New immigration cards to replace old - in October

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christianpfc
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Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by christianpfc »

fountainhall wrote:
pong wrote:I have lost track of the number of times passengers reach immigration without checking and then waste time because the card has not been competed correctly. Often it is just the signature that is missing because that is an incredibly tiny line at the foot of the page that is clearly not designed for Korean and Chinese characters.
On all my arrivals in recent years, there was an officer checking if arrival cards are filled out before admitting people to queue for immigration. In particular address in Thailand has to be filled in. I don't know how closely they look, probably only check if something is filled in the arrival card.

In 2009 (?) my neighbor on the plane asked me to help him fill in the arrival card, and only because I knew what he wrote there (because I told him what to write), I could decipher it (he was dyslexic and made several spelling errors, and handwriting was poor). No immigration officer would be able to decipher it!

It's a mystery not just on arrival cards, on application forms for visa as well: the size of the fields clearly does not correspond to the amount of date that has to be filled in.
fountainhall

Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by fountainhall »

Returning to BKK on Monday night Emirates handed out the new Immigration cards. It was the first time I have seen them. My first thought is there is not nearly enough space for all the information they want. If you have an address in Thailand, you'll never get more than a fraction of it in the space available. I filled it in as the aircraft was going through some mild turbulence. As we landed I realised I could hardly read any of my writing. That did not faze the Immigration officer who quickly stamped me through. I got the impression that as long as there is something on the form and they can read passport numbers, nationality and arrival flight, they don't pay much attention to the rest. Why emails and phones are requested, I have no idea - given that most tourists won't have a clue of their hotel's phone number and many will simply enter fake info. I wonder how many forms with [email protected] they have already received??

The main difference is that the departure section is the first part of the form, like Japan. So best not to insert your arrival flight on that part.
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Bob
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Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by Bob »

fountainhall wrote: The main difference is that the departure section is the first part of the form, like Japan. So best not to insert your arrival flight on that part.
I experienced the new form a couple of weeks ago after a short hop over to Cambodia. What slightly puzzled me was the comment in this thread about what flight number to put on either card as, without thinking, I've always just inserted my arriving flight number on both the arrival and departure cards. So obviously they don't care all that much what you insert there. And for those of us who arrive to live here permanently and have no departing flight, I suppose in that case one simply leaves that space blank.
fountainhall

Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by fountainhall »

I always leave the departure flight blank until I am about to depart. Presumably someone wants to know on what flight you are departing and what your destination might be - although if you are connecting to another flight, all Immigration have will be the interim destination and not the final destination. Nuts!
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Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by Gaybutton »

fountainhall wrote:I always leave the departure flight blank
Where is it written that it even has to be a flight at all? There are other ways of departing Thailand besides flying - railroad, bus, car, maybe even walking . . .
fountainhall

Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by fountainhall »

To be fair, that box on the Departure Card reads "Flight No. / Vehicle No."
fountainhall

Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by fountainhall »

Thailand could do a lot worse (and of course, does!) than take a look at Taipei’s exit procedures. At lunchtime today there was an horrendously long queue snaking towards the security checks. Yet they proceeded extremely smoothly and quickly. Passport control could have been a nightmare. Instead it was amazingly simple.

Taiwan gave up exit cards some time ago. Now boarding passes are quickly scanned before security and after security it is automatic gates for foreigners. Place passport on one scanner and your two index fingers on the other. 5 seconds and you are through! Several staff on hand to help any who found this hard to master.
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Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by Dodger »

All this unnecessary confusion started when someone in the Thai ministry apparently misstated when he said that the TM 6 Form was being "Canceled" - and should have said "Revised".

Actually,all they had to do was just implement the use of the revised Form and be done with it. I can't see how any of this this would effect travelers at all. Just scribble the information in the boxes and be done with it. If there's not enough room in the box on the Form to enter your place of stay just scribble the name of a hotel, condo, short time room, massage parlor, whatever, and call it a day. If you can't read the scribbles in the tiny box - then they can't either. Welcome to Thailand!
Jun

Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by Jun »

fountainhall wrote:The main difference is that the departure section is the first part of the form, like Japan. So best not to insert your arrival flight on that part.
I've been caught out by that (2 times out of 2 so far). However, the immigration staff just recommend you just cross out the old number & write the new one in, so not too much time wasted.

For westerners, having the departure before the arrival is completely illogical. In Japan, where books are read back to front, it might make sense. I wasn't aware of Thai books being like that, but must look more closely on the next trip.
fountainhall

Re: New immigration cards to replace old - in October

Post by fountainhall »

Dodger wrote:all they had to do was just implement the use of the revised Form and be done with it. I can't see how any of this this would effect travelers at all. Just scribble the information in the boxes and be done with it.
My most recent post was to highlight how a country like Taiwan with a fraction of the number of visitors as Thailand has taken steps to make the outbound Immigration process far easier and much faster. The abolition of exit cards and the new scanners make the process for visitors at least 5 to 6 times faster than here in Thailand.

As for the new Immigration cards, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore require only one third of the information that Thailand now requests. All that this extra information achieves is even slower entry screening, if only because the officers have to make sure each line has been filled in - with what sort of Mickey Mouse information is of little consequence. The effect is the same. As has been pointed out, a lot of the information is of zero relevance to the Immigration Department. It is the idiotic Tourist Authority of Thailand which wants details of your salary and where you are staying etc.

Given the massive Immigration queues at certain times of the day, increasing the amount of information required and doing nothing to make the entire process faster for foreigners is just so typically Thai. Over the years I have seen so many cases of Thai officials from a multitude of departments being loathe to take advice from other countries or even to take a quick look at what other countries are doing. TIT!
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