From the Australian DFAT website- Travel Advisories.

Avoid individuals advertising visa extension services, as they may stamp passports with fake or illegally obtained exit and entry stamps. Australians with illegal stamps in their passports can be arrested and jailed for up to ten years. Thai authorities have said they will vigorously prosecute these criminal offences.

Overstaying your visa in Thailand is considered a very serious offence and may result in prolonged arrest and detention. Travellers who overstay entry permits may not be allowed to leave Thailand until a fine is paid. The fine is currently 500 Baht per day, up to a maximum of 20,000 baht. If you can not afford to pay the overstay fine you may be arrested, taken to court, charged with a visa offence, and required to serve a lengthy prison sentence in lieu of the fine. Travellers who have overstayed their visas may be imprisoned, deported and placed on an immigration blacklist to prevent from them returning to Thailand.

One of the first things I learned about the Thai visa system is that if your passport goes somewhere, you better be going with it or it is not legal.

Any dodgey dealings regarding your passport /visa extensions you are considering because you are unable to stay in Thailand due to not having the right paperwork etc is suspect and dangerous.

There are plenty of "businesses" advertising visa / permit extensions for a fee - use them at your peril, if YOU can't extend or YOU don't have the legal right to a visa extension, what ever is done on your behalf could be highly illegal.

We just had a report of a guy who trusted his passport to such an agency, and his passport now looks very dodgy. That's when you're in a worse predicament, because we cannot advise (further) illegal remedies to resolve the first infraction. So, don't do it in the first place.

From the Australian DFAT website- Travel Advisories.

Avoid individuals advertising visa extension services, as they may stamp passports with fake or illegally obtained exit and entry stamps. Australians with illegal stamps in their passports can be arrested and jailed for up to ten years. Thai authorities have said they will vigorously prosecute these criminal offences.

Overstaying your visa in Thailand is considered a very serious offence and may result in prolonged arrest and detention. Travellers who overstay entry permits may not be allowed to leave Thailand until a fine is paid. The fine is currently 500 Baht per day, up to a maximum of 20,000 baht. If you can not afford to pay the overstay fine you may be arrested, taken to court, charged with a visa offence, and required to serve a lengthy prison sentence in lieu of the fine. Travellers who have overstayed their visas may be imprisoned, deported and placed on an immigration blacklist to prevent from them returning to Thailand.

Jailed for ten years.

This sounds a bit like the copyright warning at the beginning of a DVD video.

The difference between the DVD and the Passport scenarios is that in the latter case the authorities are already in possession of both the Passport and YOU.

From the Australian DFAT website- Travel Advisories.

Avoid individuals advertising visa extension services, as they may stamp passports with fake or illegally obtained exit and entry stamps. Australians with illegal stamps in their passports can be arrested and jailed for up to ten years. Thai authorities have said they will vigorously prosecute these criminal offences.

Overstaying your visa in Thailand is considered a very serious offence and may result in prolonged arrest and detention. Travellers who overstay entry permits may not be allowed to leave Thailand until a fine is paid. The fine is currently 500 Baht per day, up to a maximum of 20,000 baht. If you can not afford to pay the overstay fine you may be arrested, taken to court, charged with a visa offence, and required to serve a lengthy prison sentence in lieu of the fine. Travellers who have overstayed their visas may be imprisoned, deported and placed on an immigration blacklist to prevent from them returning to Thailand.

The best thing is to go home to your own country and get the visa done there, and you are sure that everything is ok.

But if you can not go home, you should go to an immigration office and get the Passport done. There are no other ways. You can go to a 3. country and apply, but why do that.

If you are married or have children in Thailand you are qualified for a one year visa, from the Thai Embassy in your own country, it will cost you between 100 to 200 US dollar, and you save you self for trouble and monye with these sputid agency, one thing is sure, if you can not get a visa by your own they can not do it for you.

The difference between the DVD and the Passport scenarios is that in the latter case the authorities are already in possession of both the Passport and YOU.

Yes, but they're the same in that they both offer over-the-top threats that would never actually happen in reality.

I have removed several posts and the posters should well know that if they have a question on moderator decisions the place to do that with using PM directly to moderators or Admin. We have acted in a responsible manner protecting the rights of all posters - in this case the poster read all posts and received the information he was asking for - we can not go beyond that for an explanation. The basic fact is that if you passport leaves Thailand to obtain a Thai visa you should be with it. This thread is closed.