Overstay During Airport Closure, At Landborder Pay Full!

[ALFREDO]

I bought for me, mid Nov. a Internet Eva Air ticket for 24.11. to Vienna.

My whole Thai family and me fell sick than, so I changed my flight to 1.12.

And to overstay for a week as I was sick and that was cheaper than to go out of country to apply for a visa.

I had used up all other possibilitys already.

Than on 25./26.11. the Airports closed.

Until 16.12. there were no regular flights, only waiting lists or later no regular non stop flights to Vienna.

The check In in BITEC I wanted to avoid also.

Only overcrowded Odysse style flights,

Bangk-Dubai-Amsterdam-Vienna.

So I went for one of the first regular non stop flights to Vienna, a 20.12. Flight.

Recognicing now the new Immigration laws, as, no 90 days in 180 days law,

I changed my mind again and.went for the 15 day Visa run to the Nong Khai border.

I thought that I will have to pay Overstay from 25.11-26.11. Or 1.12.

But, a one legged officer in the Overstay office at the Nong Khai border, said I have to go to the Airport to speak about my problem and my thinking.

In his office I had to pay full and handed me my flight confirmations back. He said.

When I spoke with my girlfriend and my son about that decision, the officer said. Shut up!

So I paid 11.500.- B.

Thank you friendly? Thailand!

,

.

[taxexile]

a one legged officer in the Overstay office at the Nong Khai border,said

you dont have a leg to stand on , so pay up.

[sbk]

Your flight out was for the 24th, after which you had overstayed. Seems to me the Immigration officer looked at your decision to miss your scheduled flight and saw that you had decided to overstay. The airport closure was not the initial cause of your overstay.

As for being told to "shut up", yes indeed, very rude but I have to wonder what prompted that behavior from the officer?

[ubonjoe]

You would of paid the same at the airport.

Waiver of overstay was only good if you had proof of a flight out from Nov. 26 onward until the airport re-opened.

If you have a Thai family member you could of went to immigration and gotten a 60 day extension.

[PoorSucker]

I you are sick you can get extension "medical reason".

[ALFREDO]

To your replys,

I do not know if a flu is enough to get a stay on medical reasons. Isaan got cold at that time and my children 1 and 4 years my Thai girlfriend and me felt not well.

I wanted to Overstay a week and the

3.500.- I had to pay than, ok for me.

So, I had a reservation for 24.11.

And I had changed that and could show that, to 1.12.

And on that date it was not possible to fly and later only with problems in U TAPAO or with a BITEC check in and no non stop flights I paid for!

So I waited and get punished for the Thai problems, had to pay nearly 3 weeks Overstay more!

I could proof that I had a ticket for 112. So they should let me pay 1 week, not much more!

After that week it was not my fault.

And if I would have known from that new 15 days Visas on arrival and that it is suitable for me, I would have used that possibilty earlyer.

What made CAPTAIN AHAB (the one legged captain in Moby Dick) angry,

Maybe that he has that problem and

I think its his style to be pissed of.

What I said to my girlfriend?

I said, If they make it difficult in Thailand for me to like it here, maybe the Thai Goverment will give you and your children money and take care you and all.

I also not married, I not think I can get a 60 day extention for family reasons.

It will not change something,

(How Thaksin said, -just ignore them!) but I will write to the TAT and the Immigration in BKK.

[Eff1n2ret]

I think that if the officer in Nong Khai is made aware of your insulting references to his disability, you won't be coming back to Thailand again.

[ALFREDO]

There is not one reason to be friendly with that officer now, he was unfriendly from the first second to the last!

When you get hit on your cheek and offer your other cheek for the next hit, than you are free to do so.

He misbehaved, as you shout into the woods, same the shouting will come back to you.

You had to be in that office at that time, than you understand.

Enough that I backed down after I had to shut up.

I overstayed a week! Every other day is not my fault!.

He handelt me, same I am the bad guy of the month. No reason for that.

Sorry that you have nothing else in your mind and to say.

I usualy write in the German

www.tip-forum.de and there its sometime not possible to get a normal

reasonable respond. Here, in thaivisa, I thought its better, until you wrote me.

I have 3 children with 2 Thai women and I take care them, with houses and cars and education. Millions ran and run to Chayaphum and Udon.

I deserve better than that incident yesterday.

So you like that guy and how he behaved?

Than I speak with his words which you maybe like, SHUT UP!

Feels good? Now give me your other cheek!

[jdinasia]

Alfredo --- you chose to break the law in the first place. Simple. End of story.

[2008bangkok]

Alfredo --- you chose to break the law in the first place. Simple. End of story.

Yep i would agree, the fact you overstayed before the airport fiasco is up to you..its just very unlucky that during that time the airport was out of action therefore forceing you to overstay more days....

[Krub]

Never overstay by choice

Stay legal within the rules

[ubonjoe]

I also not married, I not think I can get a 60 day extention for family reasons.

