Suvarnabhumi Immigration queues: "We're doing our best to help" says airport chief Sirot

[Arkady]

China which is a far more authoritarian and paranoid country than Thailand seems able to keep all immigration booths manned during peak hours and they can process passports at lightening speed, gleaning all information needed by a totalitarian state,  and ask you to rate their speed and quality of service. 30 years ago Chinese Immigration was rude, threatening and generally appalling but they have moved on, while Thai Immigration is frankly exactly the same as it was decades ago.  Thai Immigration need to study the methodology of their Chinese counterparts and do the same.

[Ducking and]

Exactly, I was on an Asian tour last month and visited 4 countries, average waiting at immigration 5 minutes....

Thai immigration is under-educated, or even not educated at all.

I give my passport open on the right page, the stupid officer(whats in a title) closes it first. reopens on the wrong page and start searching , where i come from, we call that an idiot !

 

 

you are so right, Ike.  I've been coming in and out at least 4 times a year for 15 years and they have always done that. So frustrating. Just like their traffic signs in English you get to just after you arrive, which seem to be deliberately written so that you will mispronounce the word and look stupid, examples being On Nut and Bang Sue (sue who? and the French think it's a street) which should be Awn Noot (oo as in good, wood, etc) and Bang Seu respectively. I think the Immigration officials like all Thais are educated by people who know everything and don't want to seek or apply either common sense or input from native English-speakers.  Never a truer saying than "Thailand is same same but DIFFERENT".

[Jonmarleesco]

And the idle tossers tar the quality staff, - of which, surprisingly, there are a number - with the same brush.

[rodney earl]

How long have they been saying that.!!!

[ChakaKhan]

were doing our best....if so it isnt good enough...get more staff..

[Simons3]

Ok  is it me or is anyone else confused here :)   the article is in regards to immigration, but the picture is of a ticket check in line, staffing of which is dependent upon the Airline .

 

I've never had an issue catching a flight ( except when I accidentally booked  one on Songkran and the taxi driver was 90 minutes late picking me up from the hotel, My Bad!! ).

 They always say you should be at the airport 3 hours before an international flight, if you do that the ticket counters are just opening and you have little or no wait, that leaves you plenty of time to get through Immigration.

 on Arrivals, I always try to catch a flight that arrives late at night ( 10:30 pm on wards) and am always greeted by 2 or three immigration officers falling asleep in their booths waiting for a customer! the down side to that is I do have to book a car to get me to where I'm going or pay for an airport taxi, but a small price to pay :). but what the heck I'm on me holidays! :)

 

 

[Redvic]

12 hours ago, shows said:

Compared to many other countries I've visited the Thai officials take twice as long (if not longer) to process each passenger.

Twice as long on a good day. Normally 5 times longer. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

12 hours ago, shows said:

Compared to many other countries I've visited the Thai officials take twice as long (if not longer) to process each passenger.

They claimed the other day they were doing it in less than 1 minute per passeger.

 

Based on my experiences going thru Immigration at Swampy, that kind of claim is a JOKE.

[AloisAmrein]

Long quieues, and then stupid questions about hotel booking. Thai immigration does everything to keep away wealthy tourists. As I see they do not want quality tourists, the prefer the bad guys.

[Lokie]

15 hours ago, Cuchulainn said:

I don't know about other western airports, but London Heathrow doesn't even have an Immigration desk on exiting the UK. Check in, go through security and then BINGO, you're in the Duty Free area!!

 

Mind you, entering LHR is another kettle of poisson.

Thats because the UK and other civilised countries do not use immigration to generate income of various means...  

[PumbaBangkok]

8 hours ago, Ozziefrog said:

Come to Darwin airport and then you can complain.

Full plane of people ...only one dummy behind the desk.

Many at the back behind the double glass window to see who is nervous...

 

 

Then collect your Luggage and begin the long line for customs

[wakeupplease]

6 hours ago, Formaleins said:

Did anyone ever tell them when they were at school that "Frankly, Your Best Is Just Not Good Enough!"  - I very much doubt it, probably a wing and a prayer since the day they were born.

School Sir, not this lot

[lvr181]

16 hours ago, fruitman said:

Tourists entering malaysia don't have to fill in ANY form....only a fingerprint scan is enough...

 

Now that's what i call Malaysia 4.0 !! Thailand is far behind.

And will probably never catch up!

[jacko45k]

Why are we being shown a picture of check-in queues?

[jacko45k]

16 hours ago, DMC1 said:

 

You haven't been to Bangladesh then? Nearly 5 mins for one passenger!

Tourists? So they guy works 20 minutes a day?

[Ashto]

17 hours ago, Chicog said:

If he thinks the Immigration cards are the problem, then eliminate them.

Allow people to do it all online before they travel.

Extremely simple.

 

 

Malaysia has eliminated immigration forms as at last month when I entered at KL. 

[hawker9000]

17 hours ago, Cuchulainn said:

I don't know about other western airports, but London Heathrow doesn't even have an Immigration desk on exiting the UK. Check in, go through security and then BINGO, you're in the Duty Free area!!

