Foreigners' 'TM6' immigration form necessary for security: Nattorn

[jayboy]

2 hours ago, Arkady said:

A backlash from Immigration and from the Tourism Ministry at any break with the past was to be expected but it seems that Prayut really wants to get rid of the forms.  So they will probably go eventually.  If Thailand was in the position it was in 1927 and sitting down to plan an immigration system for the first time, it is pretty obvious that no one would suggest printing forms for visitors to fill in on arrival or departure.  Passports have readable electronic data in them and Immigration scans them as well photographing everyone. 

 

The strongest objection seems to be coming from the Tourism Ministry at the prospect of losing the questionnaire on the back of the forms which was only added as an afterthought a couple of decades ago and can't really be of much use.  The Tourism Minister should go to countries like Spain, France and the UK that have far more tourists than Thailand and try to understand how they have been managing without TM6 forms and questionnaires.  Surely there must be more efficient ways to survey visitors than that.          

Your phrasing "backlash at any break with the past" resonates.I wonder why this is so much a part of Thai bureaucratic culture.I can understand why mid level civil servants don't like change but surely senior guys and ministers know they can make their mark by forcing through sensible reform.Anyway credit to Prayuth.

 

I wonder if TM 6 forms are abolished for Thais whether foreigners with PR - who as you know follow the Thai system for the forms - will be exempted as well.Instinctively I feel they will not.

[gandalf12]

5 hours ago, khwaibah said:

BULL SHYT. Thats what computers are for. Come out of the dark ages.

But only if the computers work

[gandalf12]

4 minutes ago, jayboy said:

Your phrasing "backlash at any break with the past" resonates.I wonder why this is so much a part of Thai bureaucratic culture.I can understand why mid level civil servants don't like change but surely senior guys and ministers know they can make their mark by forcing through sensible reform.Anyway credit to Prayuth.

 

I wonder if TM 6 forms are abolished for Thais whether foreigners with PR - who as you know follow the Thai system for the forms - will be exempted as well.Instinctively I feel they will not.

You answered your own question i.e. " bureaucratic culture"

[david555]

Politic "rooster" behavyour comes in mind.....

[csabo]

What makes them think anything written on the cards is valid? 

 

[hmhthai]

Why do I have a biometric passport?

[Can samui]

I have said this to anyone who will listen.... Please institute a computer scannable card for long term visa holders.
It would cover immigration, land transport and any other bureau should they choose to enter the modern era and coordinate their systems.
Too simple??


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[connda]

“For Thailand, the form is important as it is the tool for us to get and keep information about foreign visitors when they stay in Thailand,” he said. 

My guess is they are drowning in so many paper documents that their information is next to useless.  I find his statement difficult to believe in a day and age of RFID, barcodes, and sophisticated databases.  But they use paper.  <headshake>  TIT.

[connda]

3 minutes ago, Can samui said:

I have said this to anyone who will listen.... Please institute a computer scannable card for long term visa holders.
It would cover immigration, land transport and any other bureau should they choose to enter the modern era and coordinate their systems.
Too simple??


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

Way too simple.  And you're making way too much sense.  You're not Thai is my guess.  

[ozmeldo]

I've not filled the back out in so long I'm not even sure there's writing on it. Never an issue 555

[stanleycoin]

Don't see whats the big deal

a 2 minute form to fill in. WOW

[BangkokNicky]

Would be better doing away with Don Mueang  and only using Suvarnabhumi Airport full-stop it's a hassle for domestic flights coming of a international flight these days then add travel time  between airports and other delays it would be better using the land at Don Mueang for condos or offices  .. 

[overherebc]

24 minutes ago, stanleycoin said:

Don't see whats the big deal

a 2 minute form to fill in. WOW

It's not the filling in the form that's the problem. You get them on the plane long before you arrive in Thailand. The problem arrives when someone who has no knowledge of english rocks up at the Imm' desk with nothing written on it then is allowed to stand there for 5 minutes struggling to figure it out and write something on it instead of being sent to the back of the queue and let the next in line get through.

 

[overherebc]

37 minutes ago, ozmeldo said:

I've not filled the back out in so long I'm not even sure there's writing on it. Never an issue 555

Same, always left it blank and no-one has ever said a word.

[IamNoone88]

Bali - no for. Malaysia - No form.

[stanleycoin]

5 minutes ago, overherebc said:

It's not the filling in the form that's the problem. You get them on the plane long before you arrive in Thailand. The problem arrives when someone who has no knowledge of english rocks up at the Imm' desk with nothing written on it then is allowed to stand there for 5 minutes struggling to figure it out and write something on it instead of being sent to the back of the queue and let the next in line get through.

 

That's funny as for the last 4 or 5 years there are one or two staff checking if your TM6 is filled

in before you get to the Immigration desk.

so where you been all this time.

