No exit stamp in passport, kept departure card when leaving Thailand.

[thexit]

Hey, just before booking a flight for next month to visit Thailand again I noticed something.

 

I visited Thailand for the first time in February with a visa on arrival. Immigration was nice and easy, got the stamp in my passport and on my departure card. Then traveled and when I wanted to leave Thailand again in March I took a domestic flight back to Suvarnabhumi, arrived there, went straight from domestic arrival to international departure as I didn't have checked baggage, only carry on. I even asked a lady of the airport staff and showed her my ticket for my international flight to make sure that was okay. She sent me straight to passenger and carry on screening, I got through there and then moved on to my departure gate without thinking about it further.

 

This led to the following situation: I never officially left Thailand according to Thai immigration. I only have an entry but no exit stamp in my passport, still have my departure card and did not pass immigration prior to leaving Thailand at the aiport.

 

The domestic flight to Suvarnabhumi departed at an domestic only airport, you can only fly to BKK from there so they don't even have an immigration office there.

 

I unwillingly found an airport security breach (I'm aware that those who want to take advantage of it already know about it) but that's not what I'm concerned about. My concern is that I might not be able to enter Thailand next month, for my planned vacation. I think the immigration officer will notice that I don't haven an exit stamp from my visit earlier this year - and even if he doesn't, their system will report that I never left Thailand.

 

What should I do? I just realized all of this now after doing some research on how immigration and departing Thailand should work when taking a look at my passport and rethinking the process, realizing that the departure card is still in my travel documents envelope. I plan on calling the Thai embassy in my country but I'm not convinced they'll be able to help me with this as it's not their responsibility. But whose is it?

Edited August 20, 2017 by thexit

[ubonjoe]

Not sure how you managed to make that huge mistake.

Do have your boarding pass for you flight out of  Thailand and/or the ticket for the trip? With those you might be able to convince immigration on arrival you really did leave the country.

[thexit]

8 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Not sure how you managed to make that huge mistake.

Do have your boarding pass for you flight out of  Thailand and/or the ticket for the trip? With those you might be able to convince immigration on arrival you really did leave the country.

Not sure myself and not sure how that can even happen with the airport security/paranoia these days. Security breach, I guess.

 

Unfortunately I don't have the boarding pass anymore and can't print it out again as it expired obviously (just tried to make sure), what I do have is the receipt and check in confirmation in digital form/email.

[ubonjoe]

Whatever you can get to prove the date you left the country will help. That is what they will want on entry. Expect a long delay on entry while they try to verify your proof.

[Chou Anou]

Wait, the OP is saying that somewhere at Suvarnabhumi, there is a carry-on baggage inspection security area at which you are on Thai soil on the one side, and when you come out on the other side, there is no immigration checkpoint for you to go through, just access to the international departure gates?  I find that VERY hard to believe.  Can someone else confirm that such a security checkpoint exists?  I highly doubt that it does. It might have at one time, when the immigration checkpoint used to be situated before the carry-on baggage checkpoint, but things haven't been that way at Swampy for several years now.

Edited August 20, 2017 by Chou Anou

[thexit]

1 minute ago, Chou Anou said:

Wait, the OP is saying that somewhere at Suvarnabhumi, there is a baggage inspection security area at which you are on Thai soil on the one side, and when you come out on the other side, there is no immigration checkpoint for you to go through, just access to the international departure gates?  I find that VERY hard to believe.  Can someone else confirm that such a security checkpoint exists?  I highly doubt that it does.

That's basically how it is. Domestic arrival, only had carry on with me so I didn't have to go to pick up checked baggage. Turned left (I remember that much) to go to international departure where everyone else went straight, before I even left the arrival gate complex, did another security inspection and went straight on to international departure gates without having to go to an immigration checkpoint.

[Thailand J]

The entry stamp on your passport at the airport where you went from Suvarnabhum will proof that you were out of the country.

