Extra Arrival Form at Airport (Men Only)

[connda]

Arrived back after the bombings. Saw nothing different.

I've been here over 8 years and never had a visit by the immigration po-lease. But I had a visit about three weeks ago. Something's different. Imho.

[gandalf12]

Maybe they should consider that the Mafia is being run by women who order the executions and everything else now. Suicide bombers include women now. Small points but issues that the blind may wish to take onboard

[timendres]

There are some possibly logical reasons behind this. For instance, it could be a sampling exercise. Some agency wanting some sample data to input to a computer model for whatever purpose. Maybe it was easier to perform the sample this way than to try and extract the same information from the database that the arrival form went into.

[MadMac]

Mafia is never run by women

[northernphil]

If you read it carefully it is an undertaking that you will lift the toilet seat before using it.

Ah , but what if you are a ladyboy , do they get the new form or is there a special one for them ?

[misterphil]

If any idiots stand in front of me at the bottom of an elevator I just push them out the way.

[uptheos]

Arrived CNX yesterday (Tue 29 Sept mid afternoon) no sign of any such form/person etc!

It's a good thing that they've stopped it I think, as I said it was the same information as the landing card and was men only. Perhaps they saw the futility of it.

The worst/funniest part was that the lady handing the forms out was standing right in front of the escalator - a flight from China had arrived just minutes before or after us, many ignored her and the rest crowded around her waiting on some explanation or assistance from her, neither of which were forthcoming; I asked why and she didn't answer (very politely of course).

I arrived from KL late this afternoon and they certainly have not stopped it.....chaos!

Maybe they ran out of forms yesterday.

[hawker9000]

If it keeps up, I'm sure it'll be a real crowd pleaser for the coming high season. I honestly think somebodies in Immigration (i.e., Police) are trying to embarrass the ruling military. They know most will assume the PM is behind it all.

[louse1953]

I have a sense that the directives from "on high" change at a moment's notice and often aren't very well thought out. Probably someone finally had the courage to point out to whomever gave the order to collect this information from all male arriving passengers that it was already on the arrival card.

I was involved in a project once with a high official and he had his staff doing something that was basically "re-inventing the wheel". I pointed that out to him in a meeting, bringing printouts from the internet to show him what he'd ordered his staff to do was already readily available on-line, only better. I asked the staff if they knew about this material too and they said yes. I asked why they hadn't pointed it out to the boss rather than spend hours doing something that basically could be downloaded. They said because he never asked. He just told them to go do the project, so they did it the way he told them, rather than suggest he look at what was already available as public domain material on the internet.

This is one quirk of the Thai people,they don't offer info.When they do,it has helped me greatly.

[louse1953]

after all these years and alarms, the wife was finally required to empty the contents of her purse for examination by a latex-gloved gent, as well as having her body gone over with the "sensor wand" at Central Festival the other day. they just let me through with no wand....

so much for the "only men do bad things" theory.

on another note, i was at the P.O. yesterday with a large package and i had to wait while they x-rayed it and ran it through some type of sensor...

Went through The Don the other day,no check,no body,no stress,luv it.

[duckmandon]

They did a similar thing in Australia when I went back in June. It was because of the Korean Flu thing. I filled it out but it was never taken from me or rquested by any officials. It went into the bin.

[uptheos]

Why can'they get organised and stick a load on the planes. My guess is that they don't want to print too many because they will stop soon. The one I filled out in 30 seconds flat was ineligible, so I'm not quite sure what the point is?

Edited October 2, 2015 by uptheos

[CMMCB]

^ ineligible? illegible? unintelligible? indelible? incredible? (sorry, couldn't resist).

[meltingpot2015]

ineligible - a marinate of the word illegible and indelible. Only joking. I reckon its illegible, especially if a pen was used that would make the writing indelible.

I am sure to have seen forms, maybe not in THailand, but somewhere, where they have said forms must be completed using indelible ink. Most forms these days just say "Use a blue/black ballpoint pen".

[uptheos]

See the grammar police are out in force, must have nowhere to go on a Friday night.

[connda]

after all these years and alarms, the wife was finally required to empty the contents of her purse for examination by a latex-gloved gent, as well as having her body gone over with the "sensor wand" at Central Festival the other day. they just let me through with no wand....

so much for the "only men do bad things" theory.

on another note, i was at the P.O. yesterday with a large package and i had to wait while they x-rayed it and ran it through some type of sensor...

