TravellingChris

And the problem with granting the other nationalities 90 days' tourist visits would be...?

As to your second point, why should people with long-term visas, PR status, etc. get priority in the immigration process after landing at a Thai airport? All of these are unique statuses that require review or confirmation by a human officer. Besides, holders of such documents are seeking greater benefit (i.e. longer term residency) than those on short-term tourist visits. Saying the former should get priority is like saying that the e-gates in the UK should be reserved for people on work visas, since they will arguably be making a greater contribution to British society than short-term tourists. But the rule is actually the opposite: tourists of certain countries can use the e-gates, those seeking the greater privilege (work visa holders coming to take up employment in the UK) have to see an officer.

TravellingChris

I fully understand that you're being rude in order to try and start a quarrel.

Instead of seeking to start an argument simply because you're bored, why not try and make a positive contribution to the forum?

ft101

You're not exactly racing along that route yourself with made up tosh like:

SKT-DK

Not at all - you fully understand wrong. Why would I want to do that? - I have better things to do. I am merely pointing out that it is rather laughable to suggest that a country changes its immigration policy based on your armchair expert ideas� I think you will find that those of us pointing this out are indeed making positive contributions to this forum.

Because we live here and pay our taxes in this country, for starters�?

I would like to know what your motive for your points is�

BinSabai

There are many expats living and working in Thailand on long term visas travelling in and out of Thailand 2-3 times per month paying tax, social security etc. in Thailand. Do you really think they would be amused, if they see hordes of normal tourists walk through the automated gates at warp speed, while they have to queue in front of desks...
Better would be to really exclude everybody else from fast track except premium passengers, elite visa and BOI....

maerim

I have PR in Thailand have had for about 10 years. Up to December 2019 when autogates for PR stopped being in use I departed Thailand about 100 times and returned same number from first registering for autogates. Departure success using gates 100%, arrival success >95%; no confirmation by a human officer at any time when successful. So Thailand has done this before for PRs and occasional 'failure' for me was not unusual for Thai colleagues and family also. Hope that the next generation of gates will be an improvement.

eqeqeqx

What you say makes a lot of sense, but the problem with this way of thinking is the classical "if I can't benefit, nobody else should benefit either" problem. What persons with this way of thinking fail to see is that often they too will benefit, especially in cases like this.

If the queue in front of you is 100 people, and this could be reduced to 50 people, because 50% of those in front of you had simpler passport checks that could be done automatically by going through the automated gates , you benefit too, because now there is only 50 people in front of you. Even if us hordes of tourists benefit more.

It would make a lot of sense to concentrate on what is the larger and easier to automate group: the hordes of visa-less tourists where the only thing determining length of stay is their passport, followed by the perhaps equally large or even larger, but more complicated, visa-on-arrival group. Then other more complicated and smaller groups. If both visa exempt and visa-on-arrival is automated, how many will still be in front of you in the queue? 10? 5?

Ref. the point someone else was trying to make: there is no need for all visa exempt nationalities to get the same length of stay, as automatically basing that, as now, on the passport country would surely be one of the most trivial part of an automated system.

Davvidd

The people working in Thailand on long term visas has already been screened unlike the tourists so it is obvious that they would be able to go thru much quicker than someone who may have something on their passports that the Thai Immigration might be interested in having a look. Then there is the question of overstay.
The departure queue normally when longer gets much more congested than the arrival queue. It goes all the way upstairs to the security check for economy class passengers.

Davvidd

Last night I was told that all departure with passports with chips should work from the 15th of December. I am going to check it out.

:D!

Taiwan has automated gates for departure and not arrival (at least before covid, not sure now) and Australia allows everyone with a chipped passport (except young children) to depart using e-gates while only a few nationalities can use the e-gates to enter.

Davvidd

That is why they are doing at departures I was told. From the Information I got anyone with any issues they get stopped at the gate and the auto door would not work so they are taken to the counter to be processed.
For arrivals they told its because of the legality and without a stamp some would not realize that they have overstayed.

FindingFoodFluency

Thinking about what other places have done, Hong Kong mucked up the system years ago by replacing arrival/departure stamps with a small (and easily lost) slip of paper. Moronic idea they've got over there.

Japan used to staple the departure card into the passport. Easy to find the card, but stapling? Also stupid.

Then there's the U.K., which has e-gates for arrivals/departures. That is, no stamps (for some nationalities).

The onus is on the traveler to remember what day he/she arrived.

Davvidd

This is Thailand and anything can happen and does happen. And their laws are fairly complicated and written in a way it can be interpreted any way they want to interpret but usually they treat the tourists fairly well.

eqeqeqx

I don't know how Hong Kong implemented it, but since you say it was moronic, I'm guessing you had to save that slip of paper and show at passport control when exiting, like in Thailand until recently. If they had skipped that later part, and solely printed that slip of paper as a free piece of information to help the passenger know when he has to leave, I think the idea would be great. I can't imagine that information is not registered in their computer systems anyway, so I don't see any point in having to keep it.

Thailand until recently also stapled the departure cards into the passport, which was always rather annoying. Thankfully they did away with that card during covid-19.

BinSabai

TM 6 or the departure part of the arrival/departure card in Thailand was stapled into the passport years ago but during recent years not fixed anymore but just layed loosely into the passport. the skipped it TEMPORARY after covid...but not sure, whether it will come back or not