Edited August 20, 2017 by Thailand J

[BritTim]

It seems as though you were able to use the line for people on domestic flights who completed immigration formalities at airports like Chiang Mai or Phuket. I thought your boarding pass needed to have a special stamp in that situation, so being able to use that line is a ridiculous lapse in security. Further, your passport would have been checked a couple of times, and nobody apparently noticed it still had the departure card.

 

Regardless, if what you say is true, immigration has access to the passenger lists for aircraft entering and leaving Thailand. On entry, expect it to take hours, but if you can show which flight you left on, I think you will eventually be OK.

[thexit]

Just now, Thailand J said:

The entry stamp on your passport at the airport where you are going from Suvarnabhum will proof that you were out of the country.

Yes, it will prove I left Thailand at some point but it doesn't prove I left it in time. I could have left the country yesterday and they wouldn't know. That's what I have a bad feeling about, they might think (and the immigration facts kinda suggest it) I stayed in Thailand longer than I should have been allowed to.

 

Do you think that will not be an issue?

[jeab1980]

Regardless of wether a security breach occoured. The fact is the OP has said he left with no stamp and is asking for advise. So wouldnt it be better as ubon joe has done trying to give him advise as opposed to turning the thread into a security or immposible to happen thread!

Op do you work in your home country? Can you get a letter from Employer stating you returned to work on whatever date after last being here. And any other supporting evidence of returning to home country. Ie flight number/airline used/time of departure. 

[Thailand J]

1 minute ago, thexit said:

Yes, it will prove I left Thailand at some point but it doesn't prove I left it in time. I could have left the country yesterday and they wouldn't know. That's what I have a bad feeling about, they might think (and the immigration facts kinda suggest it) I stayed in Thailand longer than I should have been allowed to.

 

Do you think that will not be an issue?

I hope the entry stamp at the other airport has a date.

[BritTim]

3 minutes ago, Thailand J said:

I hope the entry stamp at the other airport has a date.

If any such stamp exists in the passport, it will be great proof. Depending on where the OP flew into, there may be no such arrival stamp.

[thexit]

7 minutes ago, BritTim said:

It seems as though you were able to use the line for people on domestic flights who completed immigration formalities at airports like Chiang Mai or Phuket. I thought your boarding pass needed to have a special stamp in that situation, so being able to use that line is a ridiculous lapse in security. Further, your passport would have been checked a couple of times, and nobody apparently noticed it still had the departure card.

 

Regardless, if what you say is true, immigration has access to the passenger lists for aircraft entering and leaving Thailand. On entry, expect it to take hours, but if you can show which flight you left on, I think you will eventually be OK.

Yeah, that's the conclusion I came to, that's why I mentioned that I didn't come from one of those airports but an airport without an immigration office.

 

The departure card wasn't attached to my passport, I was simply handed it back on arrival so the airline didn't see it.

Edited August 20, 2017 by thexit

[jeab1980]

12 minutes ago, Thailand J said:

The entry stamp on your passport at the airport where you went from Suvarnabhum will proof that you were out of the country.

Not if like me you return to UK no entry stamp for nationals i would presume that would be the same for all nationals returning to there country.

Edited August 20, 2017 by jeab1980

[tonray]

What's the max overstay fine ?

[thexit]

 

11 minutes ago, Thailand J said:

I hope the entry stamp at the other airport has a date.

I went back to my home country and the entry stamp to Thailand is the latest stamp in my passport.

 

12 minutes ago, jeab1980 said:

Regardless of wether a security breach occoured. The fact is the OP has said he left with no stamp and is asking for advise. So wouldnt it be better as ubon joe has done trying to give him advise as opposed to turning the thread into a security or immposible to happen thread!

Op do you work in your home country? Can you get a letter from Employer stating you returned to work on whatever date after last being here. And any other supporting evidence of returning to home country. Ie flight number/airline used/time of departure. 

As someone who's self employed I could write said letter myself. I doubt it will do anything for that reason. The check in confirmation and online ticket receipt are really the only pieces of evidence I could think of right now.

Edited August 20, 2017 by thexit

[Thailand J]

2 minutes ago, jeab1980 said:

Not if like me you return to UK no entry stamp for nationals i would oresume that would be the same for all nationals returning to there country.

