timewilltell

Thailand is entirely uninterested in foreign people - it is only interested in money from them. That is why their limited thinking is on all these schemes hoping to squeeze money out of tourists and visitors. Unless you are working and paying tax you cannot even get permanent residency and even if working it is just a huge hassle as well as costly. 

You are always simply tolerated and subject to constantly changing rules as ever more convoluted ways are proposed, implemented and withdrawn to succour in your money.

Thailand is not fit for purpose for any foreign investor. Not only are the files totally fluid but the law is as well. Since law is the basis of contracts which are the basis for business and since the laws and courts are made to benefit Thais and marginalise foreigbers as well as being riddled with muddled thinking, lack of certainty, corruption and unfairness no foreigner should invest anything. Holiday yes - invest - you'll lose it. Hyoed up penny shares are safer but I wouldn't advise them either.

4 hours ago, Big Guns said:

Under labour law an employer can't reduce an employee's salary without their consent. Effectively it's breach of contract. Unfortunately the only way to resolve it would be in court. You would win and you could be reinstated if you lost your job but the employment relationship would've been damaged. I wouldn't want to work under those circumstances.

Yeah - and then you would lose your job on some other ground and get deported. Courts don;t work well for foreigners here for a multitude of reasons. Thailand is no place to work or invest really because you are only one complain away from being a victim.

3 hours ago, Matzzon said:

So, blaming Thailand and the way things work again. Seems to be all you can do. If you are going to continue with that, a good advice is to study the facts before.

Can you tell me what government that offers a relief for loss of work, includes the illegal part of that sector? If there is anybody to blame, that blame should fall on the people that offer these people unregistered work. They should be held responsible to pay compensation to the people that they throw away.

The problem with your response is the assumption that Thais who cycle around selling cups of coffee or ice-cream or run food stalls are working illegally. A far higher percentage of Thais work informally and on the breadline, too uneducated to understand about tax and so far below the level where tas would be payable anyway that they are not in for 'formal' economy. Many more work online, sell their bodies or work casually from job to job because long term jobs are hard to find - it's expensive to employ someone and hard to fire them afterwards so employers are picky.

I think you would be well advised to take a look at the make up of the workforce and pressures on the people and consider it when making comparisons with the West where the employment demographics are much much different. 

Many people are more interested in the sound bites of apparent good ideas that in practice amount to little in order to make themselves look good more than offer a vast amount of help. The same thing holds true in other countries just a bit less so.

6 hours ago, Thaidream said:

It is my understanding that Thai Immigration monitors all court proceeding regarding foreigners.  If the foreigner is convicted- Immigration automatically process the person for removal from the country. 

 

Since your case is finished- they can legally terminate your stay  I do believe there is some wiggle room in which you can speak with the IDC people and ask them point blank if you are being blacklisted. It is possible to 'negotiate' an outcome if speaking with the right person for removal. 

 

It is imperative that a trusted Thai person be in on every conversation- possibly your current wife.  If possible  an experience lawyer that handles foreiner cases would be best.  If you wife is the negotiator- she needs to be skillful  in asking for some empathy and use the correct Thai prhases and wai the right people.

 

IMO if there is no blacklist- you could leave and return immediatly.  I do know of an acquaintance who did  just that.

 

You could also appeal- but remember the appeals court can also increase any punishment as well as acquit or lessen punishment.  

 

I hope for the best outcome for you/

I just cannot comprehend how a person can be arrested for overstay on a day in which he had a visa.

If you are on a court visa - who issues the order preventing you leaving the country - court or immigration? The courts seize your passport to prevent you leaving and immigration, so I understand it, force you onto the 3 month visa nonsense until the court process finishes. 

The OP is saying the court has to issue an order rescinding any prohibition by the court on leaving and they will probably not do that until the case is finished which requires an application to close the case as far as I know.

You see I keep saying as far as I know because no one seems to really know the law. I do know some cases are closed by formal application. I don;t know when you get your bail money back but do know it takes up to two weeks for the court to return your money. Who knows the real law becasue even if you read the translated law (or have a Thai read the text and translate it) the words do not actually mean what they say - I have several examples.

And this is why people get into trouble because it is all down to the &*^)%s who victimise foreigners by twisiting interpretations, misadvising through ignorance or malice and the general fact that you are at the mercy of the police who are hardly the whitest of white and easily persuaded to certain courses of action. 

8 hours ago, ukrules said:

Same situation if found guilty of a minor offense after a lengthy period on the 'court case pending' visa extensions.

 

Lets say after a few months on this visa you then got a small fine, you would then be hauled off to IDC - not good!

It doesn't matter whether he was aquitted or not - according to the OP immigration were waiting and arrested him immediately because the case was finished and his court proceedings visa immediately invalidated. 

It is quite absurd.

Whether he was aquitted or not aquitted seems irrelevant if immigration are arresting a person immediately a trial is over.

Quite a few people are charged with criminal offences regardless of fact and Thai courts routinely just accept these cases. 
 

As soon as the case is accepted into the court system you are forced onto a 'court proceedings' visa by immigration rules. Despite the wording of the law it appears that 'court visas' are only processed if the foreigner is the defendant but not if he is the accuser. Anyway I am off point.

So you can be charged, forced off your normal visa and on to the heinously inconvenient court visa and then arrested even if acquitted. 

According to this account you do not even have the rest of the day to rush to the border and get the hell out but instead arrested and stuck in IDC. I was not aware that visas are timed to the minute in such cases.

I hesitate to ask how ridiculous this is but see so many utterly ridiculous regulations, quasi regulations, official interpretations and bull in this country that the question is barely worth repeating.

This guy needs to get a better lawyer as the first one clearly is not up to speed on the right answers. It is a shame that the Embassies don't give a care in cases like this and more generally to scream merry hell about abuses to their citizens by laws that force people into the wrong.

2 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

IMO, most governments are uniformly under reporting this outbreak...maybe to stop panic, but probably because they don't really have a grasp of the situation.

If a nurse in Wuhan ( report on social media) says their government is not reporting that, according to her, 90,000 are infected.....then other governments would follow suit.

The Thai government really scares me when these situations arise....they seem to have little understanding of epidemic issues...and their response is often muted and watered down.

Thailand has tens of thousands of Chinese tourists here now....Where exactly are they right now?....Have they all be screened?...When, and, are they allowed to return to China?....Were there positive cases identified and if so, (hard to imagine they were all negative) where are they now?

I am pretty sure they are well up to speed on their understanding. You mistake the lies and excuses for a lack of understanding, but I think it is precisely that they understand the financial cost of admitting anything that drives the dangerous nonsense they spout.

I think they have zero respect for anyone and are wholeheartedly selfish as the driver for the misinformation. The corrupt make money from money flowing after all.

Unfortunately this is the story of Thai Law everywhere. No one really knows what the law is because it is all up to the judge, policeman, immigration officer or anyone else who has any power. The result is the perfect environment for corruption and it is quite likely that is exactly how they want to keep it. Thailand is no place for business and increasingly becoming no place to retire to or reside in as regulations become more aggressive, more confusing and more difficult to comply with.

22 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

How many straws are there to clutch on to in this box ?

Never will be European ? ? Where do you think the UK is situated? from where do you think the British people evolved ? Where has our language come from ? In which substantial way do you think that a Brit differs from a Frenchman or German ?

Well the person you replied to already stated that Britain is part of geographical Europe but goes on to say that at the same time it is somewhat apart from the whole mainland of Europe mindset almost certainly a function of the physical disconnect of the land. I expect over time there will be more of a coming together of culture and mindset but hopefully we do not all run like sheep back into the EU undemocracy.