A few days ago Bangkok Post published a Letter from an Irate Thai complaining that friends of his had to pay Rs1900 for a Visa Extension.

Today (Monday) there are some responses.

One recommending it will be cheaper to pay an overstay fine for a few days.

Can someone post those letters here for us to Discuss please?

And can someone get a Warning about overstaying published in the Readers Letters – one of our Members works there?

Roger

A few days ago Bangkok Post published a Letter from an Irate Thai complaining that friends of his had to pay Rs1900 for a Visa Extension.

Today (Monday) there are some responses.

One recommending it will be cheaper to pay an overstay fine for a few days.

Can someone post those letters here for us to Discuss please?

And can someone get a Warning about overstaying published in the Readers Letters – one of our Members works there?

Roger

1900 baht

One recommending it will be cheaper to pay an overstay fine for a few days.

god, those handcuffs must hurt if you get caught

I was once recomended by some jobs worth in Pattaya immigration office to overstay and pay fine at airport rather than him have to go to the trouble of extending my visa due to sickness and this was all of 8 weeks ago. You can imagine my diplomatic response asking that he put that in writing and then confirm it in front of his boss . Funny enough he extended my visa their and then.

I was once recomended by some jobs worth in Pattaya immigration office to overstay and pay fine at airport rather than him have to go to the trouble of extending my visa due to sickness and this was all of 8 weeks ago. You can imagine my diplomatic response asking that he put that in writing and then confirm it in front of his boss . Funny enough he extended my visa their and then.

And quite predictably too.

Today, Wednesday 7/704, some replies appeared in the letter's section,

warning against the overstay subject.

Sorry, cannot open Bangkok Post on the Web and registration too time consuming.

Sorry, cannot open Bangkok Post on the Web and registration too time consuming.

Try this id and password from Bugmenot.com:

vorsace

129887018

Today, Wednesday 7/704, some replies appeared in the letter's section,

warning against the overstay subject.

Sorry, cannot open Bangkok Post on the Web and registration too time consuming.

here are the two items in the Postbag of BKK Post of today which Axel is talking about.

opalhort

----copy from http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/07Jul2004_news23.php ---

Overstay could cost over 200 baht/day...

Your correspondent Graham Gill (Postbag, July 5) advises the holders of 30-day visas issued on arrival in the kingdom not to bother extending at immigration offices as they can more cheaply pay the overstay fine at the airport or border post as they are leaving the country.

Although the advice is OK as long as you actually make it to the airport or border post without being found out, foreigners overstaying risk being jailed and deported under guard if they are caught. For example, you could be asked to show your passport to the police if you happen to be involved in an accident or are a witness to a crime.

In a recent case I happen to know of personally, a foreigner used his passport with an obsolete visa to claim his cash at a Western Union bank. Unbeknown to him, the teller called the police in view of the overstay.

It's a crime under Thai law to overstay. To argue that it doesn't matter as long as you pay a fine on leaving the country is a recipe for trouble.

Barry Kenyon, Chon Buri

... It really is not worth the risk

In his letter published in the Bangkok Post of July 5, under the heading "It makes no sense to get an extension", Graham Gill suggests that visitors who wish to stay longer than the time granted when they arrive in Thailand should simply pay the overstay fine of 200 baht per day, which is levied when they leave the country.

May I point out that, by doing so, a person is violating the Thai immigration rules by being in the country without official authority? If such a person's passport comes to the attention of the police or immigration officials, he can be arrested and jailed. The offender's excuse that he fully intended to pay the overstay fine upon departure from Thailand would not, I suspect, excuse him from punishment.

I accept that if the overstayer does not come to any sort of official attention then all that he will need to do is pay a 200 baht per day fine at his point of departure. But is it worth the risk?

In any case, if a person can afford the considerable expense of a 30-plus day holiday in Thailand, then surely he can afford the small extra expense of a 1,900 baht visa extension?

Oliver W. Minto, Chon Buri

---------end of copy -----------

Thats a usefull little tool thaihome,thks

tks Thaihome for the bugmenot, worked, and Opalhort, tks for the print out.

I am not too lazy, but at home going on a dial-up takes hours to find something in BKK-Post, office with ADSL is fine but the Post's layout? .