Dual citizens US/EU which passport to enter Thailand?

[adakgb19 1]

Hi, to anyone who is dual EU and US citizen, which passport is preffered to enter the Kingdom of Thailand? To my knowledge both passports offer the same 30 days visa exempt stay. Is the treatment of US and EU citizens the same? I wonder what your personal experience has been.

Additional questions:
1) In past, I used my EU passport once to enter the country and I wonder if there would be any problem if I now used my US passport to enter.
2) Allegedly, Thailand has begun collecting biometric information. This kind of goes back to the question 1) whether switching passports would be okay in future since now you could be uniquely identified just by your fingerprints ...
3) In past and possibly in future, could 2 different passports be used to circumvent the rule of max 180 day stay per year? 
4) Did you see any difference in how ordinary locals treated you presenting yourself as either citizen?

I know this is rather unusual question and that a very few people probably fall into this category of dual citizens so any answer any tip or suggestion will be greatly appreciated. Thanks & Happy New Year!

[tjo o tjim 347]

No real difference or benefit of one over the other.  

1.  If you use the US passport the two will be linked in their system as you allude in 2, although this has always been true to a degree.

 

3.  No, see 1.

 

4.  With few exceptions, no differences. 

[elviajero 7,710]

The EU is not a nationality. Thailand treat European countries differently.

 

If your European nationality is one that receives visa exempt entry then it makes no difference which passport you use.

 

1 hour ago, adakgb19 said:

1) In past, I used my EU passport once to enter the country and I wonder if there would be any problem if I now used my US passport to enter.

No. But the two passports will probably get linked when you use the US one.

 

1 hour ago, adakgb19 said:

2) Allegedly, Thailand has begun collecting biometric information. This kind of goes back to the question 1) whether switching passports would be okay in future since now you could be uniquely identified just by your fingerprints ...

You won’t ‘beat the system’ by switching if that’s what you trying to achieve. See 1.

 

1 hour ago, adakgb19 said:

3) In past and possibly in future, could 2 different passports be used to circumvent the rule of max 180 day stay per year?

No. See 1.

 

1 hour ago, adakgb19 said:

4) Did you see any difference in how ordinary locals treated you presenting yourself as either citizen?

Individuals the world over have bias. 

[sirineou 17,356]

 Which country of the EU are you from.? and how long are you thinking about staying in Thailand?

If you are planing to do an extension to stay based on retirement or Marriage and your EU passport is from a country that still issues income certificates, I would use your EU passport, as the US embassy no longer provides income certificates. 

 

[adakgb19 1]

Many thanks to all who responded!

In all honesty, yes, I was hoping I would get the option of gaming the system by switching between the two passport. That way I would not have to apply for visa should I wanted to stay a bit longer. But since I will link the passports together that won't probably be an option.

My other EU passport is German. Another reason why I wanted to use my US passport this time is because I live in the US. If asked by Thai immigration about my personal business I guess it might come across weird stating my US residence while using German passport. Maybe am I overthinking it?

[jackdd 8,513]

5 hours ago, adakgb19 said:

3) In past and possibly in future, could 2 different passports be used to circumvent the rule of max 180 day stay per year? 

There is no such rule.

[ThaiBunny 3,539]

6 hours ago, adakgb19 said:

2) Allegedly, Thailand has begun collecting biometric information. This kind of goes back to the question 1) whether switching passports would be okay in future since now you could be uniquely identified just by your fingerprints ...

This assumes that Thai Immigration's computers can - in real time, while you are standing at the desk in the airport - run a pattern match between what's in their fingerprint database and the fingerprints they have just recorded while you're standing in front of them. That also presupposes that the fingerprints are uploaded in real time to the fingerprints database rather than, say overnight in batches

[ThaiBunny 3,539]

4 hours ago, elviajero said:

No. But the two passports will probably get linked when you use the US one.

Posters keep asserting this. Do we have any members reporting that it happened to them?

[tjo o tjim 347]

25 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

This assumes that Thai Immigration's computers can - in real time, while you are standing at the desk in the airport - run a pattern match between what's in their fingerprint database and the fingerprints they have just recorded while you're standing in front of them. That also presupposes that the fingerprints are uploaded in real time to the fingerprints database rather than, say overnight in batches

More likely it is working based on name and DOB in real time, but doing the same for fingerprints in one database is equally trivial.  I understand the fingerprints are primarily to validate the biometrics in the passport, but they have built up a database. It does pull up every photo of your entries in real time. 

[ThaiBunny 3,539]

1 minute ago, tjo o tjim said:

I understand the fingerprints are primarily to validate the biometrics in the passport

But my passport certainly doesn't include fingerprints, so what biometric data could they be validating?

[KhunBENQ 15,471]

I you don't intend to stay longtime (one year extension) it doesn't matter which passport you use. For one year extension German would be easier (as above).

 

Difference being identified as US or German?

I think US sounds richer, bad for haggling

Germans more likely to be tightwads (kee-niaow).

Edited January 5, 2020 by KhunBENQ

[adakgb19 1]

6 hours ago, ThaiBunny said:

But my passport certainly doesn't include fingerprints, so what biometric data could they be validating?

Are you US citizen? It is correct, albeit the passport being biometric it does not contain any fingerprints.

[adakgb19 1]

For the fingerprint scanners, has anyone tried obfuscating their fingerprints upon entering/leaving? Available methods may include very fine sandpaper and/or potentially a bit of fingernail polish. That would make fingerprints hard to read and recognize. One could claim no knowledge of any wrongdoing because many things could have caused this naturally. This is called plausible deniability.

It remains to be seen what their response would be and how many cases like this they are seeing each day. This may be a question for a separate thread though.

Edited January 5, 2020 by adakgb19

[stevenl 29,396]

7 hours ago, ThaiBunny said:

Posters keep asserting this. Do we have any members reporting that it happened to them?

Yes, I have read reports on here of people this happened to.

[sirineou 17,356]

9 hours ago, adakgb19 said:

My other EU passport is German. Another reason why I wanted to use my US passport this time is because I live in the US. If asked by Thai immigration about my personal business I guess it might come across weird stating my US residence while using German passport. Maybe am I overthinking it?

My wife has dual citizenship, she leaves the US with her US passport and enters Thailand with her Thai passport, because it is advantageous for her to do so, 

 I am in the process of getting a European (Greek) passport also, and since I will be starting to do extensions to stay since I will be retiring soon , and is married to a Thai national, When I get my Greek passport , I plan to enter Thailand with my Greek passport since they still offer income verification letters.

  I also find the Greek embassy to be much more helpful , personal. and easier to deal with, Is that the case also with the German Embassy? That might also be a deciding factor.

But other than that I don't see any other advantages or disadvantages.