Went through The Don the other day,no check,no body,no stress,luv it.

BKK and the Don aren't CNX. "Chiang Mai" and "immigration" is synonymous with "frustrating, inefficient mess" at the present moment. They seem to be the "Red-headed step child" of the Thai Immigration Police, and hence are taking out their own frustrations on foreigners entering and living in this district. Imho.

[chuang]

Yeap was given one by the immigration officer when landing in chiangmai about a month ago.....why can't they issue them on board....save a lot of time..

[CMfoodie]

Here is Air Asia's reply as to why they do not provide them in-flight.

Thank you for writing to AirAsia.

In response to your email, please be informed that those forms will not be provided to the airline and it is the country’s procedure to request every passenger’s top fill up those forms upon arrival.

[uptheos]

Here is Air Asia's reply as to why they do not provide them in-flight.

Thank you for writing to AirAsia.

In response to your email, please be informed that those forms will not be provided to the airline and it is the country’s procedure to request every passenger’s top fill up those forms upon arrival.

It's only temporary, so don't want the guy with the 500 baht printer to do too many.

[HaleySabai]

Came back last friday morning via Hong Kong and all we were met with was a mass of Chinese tourists stumbling in all directions....nice to glide through the 'Thai-Passport' side with the non-'O' & Fam in tow

[ovenman]

Arrived CNX from Kuala Lumpur this afternoon; had to fill out the additional form at the immigration desk. The immigration interns were all squawking "Men only, men only!" as I was coming down the escalator but with no indication as to what that might mean. The form itself is pretty dopey; it basically collects the same exact information as that is already on the arrival card with the addition of a phone number and an email address.

[JaseTheBass]

Arrived CNX from Kuala Lumpur this afternoon; had to fill out the additional form at the immigration desk. The immigration interns were all squawking "Men only, men only!" as I was coming down the escalator but with no indication as to what that might mean. The form itself is pretty dopey; it basically collects the same exact information as that is already on the arrival card with the addition of a phone number and an email address.

What if you don't have a phone or email address? What if 'dog forbid' you accidentally on purpose misspell them? What if you long ago realized Thais are mentally the same as children and refuse to play their childish games any more?

[Maejo Man]

Chiang Mai is already hyper annoying to arrive at internationally. Also that every single passenger has to queue up and get their bags X-rayed.

In Bangkok I always walk straight through.

It's actually a reason to avoid going through customs in CNX even if it means another check-in in Bangkok.

Arrived internationally the other week, picked up my bags and walked straight through. No rhyme or reason

[Bill97]

Chiang Mai is already hyper annoying to arrive at internationally. Also that every single passenger has to queue up and get their bags X-rayed.

In Bangkok I always walk straight through.

It's actually a reason to avoid going through customs in CNX even if it means another check-in in Bangkok.

Arrived internationally the other week, picked up my bags and walked straight through. No rhyme or reason

Same twice in the last four months.

[hawker9000]

For anyone still following this, it appears they're just asking for phone nos. now. Yesterday @ Suv. they had attendants intercepting everyone getting in line, inking in "phone no." on the arrival card, and then instructing everyone to please write in their phone number. I just gave my hotel's no.

[MadMac]

Giving immigration your real phone number is helpful. It enables them to call you.

[StevieH]

what do they do with people who don't have phones that work in thailand? just place they are staying then is it?

[jagi00]

For anyone still following this, it appears they're just asking for phone nos. now. Yesterday @ Suv. they had attendants intercepting everyone getting in line, inking in "phone no." on the arrival card, and then instructing everyone to please write in their phone number. I just gave my hotel's no.

Seems to a bit random, I cleared immigration at Swampy on Monday and no extra forms to complete.

[kaptainrob]

Was handed extra form bottom of escalator at CNX last week and as 1st to deplane I walked straight up to Immi desk. Asking what to do with 'this', was told to sign bottom of blank form and that was it. Courteous and prompt service.

[hawker9000]

Between the arrival card and the mandatory reporting of foreign guests by hotels & guest houses, etc., not to mention visa application info on file for those who've obtained visas, I would think they already have all the information they need to find a foreigner in the kingdom. If someone entering the country wants to evade, I don't see how an extra form or extra info request fixes that. When I came through, the arrival hall wasn't crowded, but if it had been jammed, I can sort of see stuff like this gumming up the works. And really, to what end?