Thailand Immigration Flags Overstayers But Struggles to Act

12 minutes ago, thaibreaker said:

The stamps you get through agents, are 100% legit.

Yes. Because the whole set-up is so the IMM officer who puts their signature in your passport can say they have no reason to suspect the that request is any different than other.

Section 144 of the Penal Code applies TO YOU.

I have always said if I wanted to stay in Thailand long term I would go dark and drop off the radar. It is the poor retiree's that pay the retirement tax to live in Thailand. 800K, Sell everything in their home country to live there. When ready to leave I would just get blacklisted and pay the fine. Done and done. 100K total savings, want to be millionaires are pretty common in Thailand . And Thailand is sucking them dry.. And they brag about it..

Sure. You can go dark, as long as you never want to stay in a hotel or exchange money. Or anything else that requires whipping out your passport. (Or your credit card or debit card if they ever tie those to your passport- and that's coming)

But what kind of a life is that?

BTW, I don't advocate those measures. Just pointing out that they exist and I suspect (fear) that they're coming our way.

I'd be curious to see a summary of how many people are in the country illegally, tracked over time. Maybe even by nationality so we could see the effects of Israel and Ukraine and other wars around the world. They should have all of that on the database. But I'm not sure it's in anyone's best interest to publish those trends.

33 minutes ago, kuzmabruk said:

Are we all thinking massive graft in this project???? 555. Wow!

The government could invest 100 million baht in 30 tech companies and receive equity and on average 10% success on venture capital. In the end they would get 30 apps, investments in 30 companies, 3 possible unicorns and instead of giving 3 billion baht to a couple of “friends of the government” maybe they make a billion US dollars.

They are a government, not a hedge fund.

27 minutes ago, JerryM said:

Yes. Because the whole set-up is so the IMM officer who puts their signature in your passport can say they have no reason to suspect the that request is any different than other.

Section 144 of the Penal Code applies TO YOU.

Again, what has any of this to do with overstayers, and this thread?

The answer is, nothing.

If there was less paperwork aand more digital hub, it eas easy to check if passport came in for what and left in the time they have given. With the Tdac they could find them or with the hotelreports.

“Structural limitations add to the problem. Officials have reported that the biometric system reached a ceiling of 50 million records,”

When they reached 40 million records no one thought to project out a few years and realise a system expansion would be required, so let’s start it now?

It’s a bit late when you reach 49,999,999 records and then realise you have to do everything manually.

I realise that it’s easy to be wise after the event, but this is a bit basic.

1 hour ago, thaibreaker said:

This issue is not about those using agents to stay in Thailand legally,

You wrote the above. Whether the stamp is legit (for now) or not, there is no such thing as using agents to stay legally as using agents is not legal regardless of current status:

Section 143. Accepting Benefit by Member of Government

Whoever, demanding, accepting or agreeing to accept a property or any other benefit for himself or the other person as a return for inducting or having induced, by dishonest or unlawful means, OR by using his influence, any official, ... to exercise or not to exercise any of his functions, which is advantageous or disadvantageous to any person (penalty)

1 hour ago, impulse said:

AI can lock down their bank accounts.

I don't know about you, but I'd leave on my own accord if I couldn't tap the ATM occasionally. No cops required...

Who says they have bank accounts in Thailand?

And if they don’t, how would AI lock down their bank accounts in another country?

Who says they have bank accounts in Thailand?

And if they don’t, how would AI lock down their bank accounts in another country?

How would someone with a foreign account get money into Thailand? If they do any banking in Thailand, it can be locked out. Including ATMs and Forex.

I don't know about you, but I'd get real hungry if I couldn't use the ATMs and/or trade forex in LOS.

1 minute ago, impulse said:

How would someone with a foreign account get money into Thailand? If they do any banking in Thailand, it can be locked out. Including ATMs and Forex.

I don't know about you, but I'd get real hungry if I couldn't use the ATMs and/or trade forex in LOS.

You do realise you can use a foreign bank card at Thai ATM’s?