Next bet is the airline, I guess. I would try to contact the airline to see if they can produce any document to show your flight.  I have an AirAsia account where i can print my previous travels.

[mstevens]

9 minutes ago, BritTim said:

If any such stamp exists in the passport, it will be great proof. Depending on where the OP flew into, there may be no such arrival stamp.

Yep....and when I fly in and out of my own country they do not stamp my passport - so if the OP flew to his own country it might be the same meaning no proof in his passport.

[jeab1980]

8 minutes ago, thexit said:

 

I went back to my home country and the entry stamp to Thailand is the latest stamp in my passport.

 

As someone who's self employed I could write said letter myself. I doubt it will do anything for that reason. The check in confirmation and online ticket receipt are really the only pieces of evidence I could think of right now.

If your self employed then someone you have xone buisness with in your country after returning an invoice ect. There are lots of things which could prove your in country. Petrol receipt with your card details on ect ect.

Contact the airline they would be able to supply the evidence you need.

Edited August 20, 2017 by jeab1980

[stevenl]

16 minutes ago, thexit said:

 

I went back to my home country and the entry stamp to Thailand is the latest stamp in my passport.

 

As someone who's self employed I could write said letter myself. I doubt it will do anything for that reason. The check in confirmation and online ticket receipt are really the only pieces of evidence I could think of right now.

Can you contact the airline and see if they can confirm you were on that flight?

[YetAnother]

48 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Whatever you can get to prove the date you left the country will help. That is what they will want on entry. Expect a long delay on entry while they try to verify your proof.

wouldnt the fact that he will arrive on an international flight be evidence that he left ? wouldnt indicate the date he left thailand,but must be some way that the time he spent in the other country can be verified, letter from their immigration indicating arrival date ?

[jeab1980]

Very difficult when i go back to UK i usualy get in to Manchester after midnight. Not once in the many trips back has UK has immigration looked or asked for my passport. In fact the last two times only people in evidence were cleaners even the passport reader lanes were open. 

[ubonjoe]

12 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

wouldnt the fact that he will arrive on an international flight be evidence that he left ? wouldnt indicate the date he left thailand,but must be some way that the time he spent in the other country can be verified, letter from their immigration indicating arrival date ?

As I wrote the important thing is proof of the date he left the country. It will be obvious he left the country.

[jeab1980]

10 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

As I wrote the important thing is proof of the date he left the country. It will be obvious he left the country.

Any airline would be able to supply documents listing him as a passenger he must have been given a boarding card so therefore had to show his passport to the check in staff.

Edited August 20, 2017 by jeab1980

[BritTim]

3 minutes ago, jeab1980 said:

Any airline would be able to supply documents listing him as a passenger he must have been given a bording card so therefore had to show his passport to the check in staff.

Immigration already has that information for all flights entering and leaving Thailand. It might save time being able to show such documents. I suspect immigration would still check your "proof", which could be falsified,  against their own records.

 

To the OP (if it is not obvious) fly back through Suvarnabhumi because they will be best able to visualize how this mess occurred.

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, jeab1980 said:

Any airline would be able to supply documents listing him as a passenger he must have been given a bording card so therefore had to show his passport to the check in staff.

He did not check in for a international flight. He was flying on a domestic flight to Suvarnabhumi and some how managed to transit to a international flight.

[jeab1980]

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

He did not check in for a international flight. He was flying on a domestic flight to Suvarnabhumi and some how managed to transit to a international flight.

Yes i know but he must have had a boarding card to get on the flight

[CGW]

Get a new passport? would save a lot of hassle!

[BritTim]

2 minutes ago, CGW said:

Get a new passport? would save a lot of hassle!

I fail to see how a new passport would alter Thai immigration's records of entry and exit.

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

Not sure how you managed to make that huge mistake.

 

His mistake? Surely the mistake was made by Immigration or airport security, whose job it is to ensure that all people leaving and entering the country do so correctly and in accordance with the law? Why should a passenger even know that he is supposed to get an exit stamp or hand over his departure card before leaving?

This is like blaming someone for getting food poisoning in a restaurant.