I personally don't plan on overstaying, but I'm a bit curious:    Some people go like 5 years or more before they get caught on overstay. 

 

How do they pull it off?

 

Maybe I'm wrong here, but it seems pretty difficult to swing a decent hotel or apartment while on overstay, because the managers of such places check your passport.

 

Are the longtime overstayers living with a wife and pack of roosters in Kalasin?    Or shacking up in "short-time" hotels for long stretches?

I knew two people who overstayed 7+ years before leaving for different reasons. 

 

One spoke fluent Thai and just blended in, living like a local with his Thai wife in a rented house. He taught English freelance, no work permit. 

 

Another was also teaching, living in a condo in a building mostly occupied by locals. He then he met a woman in a good job, married and sorted his visa out. This was before Thailand excluded overstayers. 

 

Both had one thing in common - they blended in and kept a low profile. Both weren't happy, and were looking over their shoulders all the time, dreading getting caught. Not the kind of life I'd choose to lead.

Not too many long overstayers left now. Might be a few lurking out there but the days when there were many of them are gone. A lot of potential overstayers no longer want to face a ban on returning to Thailand. 

 

 I am talking of western overstayers here because they are more conspicuous. Asian overstayers , Burmese , Cambodian and Laotians are another matter since they don't stick out like sore thumbs and can hide amongst the Thai population easier.

They hide away, living a sheltered, restricted life and I would guess, dreading to be caught every minute of the day.  What a miserable way to spend your time. 

The two posts above miss the point. Someone doesn't become an overstayer by walking into immigration and saying that he wants to switch to an "Overstay Visa".  Rather, he was legal at one time, but never bothered to renew.  It is irrelevant whether he speaks Thai, whether he lives in a large community or a small one, or in a house or an apartment.  

"Overstaying" is not permitted. Discussion of such activities is not permitted.

 

 

TOPIC CLOSED.