Got Cheated By The Immigration Police ?

[lucky2103]

Hiya,

this is what happened to my dad, who lives in Pattaya on a one yr retirees visa...

Abt two weeks ago he went to see the doc at Bangkok- Pattaya hospital, as he noted some pain in the prostate area.

After the examination, he was told that he needed to undergo surgery. It wasnt an emergency case, but still pretty urgent, as the surgery had to be carried out within 4 days.

Unfortunately, dads visa was up within that time frame, so he went to the Pattaya immigration at Chomtien beach to get some advice. He was told, that with a proper medical certificate, the obligatory fine for overstaying wud be waived.

Yesterday, after leaving the hospital, he went to the immigration bureau to produce the requested med cert, but was surprised to be fined 6000 Baht for overstaying 12 days.

I wonder if some forum members cud offer some comments to shed light into the darkness...

[sbk]

Moved to the Thai Visas section

///MOVED///

[lopburi3]

I believe the medical certificate allows you to apply for a temporary extension of stay (you get the medical and extend your stay to cover hospital visit - Immigration has in hospital visits to assist in this at some hospitals) - do not believe it forgives overstay.

If he was on a one year extension of stay the normal procedure is to obtain the next extension with 3-4 week remaining on current stay to avoid such last minute problems. As for the what and why can not answer but suspect there was some misunderstanding involved. Am surprised he was not asked to extend when he visited before operation if they were they aware of the type of stay he was on?

[PeaceBlondie]

I'm often mistaken, but I had a similar experience in Chiang Mai and Mae Sai. I had to pay the overstay, even though my doctor's certificate said I was in the hospital until the day my 90 days expired on my multiple entry B visa. It's the only time I found Chiang Mai Immigration to be relatively heartless, but the lady officer did try to give me some advice.

[Mobi]

The only thing to add for others who this may affect is that I know BP hospital has an immigration desk in the hospital - presumably for this purpose. I have noticed there is also one at Bumrungrad in BKK, and no doubt at other international hospitals.

Maybe this is the place to go to get it sorted and avoid paying an overstay fine?

[lucky2103]

Regarding my dads retirees visa, I need to days that altough he got a 1-year permission, he needs do a visa run every 90 days (4x90 days) and that is what was scheduled to happen in the first week of january.

In fact, the visa didnt expire, but a visa run was due.

Sorry for the inexact infos I gave in the first place.

But lopburi3 is right when saying that daddy shud hv apllied for a 30-days extension before the surgery took place, instead of just getting a vague promise from an officer.

[Chopper]

You seem to be a tad confused. A retirement visa does not require a ''visa run'' just a simple report into Immigration every 90 days to fill out a TM47: ''form for alien to notify of staying longer than 90 days.''

He would have needed to do his 90 day reporting or simply applied for an extension on his existing visa whichever was actually required. One would have though Immigration would have advised of and facilitated this for you at the time.

Since you now infer it was 90 day reporting that was due could he not have done this prior to surgery. I believe you can do this one week before the due date.

[Maestro]

Chopper, the way I read the situation after the OP’s last post, his father has a multiple-entry non-O visa. That’s why he has to do a border run every 90 days. In his situation, he could have applied for and received an extension on his 90-day permission to stay for medical reasons, but there must have been a misunderstanding when he went to immigration to inquire about his options.

--

Maestro

[ajahnlau]

Had the same thing happen about 5 yrs. ago at Maesot. Was due for a run after 90 days and ended up in hospital. Overstayed just 2 days. Showed letter and bill from hospital but still had to pay.

[LivinLOS]

Think how easy it is to get a medical cert... No wonder they dont accept them..

I too have seen someone trying this at Ranong.. Had a medical paper and tried to get off overstay.. They were not listening to anything..

[Big A]

Think how easy it is to get a medical cert... No wonder they dont accept them..

I too have seen someone trying this at Ranong.. Had a medical paper and tried to get off overstay.. They were not listening to anything..

Just goes to show; they don't trust their own people or system. What a sad state of affairs!!

[lopburi3]

The procedure is to obtain the medical certificate and apply for an extension of stay. They are accepted. In this case, due to misunderstanding, there was no extension of stay requested, even through there seems to be an immigration desk in the hospital to take care of such requests (from previous post).

