Suvarnabhumi Airport Expands Automated E-Gates to Travellers From 33 Nationalities

Suvarnabhumi Airport has opened its automated immigration gates to passport holders from 31 additional nationalities, bringing the eligible total to 33. The Immigration Bureau approved the expansion in principle in mid-August, drawing up the list from entry-refusal figures, Henley Passport Index rankings and security assessments; the gates are now in use.

Poland is on the list, along with Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Passports from the United States, China, Taiwan and India are not included for now, and those travellers continue to use the staffed queue.

Three conditions apply. You have to be entering under the visa-exemption scheme, which means a visa holder — on a DTV, for instance — still goes to a counter. You have to have been to Thailand before on the same passport, so the system already holds your biometric data; a first visit always means a staffed counter. And you have to have completed the Thailand Digital Arrival Card before you arrive, which is free and has been mandatory since May 2025 regardless of which lane you use. Be wary of third-party sites charging for it — the airport has issued its own warning about them.

Two caveats worth knowing before you count on it. The rollout is phased, so an eligible passport does not guarantee an open gate on any given day. And the expansion is aimed squarely at the afternoon crush: Suvarnabhumi handles around 190,000 passengers a day in high season and roughly 70,000 international arrivals, with immigration busiest between 1pm and 5pm when 5,000 to 6,000 people an hour come through. Officials estimate the change puts the gates within reach of about 6.5 million more short-term visitors a year, plus 900,000 long-term visa holders.