 

 

[observer90210]

5 hours ago, amdy2206 said:

Why are they so reluctant to hand them out at borders? I regularly travel between Laos and Nong Khai but it really is a battle to get them. You have to show how many passports, push to the front of a queue and hold out your passports before receiving them. I always like to keep spares to fill in before and speed up the process, but this is not always possible. Why can't they be freely available?

Because it gives the fellow stuck in his immigration shoe box a sense of power to see all the miserable farangs begging for the forms.....

 

Thai immigration seems to get real hardening urge in humiliating or harassing farangs...and remember the motto..."you don't live it, you leave it"..(and well spend your money in another close country, but that does not seem to enter into some nimble minds of the authorities)

Edited August 11, 2017 by observer90210

[overherebc]

10 minutes ago, stanleycoin said:

That's funny as for the last 4 or 5 years there are one or two staff checking if your TM6 is filled

in before you get to the Immigration desk.

so where you been all this time.

 

 

Since the start of the a well named type of tourist holiday it still happens a lot.

[bizboi]

…as necessary as an ash tray on a motorbike. Thailand follows Chinese Government procedures because it doesn’t have the brain to think of its own!! The chinese request almost identical forms from Europeans!

[stanleycoin]

7 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Since the start of the a well named type of tourist holiday it still happens a lot.

Nah

I used to travel in and out of Thailand every 5 weeks for the last 20 years

i have never seen it  "A LOT "    after the staff checking TM6 forms was introduced.

seen A LOT filling it in next to the staff, and people been waved past them.

your just making a big deal over a big nothing

[overherebc]

6 minutes ago, stanleycoin said:

Nah

I used to travel in and out of Thailand every 5 weeks for the last 20 years

i have never seen it  "A LOT "    after the staff checking TM6 forms was introduced.

seen A LOT filling it in next to the staff, and people been waved past them.

your just making a big deal over a big nothing

Have you tried Utapao airport?

[stanleycoin]

Im talking about BKK

But you can still moan about the others,  if it makes your point, for you.

Have a nice day, bye 

 

[NanLaew]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in July instructed the Immigration Bureau to decide whether to cancel the requirement for visitors to use the TM6 form as part of measures to improve immigration procedures at airports and reduce waiting times.

 

However, starting on October 1, a new immigration form will replace the existing one in line with a Cabinet resolution in January approving a Tourism and Sports Ministry request.

The boss asked Immigration to review the necessity or otherwise of landing cards and Immigration probably agreed they could get rid of this useless artifact of decades old, pre-digital 'passport control' systems... until the witless ones at TAT raised their hands.

 

Affirmation, if any was needed, that TAT has absolutely no way of counting tourists, legitimate or otherwise, and counts on these bits of paper to help conjure up the visitors numbers that they would otherwise have to pull out of their asses.

 

oh, wait...

[overherebc]

2 minutes ago, stanleycoin said:

Im talking about BKK

But you can still moan about the others,  if it makes your point, for you.

Have a nice day, bye 

 

Even although I'm retired we still do a lot of travelling using all three airports. 

Worst for seeing the IO handing a pen to someone to fill in missing info is Utapao followed by DM then Swampy where I agree with you it's handled a bit better.

[Xobtsiwt]

Good guys out, bad guys in.

 

......

[overherebc]

8 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

The boss asked Immigration to review the necessity or otherwise of landing cards and Immigration probably agreed they could get rid of this useless artifact of decades old, pre-digital 'passport control' systems... until the witless ones at TAT raised their hands.

 

Affirmation, if any was needed, that TAT has absolutely no way of counting tourists, legitimate or otherwise, and counts on these bits of paper to help conjure up the visitors numbers that they would otherwise have to pull out of their asses.

 

oh, wait...

By Dec' I will be 10 tourists.

[eeyang wah]

10 hours ago, tomacht8 said:

logically

Therein lies the reason.

[Trouble]

What's the big problem?  They take only a few minutes to fill out. Too much complaining here about something so insignificant.

[eeyang wah]

So what's it going to be next time I enter Thailand?

 

- Best occupation I heard on here recently was left-handed bagpipe cleaner or something similar.

- For income I will tick all the boxes (because the left-handed bagpipe cleaning trade has its ups and downs)

- accommodation HOTEL MOTEL HOLIDAY INN

 

What else?

 

 

[tryasimight]

16 minutes ago, eeyang wah said:

So what's it going to be next time I enter Thailand?

 

- Best occupation I heard on here recently was left-handed bagpipe cleaner or something similar.

- For income I will tick all the boxes (because the left-handed bagpipe cleaning trade has its ups and downs)

- accommodation HOTEL MOTEL HOLIDAY INN

 

What else?

 

 

The HOTEL MOTEL HOLIDAY INN phone number.

 I'd love to be there when being a smart arse backfires big time.