jamesthefirst

Hi,

I have a friend who was deported and blacklisted from Thailand exactly nine years ago for working illegally.  He changed his name by deedpoll in the UK, changed his passport and has been living in Thailand since, having entered and exited the country with no problems to this day.

However, his friend who was deported along with him who also changed his name has now recently been found out by Immigration when he went to renew his work visa. Somehow they were able to link his old and new name together. His old and new name were actually very similar but now naturally my (and his) other friend is paranoid as hel_l that he'll be rumbled the next time he leaves the country on a visa run.

Is anyone aware of Thai Immigration having new technology that is able to make this connection with changed names? Would it have something to do with perhaps the chip in the passport that UK passports now have, or indeed would it be related to the new photgrahic id technology, where when our pictures are taken when we enter and exit the country and they could have linked him up by that way?

Any feedback that I could pass onto him would be appreciated.

Cheers in advance.