 

Mind you, entering LHR is another kettle of poisson.

Same in the U.S.  On leaving the country, no immigration, just security and TSA who do look at your passport, but just checking to compare to the boarding pass.  Sometimes I've  noticed CBP standing around in the security area and I think even doing some of the checking, but not at all the immigration check like you get coming in.  But that's a little OT.  Many, I guess most, countries do have a departure immigration.  Over the years I've only experienced excessive delays at departure immigration from Thailand a couple of times.  Once and only once it was horrendous and even though I'd arrived at the airport before the check-in counter was even open and was among the first to do so I only made it to the gate with a few minutes to spare.  The line for the escalator was wrapped 2/3 of the way around the terminal floor.  I too usually present my passport open to the correct page and have observed the close/reopen & start searching bit many times, but once at their desk I don't think I've ever waited more than about a minute..

[rosst]

18 hours ago, fruitman said:

Tourists entering malaysia don't have to fill in ANY form....only a fingerprint scan is enough...

 

Now that's what i call Malaysia 4.0 !! Thailand is far behind.

Yes,  Malaysian immigration is the most efficient in Asia 

[DMC1]

Tourists? So they guy works 20 minutes a day?

You'd be surprised how many foreigners travel there plus they are just as slow checking Bangladeshi passports.

My folks have just passed through Thai immigration about 1hr ago on way back to UK. Just spoke to them on the phone and it took 45 minutes to check in at Qatar desk but only 15 mins to clear security checks and immigration. That sounds ok as I'm off to Bangladesh again tomorrow!

[jacko45k]

Just now, DMC1 said:

 

You'd be surprised how many foreigners travel there plus they are just as slow checking Bangladeshi passports.

My folks have just passed through Thai immigration about 1hr ago on way back to UK. Just spoke to them on the phone and it took 45 minutes to check in at Qatar desk but only 15 mins to clear security checks and immigration. That sounds ok as I'm off to Bangladesh again tomorrow!

Well I was there for work purposes and sadly it is low on my tourist to do list!

Glad to hear of improvement wrt immigration leaving Thailand . Hope your trip goes smoothly.

[lungnorm]

Less bottlenecks huh? How about No bottlenecks??? If you miss your flight and it is the fault of the airline, they pay your hotel and expenses until they arrange an alternative flight. How about Thai immigration doing the same ? that will surely get them off their  backsides.

[Boatfreak]

Can anybody tell me what happens with the arrival and departure cards T6? Is there somewhere a warehouse were they keep millions of these cards?

If they need one how to they find it?

[trogers]

38 minutes ago, Boatfreak said:

Can anybody tell me what happens with the arrival and departure cards T6? Is there somewhere a warehouse were they keep millions of these cards?

If they need one how to they find it?

They let you keep it as a souvenir in Hong Kong...

[docsmith]

14 hours ago, Kinnock said:

This was Arrivals last week - queue for immigration was back out of the Immigration Hall and into the main walkway.

 

And for Departures, the new whole body scanners cause unnecessary delays.  In the US they've been removing those scanners as they were found to be a waste of time. 

 

 

 

 

I was there that day and walked down to the other immigration point and was through in 10 minutes.  That quite often occurs and if one point is busy the other is  not.  For first time travellers that knowledge is not there.  The airport staff should have been directing travellers to the second arrival point

[retirementenquiry]

They should <deleted>out the rtp and bring in the army it is a threat to the economy give the reliance on tourism had a friend and his wife come through Udapo near pattaya there also had problems getting through or maybe they want to send a signal to people thinking of holidaying here we are important

[Laughing Gravy]

21 hours ago, DMC1 said:

 

 

You haven't been to Bangladesh then? Nearly 5 mins for one passenger!

 

Yes but they admit they are a third world country.

[samtam]

Any updates, (as in since Sunday's debacle) on the current departure IMM at BKK?

[DMC1]

Any updates, (as in since Sunday's debacle) on the current departure IMM at BKK?

See my post 113 above concerning this morning

[cnx355]

On 01/03/2017 at 11:12 AM, shows said:

Compared to many other countries I've visited the Thai officials take twice as long (if not longer) to process each passenger.

First they should get rid of the TM6 card. like Vietnam and Malaysia.

 

This would save a lot of time to process arrival and departure.

No need to fill a form

 

.All information needed is scanned from the passport.

 

The Government  want to start Thailand 4.0 ,,,This would be a good start

 

Hotel and guest house and landlords are by law required to report where you stay ,not the tourist  or  tenants.

 

Have and online web site to do the reporting for Hotels, guest house and landlords.  Another Thailand 4,0 improvement.
.

Sorry,,,just dreaming....

 

[Happyman58]

Last time i came through Don Mueng International Airport it took so long to get through 2 hours to be exact. When i got to the luggage area to get my bag i could not find it The belt was empty and somebody had taken my bag and put it in the middle of the floor. My heart was racing when i could not see that bag on the belt but i guess they thought i had forgotten it because it took so long to get there Yes there were only 4 counters working for foreign passport holders The rest were empty What a shambles