Transcript of the above video

So a viewer sent me an email with a link to Reddit. I thank the viewer, this is useful and I think it will make for a good video here. So I went over to Reddit under the whatever Reddit calls them, Reddits or sub-Reddits or whatever: Will the authorities know when I enter the country on a different passport? and this was sort of in the Thailand sub-Reddit. Quoting directly: "I am a dual citizen. In the past 13-ish months I have entered Thailand on a Visa waiver three times and extended for 30 days each time. The first two times I came in on one passport, then this most recent time I came in on my other passport. Technically speaking (I know it's not usually enforced) I am only allowed to enter the country twice on a Visa waiver in any 12 month period so I have already reached my limit for this year." Well first of all, that is kind of a misconception. Thai Immigration has the discretion to admit people on any basis they see fit and as often as they see fit. That said, yes there has been guidance, there has been a Decree in the Royal Thai Gazette regarding how many instances of entry one can definitely get in a given calendar year and as we have discussed in other videos, that's two. That said, it doesn't preclude a later entry, it's just that is sort of the baseline. 

Quoting further: "But as I entered on a different passport, I have my doubts that Thai Immigration is sophisticated enough to know that I am the same person." I am not saying, I'm going to keep quoting here, but I'm not saying this person is saying Thai Law Enforcement is stupid or incompetent, whatever, I don't think they are. I think this is an honest question so take this movie reference the way it is intended. There is a great scene in the movie Layer Cake, toward the opening of Layer Cake, where he's sort of a wise guy whatever, British wise guy and it's Daniel Craig I think is in the movie and he says "only very stupid people think that the law is stupid". Okay? Again I am not saying that this poster on Reddit said that, that is not what I'm saying, but that should always be your default position. I'm here to tell you this after a lot of experience dealing with Law Enforcement, dealing with Bureaucratic Agencies, they can be a lot of things. Oftentimes obtuse is one of them but do not ever presume they are not competent; it's just a bad way to go about operating.

So quoting further: "The only connection will be that they take my fingerprints each time I enter." Well yeah, that's a huge connection. As we have discussed in a lot of videos since they put it in, the biometric readers at the airport are taking fingerprints and facial recognition every time you come into the country and it's digital, okay? And as we have discussed in many other videos, the digitization of Thai Immigration has resulted in a lot of new enforcement protocols that have been brought in. We have seen them showing up at people's houses down in Phuket who go on overstay and showing up at people's houses and saying "hey, you are on overstay; you have got to go," and deporting people. I have even done videos about how they are going in and arresting people at the airport who ended up on overstay okay. They are well aware of who is coming and going from this country and with biometrics they have the ability to operate very, very quickly and in a very sophisticated manner. Quoting further: "But given the authorities lack of technical know-how," Where would you think that there is a lack of technical know-how? We have the discussed the Advanced Passenger Processing System, we have discussed PBIC, which is out at the airport. Immigration is quite sophisticated. Quoting further: "I always assume these get sent into a black hole, and there is no actual cross referencing." Don't assume that because as we have discussed, again the digitization of this has resulted in the cross referencing of a bunch of different data points that in the past quite honestly the analog system was not able to handle. But now that it is digitized, oh yes indeed Thai immigration is cross referencing lots of different data points, no doubt about that. Quoting further: "Does anyone have any experience doing this? Do Thai Immigration actually know I'm the same person when using two different passports or will I be safe to re-enter again on the passport I've only used once?" 

Well at the end of the day, dual passports, I think people have some notion that we are like all living in 1976 and again everything is analog and nobody can see; having two passports results in some magical invisibility cloak to Immigration Authorities the world over. It's just not the case. Yeah, they are quite aware. As discussed previously, the biometrics component of entry to Thailand makes it very, I won't say easy, but it makes it very straightforward for Thai Immigration to know precisely who is coming and going from Thailand regardless of their travel documentation.