32 minutes ago, JerryM said:

You wrote the above. Whether the stamp is legit (for now) or not, there is no such thing as using agents to stay legally as using agents is not legal regardless of current status:

Section 143. Accepting Benefit by Member of Government

Whoever, demanding, accepting or agreeing to accept a property or any other benefit for himself or the other person as a return for inducting or having induced, by dishonest or unlawful means, OR by using his influence, any official, ... to exercise or not to exercise any of his functions, which is advantageous or disadvantageous to any person (penalty)

I btw, completely disagree with you in this case. Agents using immigration officers this way, or us using agents, that is not illegal (your claim). No matter how many times you post your section 143 (not helping).

If it was illegal, it would have been dealt with a long time ago. It's a widely open and spread current business, accepted by the immigration.

The immigration office, and officers, have the discretion to deny or approve visas, which they do every single day.

End of this discussion for me, this has nothing to do with this thread.

4 minutes ago, thaibreaker said:

The immigration office, and officers, have the discretion to deny or accept visas, which they do every single day.

Oh not again. That is clause 5 2014 IMM Police Order which says "legitimate reason" -- it does not say discretion.

And under section 35 Immigration Act an extension of stay whether via discretion or 800K in the bank is 2000 baht (max). How much did you pay?

19 minutes ago, thaibreaker said:

If it was illegal, it would have been dealt with a long time ago. It's a widely open and spread current business, accepted by the immigration.

Sounds a bit much like nominee real estate purchases. Oh there's too much money in it for anything to change.

1 hour ago, JerryM said:

Whoever, demanding, accepting or agreeing to accept a property or any other benefit for himself or the other person as a return for inducting or having induced, by dishonest or unlawful means, OR by using his influence, any official, ... to exercise or not to exercise any of his functions, which is advantageous or disadvantageous to any person (penalty)

There is no penalty if there is no real concrete evidence of wrongdoing that can be found.

13 minutes ago, Yumthai said:

There is no penalty if there is no real concrete evidence of wrongdoing that can be found.

That is the Thai Penal Code. I am not going to get into what it takes for someone to be charged with it.

On 6/28/2026 at 9:05 AM, tomazbodner said:

But, each country's job is to control immigration.

Respective foreign embassies need to be more involved as PARTNERS with Thailand Immigration.

3 hours ago, thaibreaker said:

The stamps you get through agents, are 100% legit. You are legally stamped in, and can be staying in Thailand during the validity of such stamps.

Thailanguage courses

But again, this issue has nothing to do with those who already have a permission to stay in Thailand.

This thread and issue is about OVERSTAYERS. You are NOT overstaying with the above mentioned stamp from immigration.

maybe but without funds for a retirement extension you obtapin a legal visa by illegall actions

31 minutes ago, JerryM said:

That is the Thai Penal Code. I am not going to get into what it takes for someone to be charged with it.

Yes but if workarounds exist for years, it also means that rules are not practically enforceable then irrelevant.

8 minutes ago, Yumthai said:

it also means that rules are not practically enforceable then irrelevant.

You say irrelevant. I'll say hibernating.

More than 35 years ago. Australia was interrogating the Movement Data Base to compare arrival and departures and compiling monthly lists of overstayers. These names went to Enforcement branches for action. The technology has always been there to identify overstayers.

However, the large numbers of overstayers, too few IOs and the mobility of the subjects meant most never knew they were a target until contact was made on departure.

Immigration Thailand has problems with the millions of arrivals from their neighboring countries and thus probably have few resources available to look for individuals, except when they stand out for some reason.

Wrangling in-country overstays requires effort (as many are probably not where they say they are/were when they initially landed/reported), and effort is not something typically seen from Thai authorities for anything less than a capital crime. And if it were not for CCTV many more capital crimes would probably go unsolved (but I digress). It would be interesting to know how many overstays there are currently in Thailand (as of today). You can't fix what you don't measure and report. So I suspect they won't be publishing any monthly numbers on current "suspected in-country overstays" anytime soon. Too embarrassing.

5 hours ago, impulse said:

AI can lock down their bank accounts.

I don't know about you, but I'd leave on my own accord if I couldn't tap the ATM occasionally. No cops required...

AI can write programs to access bank data bases but you will need permissions from the banks and government to access them. Hi-so Thais and especailly politicians may consider this unacceptable to allow a government agency to access their accounts and freezing them. They may say they are only going after farangs but .............. (smile). Also, farangs could be bypasing the thai banking suystem by using their foreign ATM cards, etc.