[favre360]

When I went to vientiane I tried to leave via KS bus on a saturday but they only had a sunday night bus that left at nine pm. According to the embassy website (at that time) a one day overstay was supposed to be no charge. I arrived at the border at 4am....... I had overstayed 4 hours. I tried to explain to the official who only responded with "do you want to go home?" so I paid the 500b but they will do everything and anything to fine you so you just have to always be on the offensive and never assume anything will be ok.

[lopburi3]

Are you saying "your" Embassy web site provided you false information? Thai Embassies have nothing to do with immigration or overstay so suspect that you are not talking about a Royal Thai Embassy website. If you depart from airport with less than one day overstay there is usually no charge - but if more you pay all days. If you cross a land border you normally pay all days.

[monty]

When I went to vientiane I tried to leave via KS bus on a saturday but they only had a sunday night bus that left at nine pm. According to the embassy website (at that time) a one day overstay was supposed to be no charge. I arrived at the border at 4am....... I had overstayed 4 hours. I tried to explain to the official who only responded with "do you want to go home?" so I paid the 500b but they will do everything and anything to fine you so you just have to always be on the offensive and never assume anything will be ok.

One day overstays at airports are usually not fined. Most probably to accommodate those European outbound flights leaving in the midnight -> 3:00 AM timeframe.

This overstay fine isn't and never has been waived at land borders though!

[sniffdog]

As Lopburi said, the key is to apply BEFORE you start to overstay. More information is on the website of the Pattaya Immigration.

[brahmburgers]

I have an American buddy (K.) who was bedridden in northern Thailand with dengue fever. Thai imm didn't look kindly on his situation and of course fined him for overstay. He paid his fine - has a credit card bill to prove it - but because of a bureaucratic glitch (perhaps the officer pocketed the money?) my friend has been in IDC (In'tl Detention Centre) in Bkk for months. He's doing all he can to clear up the mess, but Thai imm is draggin it's bureaucratic feet.

[PeaceBlondie]

To just clarify my earlier post in this thread: I was at Chiang Mai Ram hospital, and may have known that they have a staff member to handle immigration problems. However, as I was being discharged on my 90th day and had a good letter from the doctor, I thought I could do it myself. In my drugged and confused state, we left the doctor's letter at home and didn't get to Immigration until the last hour of my 90th day. When I returned the next morning, I was already overstayed, and that's probably when you can't technically get an extension. Nonetheless, the high ranking lady officer (after asking to see the wound itself in addition to the Thai doctor's statement) offered to give me an extension for 1,900 baht, the normal fee. Instead, I chose to go to the border and pay for three days overstay.

As I keep saying, you have to know what the immigration officer is thinking, what their regulations or latest imperatives are from the bosses, and how to adapt your situation with those imperatives. Often, we only think like farang.

[lazeeboy]

a freind of mine had to pay for a 6 week over stay even though he had a letter from the hospital showing that he;d been in a coma and spent 2.5 million baht on brain surgery after an accident ....

[wpcoe]

He paid his fine - has a credit card bill to prove it - but because of a bureaucratic glitch (perhaps the officer pocketed the money?) my friend has been in IDC (In'tl Detention Centre) in Bkk for months.

I didn't realize that Thai Immigrations accepted credit cards. Is that true at all locations?

[roskruge]

I also applied for medical extension due to a prostate operation I requested a 30 day extension and was granted it. I think the difference is you cannot go to immigration and request an extension when you are in a situation of days over (visa expired) already. I don’t know if you could get a medical extension before you enter hospital. In my case when I came out of hospital I had a couple of day left on the visa I requested my doctor to give me a letter of unfit to travel for 30 days. Speaking to the immigration doctor he would have been prepared to give me 60 days. Get doctor to write letter in Thai not English, he thought he was being helpful by writing in English.

[Guest]

You need to present a doctors letter stating unfit to travel before the visa/permission to stay expires. From my experience it has not been a problem. If you overstay and then tell immigration they have to work by the rules laid down to them. They will accept a relative or close friend taking the passport and letter to the Imm Off.