the lack of a complete birth date. That needs to be sorted out otherwise there will be problems for her in the future.

Birth records show a birth month and year but no day. That precisely reflects her official birth reported information. My wife's Thai ID and passport both reflected that missing info with XXs in the place for the day of birth. With no record showing the birth day, how does one go about "sorting that out"? Isn't the fact that she was issued both a Thai ID and a Thai passport reflecting that info, proof enough?

[dighambara]

You could have joined your wife in the line for Thai passport holders.

Good to hear she was let trough with the help of a friendly immigration official.

I tried that and was sent to the back of the other line.

[AYJAYDEE]

You could have joined your wife in the line for Thai passport holders.

Good to hear she was let trough with the help of a friendly immigration official.

I tried that and was sent to the back of the other line.

i always go thru the thai line with my wife. entry and exit.