Finger Print at Thai Airports when entering Thailand

[Mitchell]

I understand that when one enters Thailand at a Thai airport the non-Thai traveller will be required to provide their finger prints which has made the lines slow to get thru passport control.........Is this true?

[fountainhall]

Yes finger printing is now required. I have not noticed that it makes the Immigration process any longer as it is done when the officer is doing the usual checks with my passport. Not sure about the experience of others, though.

[Montree]

My recent arrival at the beginning of June was one of the fastest ever for me. The new fingerprint requirement didn't seem to delay things at all. It seemed an excellent way to transmit germs though as there is no facility to clean the glass used for the fingerprint scan. You just put your hand on the same surface as hundreds of people before you.

[gerefan]

All on here
https://sawatdeenetwork.com/v4/showthre ... ger-prints

[Jun]

When I have entered Malaysia, they had fingerprinting and immigration was way faster than Thailand. Walk up, no queue & must be through in <<60 seconds.
Cambodia has had fingerprinting on each of the 5 visits so far and again immigration was quicker than Thailand.

I don't quite understand why fingerprinting is not a global standard, preferably combined with e-gates. e-gates should be more reliable than stamp monkeys, or it would be if operated by a clued up private sector company. If a firm like Sony run the e-gates, they would work 24-7 AND be better at spotting the people who should be weeded out than the stamp monkeys.

[fountainhall]

Arrival Immigration queues are just part of the problem. Queues at BKK departure security and Immigration can also be really bad. The departure system in Taipei is the best I have come across in many years of travelling. Arrival queues can be bad if you are behind a couple of planes with tourists from Korea and China or anywhere which requires special paper visas. Once at the Immigration counter, though, your photo is taken and scans taken of your two index fingers. Still faster than Thailand.

But departure is a breeze. Taiwan's arrival card is a single small sheet of paper. Once the arrival chop is put in your passport, you do not need to present any paper on leaving. TPE has more security scanners in operation. There is then a snake queue at Immigration, which moves quickly because the rest is all automatic. Just place your passport details page on a scanner, then your two index fingers. 15 seconds at most and there are officers on hand to help anyone confused re what they have to do.

[pong]

I don't quite understand why fingerprinting is not a global standard, preferably combined with e-gates.

This is f.e. as EU has decided to rely on automatic passage with electronic gates, that compare your taken picture with the one embedded in your passpt.-thats why they are named biometric and have sign for it on the front. As for now only available to travel wholly In the EU, but will be rolled out for arrivals from elsewhere-starting with EU-nationals. Another thing UK will lose soon. There has never ever been mention of those fingerprints here in EUrope. It's quite easy for criminals etc. to have surgeons change the finger-prints. Even a mishap while doing renovations at home or burning fingers on a hot plate can do that.

BTW; in Bali/INDO they had to scrap the fingerprint system some yrs ago as it took so eternally long that the whole airport-hall filled up with prospecting tourists and arriving planes had to wait with pax holding inside till space became again........ DK what they do now.

CHIna-as is the USA an outsider in these fields for most things, also has its very own system based on face-recognition-apparently quite possible with a bilion people who look all the same (or so the western prerogative is-of course we know better here).

[Gaybutton]

It's quite easy for criminals etc. to have surgeons change the finger-prints.

I would think a surgeon would have to be awfully strapped for cash to agree to do it . . .

[fountainhall]

This is f.e. as EU has decided to rely on automatic passage with electronic gates, that compare your taken picture with the one embedded in your passpt

The last time I went through Heathrow - admittedly 4 years ago - the checking was not on face pics but on iris recognition. This seemed to me nuts. Since it was my first time in those eternal immigration queues, it took an age to get to a machine. I pressed my face against it as instructed, and three times it rejected me. Not surprising I guess because I had never had my eyes registered before then. But it required an officer to come over to me, try again, fail again and then he took me to another queue where I was manually checked! That wasted a good two minutes, much to the annoyance of the Brits behind me. But I did notice that several people were rejected by the machines!

Since passports last for 10 years, I totally fail to understand how a picture taken in, say, 2019 can possibly be recognised in 2029. I mentioned that Taipei uses index finger scans. I failed to mention that on entry the officer also scans your passport details page and you have a pic taken. So on departure, there are 3 checks - passport scanned against their records, finger prints checked against their records and your pic checked against their very recent records. All in 15 second max. Far more secure than just a photo, I'd have thought.

[Jun]

1 To clarify, I expect finger prints should be used IN ADDITION to checks on the face.

2 The few times I went through the Heathrow e-gates, they have mostly been very quick. The only problem is when they inexplicably close off half the machines. If this was automated inspection in a private sector manufacturing plant, the supplier would be under contract to achieve 24-7 operation with a very high up time. The public sector don't have competitive pressure and don't seem to care enough about their customers.