Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing secondary inspection at Thai Airport Immigration. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Reddit, that's reddit.com, the article is titled: I got almost denied of entering Thailand. And I have made another video contemporaneously with this one where we discuss the whole issue of removing stickers and stamps from one's passport. That is not the thrust of this video, so I am not going to get into that. I am just going to go through this, and we are going to talk about secondary inspection. 

Quoting directly: "This is my report of something that happened as it might help someone else. Recently I arrived Thailand in the Suvarnabhumi Airport after an exhaustive 29-hour flight. At the Immigration line I was unlucky enough to be in the queue of an officer that was kind of more picky than usual. Both lines on my sides were going much faster than my line, and that 7-8 people queue to the specific Immigration Officer I was took 30 minutes to go. On my turn, I had passport, Tdac and ongoing flight all printed and easy. He asked where I am going to stay, which I answered, and asked to see booking, which I hadn't print so I showed on my phone. During all the time he was back and forth on my passport pages which are almost full, I have 5-6 pages left. Here comes the catch. I used to have 3 full visas on my passport; 2 for Laos and 1 for Vietnam which are no longer necessary in my life. Both Laos and Vietnam make you attach this whole page visa on your passport and then later stamp on a next page. As they are single use after I used, I took the liberty to remove."

Yeah, as I discussed in another video, bad idea across the board. Do not alter your travel document. If you have visas placed in it by an Immigration Authority, leave them. Removal can cause you problems. Quoting further: "When I removed the Vietnam one, I wasn't as careful as I should have been, and it left a lot of glue residue in the passport. The page is intact, no holes or damage, but when you have it on hands it is clear there was something there. I have this for at least 5 years now, it was pre-COVID visa and nobody ever paid attention to that, but because there was not many pages left, and he was swapping all pages and maybe because he was one of these "attention to detail" persons he notices." Well he is not an attention to detail person, he's an Immigration Officer in a foreign country, okay. I can't stress that enough. This is sort of framed as if this was sort of a no big deal thing. To immigration, alteration of a travel document is a pretty big deal, as we will now see. Quoting further: "There is two buttons in the Immigration cabin, yellow and red. Then he presses the yellow button, and a big red light starts flashing in the cabin. Another Immigration Officer comes from outside; they exchange a few words in Thai and she escorts me to an interrogation room. It is very embarrassing to be escorted in a full airport passing through a thousand people along the way and obviously I was a bit nervous, but arriving there, two other foreigners were on hold, and they both looked much more relaxed than I was. Even the officers there looked much more easy than the one accompanying me." 

Well yeah, that is actually a fact. Secondary Immigration Officers in virtually any context be it the United States be it whatever, Laos, I have actually been in secondary inspection in Cambodia, Laos, never Thailand, never the US, but the secondary folks they are not on the line; they are not out there dealing with every single person coming up and all the issues dealing with the public. They do tend to be, in their demeanor, a little bit more at least kind of kicked back if you will, kicked back is probably not the right word but they are definitely a lot less tense than the people who are out there on the line. That said, quoting further: "One even made a joke about going to the beach or something." Quoting further: "The lady who brought me there asked again where I was staying, what I do for work, and what I am doing in Thailand, and I answered."

Yeah, so secondary, they are just figuring out who you are and again secondary is not innocuous. This is further investigation including, interrogation is not the wrong word as to what you are doing in the country, and in this person's case with an altered travel document. Quoting further: "By the time I searched on my phone again for my booking confirmation, she left the room with my passport to another room to come back 10 minutes later. I finally showed my booking confirmation. She stamped my passport and nervously waved me to go away." So I don't think it was nervous, it was probably more like all right whatever, just go. Quoting further: "I tried to ask what was wrong in my paperwork but between she in a hurry to get rid of me and me not wanting to get into more trouble, she just mumbled something like "TDAC is wrong address" which I know is completely untrue because I double checked it."

Yeah, don't try to get into a who's right or wrong in some kind of argumentative setting when you are in an Immigration detention room, okay. You don't have rights, okay. Up until this woman stamped this person in, they were not lawfully even admitted into Thailand. They could do whatever they wanted with him, okay. It's not wise to have that kind of attitude in this context. That said, quoting further: "That is it. I've been in over 50 countries in my life; 7-8 times in Thailand. Never ever had an issue at Immigration before. They didn't give me a straight clear reason for what I went through." Yeah well, I'll give you one. You pulled visas out of your passport and there was evidence thereof. You know what they were pulling you out for. Yeah is it a big deal? Not really, but it is an altered travel document. That's what they are putting you through secondary inspections for. Quoting further: “A little bit of bad luck, a little bit of miscommunication perhaps.” Not bad luck, not miscommunication. It was the fact that it was the passport, that is the issue; the alteration, that was the issue. Quoting further: “But in the end all went well and I clearly stayed in the interrogation room much less than I stayed in the line at the Immigration booth.” Well you are lucky.

Again the big points to take away from this video. One, don't alter your passport, always a good idea. The number two one though is do not go in with an attitude of having an argument, okay. That is walking in with a losing attitude effectively. What you want to walk into the Immigration, secondary inspection, is contrition. You just want to cooperate and do whatever you can do to assuage them of whatever suspicions they will have; put those things to rest; get yourself your entry stamp and move along. It is not a place to be in a 'can I see your manager' mode of thinking because the longer you are there, and the more people you are talking to, likely the worst it's going to be for you. This is just basic information from an Immigration Attorney's in an American context. But from somebody who is a naturalized Thai, who has been through the entire immigration process here in Thailand, and can tell you that look I understand the paradigm of these folks, that is not the kind of attitude you want to have. 

So I get into this stuff in a more detailed in-depth way in our paid news service.  You can basically check us out and get on the mailing list for our paid new service by emailing us, [email protected]. I talked about a lot of this stuff especially in the context of expats and retirees here in Thailand, so if you are interested in that, please feel free to email us [email protected]. We are now on some 15 videos I think, and they are all longer form and I go into much more in-depth detail. Also while I'm on the topic, I'll just sort of talk my book here real quick. My better half and I did set up a restaurant here in downtown Thailand (Bangkok – correction). If you are interested in American Diner style food including breakfast anytime, please feel free to check us out; links are in the description below.