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| The Arrival and Departure cards should be available on your inbound flight. Ask the steward(ess) if you missed the distribution |
An email came in from a newer reader who reminded me about something I'd left out of the post Arriving at Suvarnabhumi International Airport: the Arrival and Departure forms you have to fill out and provide the agent at the counter, both coming and going. Not that he'd had a problem (other than needing a pen, something I always suggest carrying) but he'd had a clumsy time filling it out in line. The comment was that an image would have been nice.
Rather than re-word it, this is what was in the post from February 3 of last year about them...
"One thing to mention, though: you'll probably be given an "arrival/departure" form to fill out on the plane. Do it on the plane and don't expect to be able to do it at the passport desk when your turn comes. You will be directed to a counter some distance away to fill it out and will not be allowed back to the front of the line. I've heard some people try (with raised voices, in a variety of languages) and thankfully the boorish fools were politely but firmly moved along and out of the way of we good children who'd done our homework."
The agent at the Arrivals counter will staple your departure form onto a page of your passport. From stories I've heard it can be a nightmare if you lose it along the way, so take good care to protect it. The easiest way to do that is to simply leave it in your passport. One visitor there told me they'd taken theirs out and put it in the safe in their room to keep it safe, and - you're way ahead of me here, aren't you? - they either forgot to lock their safe or it was broken into, one or the other, and the slip was gone. They missed their flight during the ensuing fun while trying to get home. At least they still had their passport.
Thanks for catching that, Dennis. I'd meant to go back and amend that post when I got the form scanned, but instead added another brick on the road to Hell, if it is indeed paved with good intentions.
If anyone has a story about problems entering or exiting Thailand you can either leave a short one in the comments or email me at the address to the right. I'd love to hear them.
The counters where you can fill out the form (if you didn't on the plane) has a picture of the form and a box that is supposed to contain some of them, but whenever I walked past they were empty. So don't lose the form on the way from plane to immigration counter and don't make a mistake when filling it out, you won't get a new one! Or does anybody know where to get these forms? It would be nice if I could fill them out at home, with more arm- and legspace than on the plane. ChristianPFC
ReplyDeleteBecause of the size of the "official" form (roughly 3 1/4 x 7 3/8", or 8.25 x 18 3/4cm) I don't suppose they've found it practical to allow downloading and printing. Some of the folks I've run into in Thailand I wouldn't trust with anything like a pair of scissors, anyway!
ReplyDeleteThere ARE a number of Thailand Immigration-related forms that you can download, though. That link is under Suggested Reference Tools to the right.
By the way - I can also attest to the bins sometimes being empty at the counter... I've seen it myself. I ask for two on the plane, just in case I do make an error. That's how I had a blank one back home here to scan. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI think the reason why this arrival/departure card form isn't downloadable is that both of these cards have the same serial number and they will check that the departure card number is same as the arrival card number when you leave thailand. And that's why the stich it to your passport. Even thais have to fill those cards. And when thai citizen leaves the country, they fill the departure card and the arrival card they keep in passport. When they return to thailand, they give the arrival card back to customs. So if your thai friend visit you, don't throw that arrival card away (like I did).But if you do that, your thai friend will have a problem with thai customs when returning back to thailand. How big, it depends from the officer...
ReplyDeleteThe crash numbering IS why they're not available for download - no argument from me on that one!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of any of my friends having to fill one out to leave and then re-enter the Kingdom, though. That's interesting... I'll ask and report back with whatever I hear.
Thanks for the comment!