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Anyone who has landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport after a long flight knows that the holiday feeling can fade fast in a slow-moving immigration queue. For some travellers, though, arrival in Thailand is about to become a little quicker.
Thailand is expanding its automated border control at Suvarnabhumi Airport to passport holders from 31 additional nationalities. That brings the eligible total to 33, allowing more foreign arrivals to use the auto gates instead of joining the regular staffed immigration queue.
There are a few conditions. Travellers must complete the Thailand Digital Arrival Card before arrival. First-time visitors must still use a staffed immigration counter so their biometric data can be collected. The system is also being rolled out in phases, so holding an eligible passport does not guarantee that every traveller will be able to use an auto gate immediately.
So, who can use Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi auto gates? Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Passports from the United States, China, Taiwan and India are not included for now, so those travellers must continue to use the regular immigration queue on arrival.