A female acquaintance has decided to leave Thailand at the end of this month due to growing dissatisfaction but she is worried about what will happen when she leaves.

She quit her job 2 months ago to start a new job. The previous employer "supposedly" cancelled her work permit although she still has the blue book.

She was planning to work for another company but it all fell through and she was left high and dry.

The visa stamp in her passport says valid until May 30, 2008.

The question is will she get fined for overstay or not. I searched the forum but couldn't find anything.

Any advice on this matter would be appreciated

The blue book should have been hand over to the labour department (http://eng.mol.go.th/), and assuming her extension of stay in Thailand was based on business, the extension should have been canceled, and she should have left the country within 7 days.

Unlike other country, the database of the different agencies are not yet linked (properly).

My experience is that she could leave the country and she will not have any problem at immigration.

If she want to do it properly, she can go back to the previous company or labour department, and explain her case.

In that case, she may be fined for overstay.

Edited March 17, 200818 yr by singa-traz

The blue book should have been hand over to the labour department (http://eng.mol.go.th/), and assuming her extension of stay in Thailand was based on business, the extension should have been canceled, and she should have left the country within 7 days.

Unlike other country, the database of the different agencies are not yet linked (properly).

My experience is that she could leave the country and she will not have any problem at immigration.

If she want to do it properly, she can go back to the previous company or labour department, and explain her case.

In that case, she may be fined for overstay.

The above post assumes that your friend has a visa extension for work obtained from her local Immigration Dept.

If your friend is not on a visa extension but instead has a passport border entry 90 day stamp based on a non immigrant B visa, then the entry stamp is still valid and she has until May 30th to leave Thailand.

The Work Permit (Blue Book) must always be handed back to Labour when the employment is terminated, or there is a fine.

She had to have been on an extension of stay. If her permitted to stay stamp says May 30 and she quit her job 2 months ago, that would make it around 150 days between when she quit and her permitted to stay stamp. Only way to do that is to be on an extension.

So she has been on overstay since 7 days after she quit her job.

Edited March 17, 200818 yr by jstumbo

She had to have been on an extension of stay. If her permitted to stay stamp says May 30 and she quit her job 2 months ago, that would make it around 150 days between when she quit and her permitted to stay stamp. Only way to do that is to be on an extension.

So she has been on overstay since 7 days after she quit her job.

The original poster mentions a 'visa stamp' this could be a border stamp with 'admitted until' rather than an immigration extension stamp with 'permitted to stay'

Border entry on a 1 year multiple entry non B is quite posssible, since this class of visa is valid for entry/stay to the Kingdom of Thailand even when you are not currently employed here.

As jstumbo says she must have an extension of stay if she has not done a visa run since end of employment. Which would mean she has been on overstay since the end of employment (extension ends at end of employment).

She has been here already for more than 5 years and so the extension stamp is the last of many 12 month extensions she received.

Still the question is will she be fined for overstay when she leaves or is it hit and miss?

She has been here already for more than 5 years and so the extension stamp is the last of many 12 month extensions she received.

Still the question is will she be fined for overstay when she leaves or is it hit and miss?

A friend of mine was in the same situation (forgot to hand over the blue book, and to cancel the Extension of Stay), it was corrected when he joined a new company without problem (the new and old company were cooperating on this). In the meantime, he managed to leave and come back in Thailand without problem (10 years ago).

If she decide to leave Thailand, there is a high chance that the immigration will not know that her Work Permit has been canceled, and that her Extension of Stay should have been canceled as well.

In Singapore, the immigration knows if your Work Permit (Employment Pass) is still valid or not.