Stolen Passport Overstayed Visa

[jstumbo]

I also have

to agree with crossy's comments, against the spirit of the law.

What does the immigration law say? Does it say that a person can only be here 90 days in a 6 month period, or that a passport can only be here that long. If it is a person, then it does not matter how many passports you have, it would be illegal to use them to circumvent the 90 day rule.

[jstumbo]

Now if that person, got out of Thailand and presented themselves at the British Embassy in say, Singapore, then they would only have Singapore to deal with. The British Embassy is not going to trawl them back through Malaysia to Thailand to answer overstay questions there are they ?

Only have to deal with Singapore? A country where they cane you for grafitti? Not sure if that would be a place I would go illegally. I think he would only be compounding his problems. You suggest he says he came on a boat? A new passport, with no stamps in it at all?

[roietjimmy]

Yep I do it too (two British passports)

Two British Passports? Is that legal? I never heard of a country that alows you to have more than one passport. Sure you can have passports from multiple countries, but two from the same country?

As for this guys problem. Sure if he showed up at the airport, he would probably just pay the 20K and leave. Problem is that he does not have a passport, then when he gets the passport, he does not have an entry stamp. He has to deal with all these before he gets to the airport. And that is where he is going to wind up in trouble, when he tries to get the entry stamp from immigration.

There was a time when I had 3 US passports. All legally obtained. My business involved a lot of travel and to avoid "problems" at various immigration points, I used alternate passports. Example, if I used a passport with a Greek stamp and entered Turkey, I was going to have a great hassle at Turkish immigration. Same was true for Isreal and just about any other Mideast country. Taiwan and China had the same problem years back. Must say it got pretty darn confusing making sure I used the right passport at the right time. Had to resort to a small note in each passport listing countries not to use it in!!

Edited September 28, 2007 by roietjimmy

[lopburi3]

Yep I do it too (two British passports)

Two British Passports? Is that legal? I never heard of a country that alows you to have more than one passport. Sure you can have passports from multiple countries, but two from the same country?

As for this guys problem. Sure if he showed up at the airport, he would probably just pay the 20K and leave. Problem is that he does not have a passport, then when he gets the passport, he does not have an entry stamp. He has to deal with all these before he gets to the airport. And that is where he is going to wind up in trouble, when he tries to get the entry stamp from immigration.

It is legal. Businessmen/reporters and such often require multiple passports to obtain visas for the next destination. They can also be different types of passport as those with diplomatic or official passports will often have a tourist passport for personal travel (some countries have less restrictive entry for tourists than diplomats).

[Crossy]

Yep I do it too (two British passports)

Two British Passports? Is that legal? I never heard of a country that alows you to have more than one passport. Sure you can have passports from multiple countries, but two from the same country?

Most definately, they are issued to frequent travellers who may need to travel whilst their passport is away having a visa installed or for travel to 'incompatible' countries, a good friend (my ex-boss) has three.

This came up a little while back, I got mine some years ago so I emailed the British Embassy to check that you can still obtain additional passports, this is their reply (from Jane Elton, Vice Consul):-

Dear Mr Xxxxxxx

It is still possible to obtain a second passport. You can apply here and the cost/requirements are exactly the same as for a replacement passport. Please see our website for details www.britishembassy.gov.uk/thailand

In addition you will need to provide a letter from your company explaining your need for a second passport and the type of travel that you undertake.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Jane

Vice Consul

[david96]

Why did he not report his passport lost or stolen within a reasonable time and paid a visit to his embassy? Unless he has something to hide. He will be asked a lot of questions by his embassy and if they do not give him a replacement passport he will be most likely be given a Document of Identity so he can return to his home country. And then there is his overstay problem which he will have to fix.