Visa exempt and overstay

[Sanookmike]

If you enter Thailand on visa exempt and leave on the day after the printed admitted until date via the airport, is it true they will just waive the fee and not put a overstay stamp in your passport? 

 

I don't plan on ever overstaying but someone told me this today and it doesnt seem right to me, I thought that they only waived it if for example your admitted unit date is say 30th Oct and you have a red eye flight in the early hours of the 31st Oct. 

[Sanookmike]

bump.

 

I take it no one is 100% on this either... 

[ukrules]

Well I did a one day overstay once and that's what happened, there was no fine and I didn't get an overstay stamp in the passport but it was quite a few years ago, maybe 7 or 8 years back.

 

That's the way it was always done, however the law regarding overstays changed a few years back.

 

I suggest you wait for additional information from people who've done a 1 day overstay this year and disregard anything else as potentially out of date including what I said above about how it always was.

 

[MajorTom]

I tried this and got fined and stamped for a one day overstay. I was only over by 5 or 6 hours when i passed immigration.

This was in 2017 at Phuket International.

[jackdd]

You get a stamp saying something like "left Thailand not more than 24 hours too late" instead of a real overstay stamp.

[Lite Beer]

No fine but some kind of stamp in your passport.

[ubonjoe]

If you leave from either airport in Bangkok with a one day overstay you will not be fined for a one day overstay.

Some odd airports and border crossings might fine you.

 

[millymoopoo]

15 hours ago, Sanookmike said:

I thought that they only waived it if for example your admitted unit date is say 30th Oct and you have a red eye flight in the early hours of the 31st Oct.

I was once (2015 I think), by only about 6 hours (early morning flight out) and yes, no fine but did get an overstay stamp, which of course I completely ignored, but undoubtedly was entered into their computer.

New passport now, no stamp and IOs have never hassled me about it either.

I imagine if you accumulate several overstays they may get a bit snooty.

[BritTim]

Known knowns:

1. The overstay rules have nothing to do with whether you entered visa exempt. They are based purely on the expiry date of your permission to stay.
2. If you are fined, there will always be a stamp reflecting this in your passport.
3. If you are leaving by land with any overstay, you will be fined..
4. An overstay of two or more days will always be penalised by a fine.
5. If leaving Thailand via either Suvarnabhumi or Don Muang on a flight departing less than 24 hours after expiry of your permission to stay, you will not be fined.

Known unknowns:

1. If leaving from an airport other than the Bangkok airports, you may or may not be fined when your flight is leaving within 24 hours on the expiry of your permission to stay. Most often, you will be.
2. When a fine is waived for a one-day overstay, it varies as to whether immigration decide to memorialise the overstay with a stamp in your passport.

Unknown unknowns

1. How any individual immigration official will react to a situation where you are passing through airport immigration several hours early early to try to avoid a fine  Probably, most officials will take pity and let you pass, but some may decide (correctly) that you should be fined.
2. Whether very short overstays (whether or not you are fined) could have any repercussions in the future.

Overstay advice : do not do it. Immigration has become more and more serious about overstays over the years.

[Hanuman2547]

I would advise to not overstay.  I once overstayed by one day about 5-6 years ago.  They did not fine me or stamp my passport indicating that I overstayed.  

[chocolatesound1]

I had a 2am flight at BKK in 2019 that made me over stay by a day. I tried to get through immigration before midnight but couldn't get through before 12:30. They pulled me to the side to get a different stamp but it didn't say overstay. They didn't fine me nor did they say anything.

[hamleknoi]

I've done this 3 or 4 times over the last 5 years and there's never been a fine at either BKK or DMK.