The BOT is mostly after unusual activity mule-type accounts and it seems that they and the banks already have the authority to get enough access for this.

On 6/28/2026 at 12:00 AM, ikke1959 said:

The question is how is this all possible. TDAC should solve this problem as it need an address. All longstayers have to report every 90 days, if they fail it should be possible to find out who did not register.. but as everything it needs checking or working and that is what people don't like... Easy ways are giving problems. The good longstayers will do it and can show years that their intentions are good, while the overstayers know nothing will happen as nobody know they atre over staying. Same for visa. There should be a registration of entering and leaving. Not very difficult I suppose.

They can upgrade what they want, but as long as there is no enforcement and time is waste to the 95% good behaving tourists and longstayers, the overstayers and others know they can get away with it, a sthe chance of being caught is almost nothing

The TDAC is a pile of 💩 Nobody checks any info placed on it as i found out last trip and as did many of my friends who come and go. Several times. It’s exactly the same as the old paper one you used to fill in nobody checks. 🤷🏼

Too Easy: (Step One) - Make it a crime to use agents to facilitate annual visa extensions. This means that people need to show up to Immigration, in person, with all the correct information / bank records. Therefore, "the toilet flushes" annually, and it becomes impossible to overstay by more than one year. (You're welcome!) 555!

9 hours ago, impulse said:

Sure. You can go dark, as long as you never want to stay in a hotel or exchange money. Or anything else that requires whipping out your passport. (Or your credit card or debit card if they ever tie those to your passport- and that's coming)

But what kind of a life is that?

BTW, I don't advocate those measures. Just pointing out that they exist and I suspect (fear) that they're coming our way.

I'd be curious to see a summary of how many people are in the country illegally, tracked over time. Maybe even by nationality so we could see the effects of Israel and Ukraine and other wars around the world. They should have all of that on the database. But I'm not sure it's in anyone's best interest to publish those trends.

Here is the general idea of what it means, this guy is in Pattaya in big hotels or big hotels in Thailand.. In 10 years of traveling in Thailand I was never asked for my passport at a hotel, and I lived int them nonstop for 10 years birding. 10 years never once was denied a ATM transaction. Only problems I ever had was trying to do it legally. The locals hate the laws and never do it. They could care less..

3 hours ago, Reddavy said:

The TDAC is a pile of 💩 Nobody checks any info placed on it as i found out last trip and as did many of my friends who come and go. Several times. It’s exactly the same as the old paper one you used to fill in nobody checks. 🤷🏼

That is the problem in whole Thailand... no enforcement and that is why there are so many problems.. They have TDAC to control the whereabouts, but as they don't like to work nothing is been done with the information and who knows, can abuse it...

Just like the current banking headaches, they are trying to punish the law abiding foreigners instead of actively pursuing miscreants. More paperwork and more hassles while not breaking the laws.

The BOT is mostly after unusual activity mule-type accounts and it seems that they and the banks already have the authority to get enough access for this.

That's my point. They have the ability. But they're not using it for immigration purposes yet. IMO, the key word is "yet".

And I think of all the Thai services I have, tied to my passport. My bank account. My BTS Rabbit card. My phone SIM. My tablet SIM (that I use for a hotspot). Every time I check into a hotel. Every time I exchange money...

Just taking my phone SIM for an example, every time I walk into a different mall in Bangkok, I get a text from AIS about some offer (that I can't read because it's in Thai), leading me to believe they know my SIM is in that mall. That's one step away from sending the Migra to that mall if I'm on overstay. Will they do it? I don't know. But they can, if they get serious.

4 minutes ago, impulse said:

That's my point. They have the ability. But they're not using it for immigration purposes yet. IMO, the key word is "yet".

As with my comment above as to Penal Code regs with immigration implications not prosecuted:

You say irrelevant. I'll say hibernating.

And if you look at went on with some of the recent nominee enforcement and the amount of data linked, that eventually may not be so far fetched. But if you mention anything on the VISA FORUM about using enhanced computer horsepower to look at 'unorthodox' retirement extensions, the reaction from the main honchos will be something like this: