Fingerprints at cambodian border?

[Mansell]

I entered Cambodia through Poipet.

[HerbalEd]

Don't see any problems with giving fingerprints. First time 7 years ago in Bangkok Embassy getting a new passport.

Let them build a database. It will help catch criminals. Who could be against that, unless you have something to hide.

They can also have my DNA.

Can not chip me, my limit is there

You are a trusting sole, huh? What about tattooing a number on your arm?

[HerbalEd]

It appears that "finger-printing"...would lead to some "finger-pointing!"...hum?

Yeah ... the middle finger pointing upward.

[Lee4Life]

I entered Cambodia and returned to Thailand immediately on the second of a two-entry tourist visa through the Aran/Poipet border post last February. Going out of Thailand and entering Cambodia I was not scanned, but re-entering Thailand I noticed that some foreigners before me were being scanned - I presume they were those who had been scanned on entering through other points of entry. I was neither scanned entering nor exiting Cambodia at Poipet.

That is interesting. A similar thing happened to me in Malaysia a few years ago. Everybody in front of me had their fingerprints taken, including foreigners, both upon entering and leaving the country, but when it was my turn, they didn't take my fingerprints at all. I suspect it has to do with what country your passport is from. I was using a Canadian passport. I suspect the Canadian government pushes some countries not to fingerprint their citizens. Do you mind mentioning which country your passport is from?

Do you really think that Asian countries give a flying fart about what foreign governments think ?

Canada is so highly regarded in Asia that Laos charges it's citizens US$42 for a visa !!

I have heard that Laos bases it's visa fees on how much other Nations charge their people..

[Mudcrab]

Back in the days of using travellers cheques I had to give a thumb print at a bank in the US to cash one in. What was that all about? This was just pre 9/11.

[01322521959]

The only reason I can think of why a traveller would be concerned about having his fingerprints taken at a border crossing is that his fingerprints do not match those registered on the chip of the passport he is using.

Fingerprints on the chip? Not in the UK. Got a new passport there last year, no prints were taken.

[Sheryl]

In my experience the scanning is totally arbitrary and haphazard. Usually I am scanned but sometimes not. I think sometimes they just don't bother. Nothing to do with nationality or point of entry. And sometimes when they scan they do the whole thing (both hands, fingers & thumbs), sometimes they do only one hand, sometimes they skip the thumbs...you get the idea.

Getting back to the OP, I have no idea re that specific border crossing. They have it at Poipet.

[Jdietz]

All fingerprinting scanners and border checkpoint computer systems were donated by the US. They of course would never access this information, or even be able to.

[Humanoid]

Thanks to all who provided some info!

So far, there are several reports about Poipet having a fingerprint scanner, but pseudo-randomly skipping some people.

And only one report about the Pailin crossing from Fall 2013, where they did not take fingerprints.

Are there any more recent reports from the Pailin and Daun Lem crossings? In 2014 or 2015?

[Maestro]

...

I've never heard of one's fingerprints being registered on a passport chip. What country does this?

For my last Swiss passport four years ago, digital copies of my index fingers were taken for inclusion on the chip. Perhaps not all countries do this.

From "Anatomy of Biometric Passports"

5. Passport Chip Memory

The memory is logically divided into two main regions—one is accessible from outside of the chip (via wireless communication), the second one provides a part of security by hiding its content—the hidden content is available only for internal functions of the chip.

The part of memory available for reading provides sixteen separated data groups (labelled as DG1, DG2,…, DG16—see Figure 2). Each group incorporates different data. Dissimilar types of protection are used over the groups of the stored data. The data groups DG1, DG2, DG3 and DG5 are important within the scope of the biometric passports, because these groups are used for storing information related to the identity check [3].

Figure 2: Memory data groups of passport RFID chip. Please notice especially the description of DG1–DG5 (source: [3]).

Data Group 1. DG1 stores exactly the same information as those presented at the data page of the passport (see the bottom right part of Figure 1)—basic personal information like name, date and place of birth, sex, date of expiration, and so forth.

Data Group 2. This data group is dedicated to a digital form of a facial photograph. Size limit is set to 15 kilobytes.

Data Group 3. The most recent security element of passports—fingerprint(s)—is stored in the DG5. Size limit is set to 15 kilobytes per fingerprint.

Data Group 4. Data group 4 should contain encoded iris data, but this feature has not been used yet.

Data Group 5. The last important data group (with respect to the biometrics) stores a photo of an owner that is depicted on the data page.

Source: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2012/490362/

[Humanoid]

So I went through the Ban Pakard / Pailin border in both directions. No fingerprints at all. What's even more awesome is that the Cambodian side didn't even take a photo.

There are a lot of upgrades compared to the last time I went there about 8 years ago, when the Cambodian immigration used to be just a wooden hut. Now they actually have a concrete building, and the crossing is open from 6 am to 10 pm.

[badjongster]

If you have a new pp with biometrics with fingerprint. If scan by immigration. Should it showed your overstayed finger print even you pay in court even your not block listed?

Thanks

[Sheryl]

If you are asking if a history of past overstay will show up, that is possible without fingerprint, just your passport number. This data is in the immigration database.

However they usually do not bother with this information and people with past overstays who have paid their fines and left do not currently have a problem re-entering either Thailand or Cambodia.

[TheSiemReaper]

If you have a new pp with biometrics with fingerprint. If scan by immigration. Should it showed your overstayed finger print even you pay in court even your not block listed?

Thanks

It depends. If you have a new passport and did not have your prints taken on an old passport - the chances are very good that the overstay record is not joined up. Cambodia's IT infrastructure could be, kindly, seen as next to non-existent.

However, if you left on a passport for which you were fingerprinted and then return on the same passport or if you were fingerprinted on one passport and intend to return on another... it's 100% likely that they will have the record of overstay. As Sheryl said; this probably isn't a problem if you paid up and weren't blacklisted.

[phuketrichard]

i just got my new us passport in March, Bio metric

but does NOT HAVE my fingerprints

they have never taken mine for one

Yet everytime i fly into PP they ask for fingers :-)

[badjongster]

Is it the the same entertaining Thailand immigration? Same questions? Thanks

[TheSiemReaper]

Is it the the same entertaining Thailand immigration? Same questions? Thanks

No, because Thailand does not fingerprint arriving visitors.

[badjongster]

Does biometrics serve also as fingerprint in Thailand thanks