If you have a child with a Thai woman and your name is on the birth certificate you can get an extension. You do not need to be married. You can get a one time 60 day extension to visit your child or a 1 year extension to live with your child.

See 2.24 for 60 day and 2.18 for 1 year extensions of this police order.

Link: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/post-a70477-New-Immigration-Rules-November-2008.html

Also you can use having a child as the basis for getting a non immigrant O visa at a Thai consulate.

[Patriciachas]

To your replys,

I do not know if a flu is enough to get a stay on medical reasons. Isaan got cold at that time and my children 1 and 4 years my Thai girlfriend and me felt not well.

I wanted to Overstay a week and the

3.500.- I had to pay than, ok for me.

So, I had a reservation for 24.11.

And I had changed that and could show that, to 1.12.

And on that date it was not possible to fly and later only with problems in U TAPAO or with a BITEC check in and no non stop flights I paid for!

So I waited and get punished for the Thai problems, had to pay nearly 3 weeks Overstay more!

I could proof that I had a ticket for 112. So they should let me pay 1 week, not much more!

After that week it was not my fault.

And if I would have known from that new 15 days Visas on arrival and that it is suitable for me, I would have used that possibilty earlyer.

What made CAPTAIN AHAB (the one legged captain in Moby Dick) angry,

Maybe that he has that problem and

I think its his style to be pissed of.

What I said to my girlfriend?

I said, If they make it difficult in Thailand for me to like it here, maybe the Thai Goverment will give you and your children money and take care you and all.

I also not married, I not think I can get a 60 day extention for family reasons.

It will not change something,

(How Thaksin said, -just ignore them!) but I will write to the TAT and the Immigration in BKK.

Just read your own reply,you will have your own answers you are the problem and as for insulting the immigration officers disability you should be ashamed of yourself.

[ALFREDO]

-UBONJOE-

Thank you, I will check what you sent me.

Until now, the Thai Embassy in Vienna, last time, a year ago always told me a child or 3 children, as I have change nothing.

And i get there only a Tourist Visa.

Children have my Family name and I am as father asigned in the birthpapers of my 3 boys.

To the others,

Continue to be sheepish,

go every Sunday to church,

sing and pray there,

read the Bible,

obey the law at all time,

than the world will be a better place

and a wolf same me has more room to do his sins!

[ubonjoe]

-UBONJOE-

Thank you, I will check what you sent me.

Until now, the Thai Embassy in Vienna, last time, a year ago always told me a child or 3 children, as I have change nothing.

And i get there only a Tourist Visa.

Children have my Family name and I am as father asigned in the birthpapers of my 3 boys.

You might show them this from their own website.

- other activities (Category "O") as follows:

to stay with the family, to perform duties for the state enterprise or social welfare organizations,

to stay after retirement for the elderly, to receive medical treatment, to be a sport coach as

required by Thai Government, to be a contestant or witness for the judicial process.

It's on page 4 of this document.

Link: http://www.thaiembassy.at/images/stories/e...20OF%20VISA.pdf

Edited December 19, 2008 by ubonjoe

[ALFREDO]

'ubonjoe'

Thank you for your Info. and help.

If you ever come to Udon T. or Chayaphum-Chumphe or Phuket let me now.

Would be a pleasure for me to meet you.

Thanks again, Alfred

[neverdie]

Alf,

If your usual language is to write in German then your english has impressed me. I understand many people from Germany & other European countries can read, write and speak many languages.....its very clever, something us Aussies don't genrally do.

Which language did you communicate with this officer in?

It's not nice when someone speaks rudely, I can understand you are not happy about that I hope you can let it go & I hope next time you get someone a bit more pleasant. What some of the posters here are doing is, assuming that you have caused this officer to be upset....of course it could of been any number of people that upset him that day.

Perhaps you can look at what other visas you are entitled too, im no expert about them, but theres heaps of experienced guys on TV that can help, because if you get a better visa you wont have to go near the border crossings as much, if at all.

Goodluck & seasons greetings

[abdulrahman]

We all love to complain,we expat I mean,it's a different country,a different way of thinking and acting,we should take that into account,right?

It's THEYR country,we are allowed to stay here on sufferance!

This is clear to most of us,to the point that many responses on ThaiVisa are:you don't like it,go home!

But sometimes we have a real ground for our whining,as in the OP case,try to understand his plea.

Ubonjoe trys to help,in a very difficult situation,don't know how much help he can give,the attitude of the Imm. Police and of the Thai Foreign Ministry is something not easy to comprehend,and,true,many Farangs get excited when fronted by a problem,however small,that cannot be resolved on the spot.

All that said,the Imm.Police officers are mostly unfriendly,the laws are written by a bunch of monkeys,and changed by every new Commissioner only to show that he's doing something,right or wrong who cares?not the Thais,for sure,they are so brainwashed that they accept everything coming from a higher Authority.

Rant finished,sorry.

[tracer]

Alfredo, I donot see where you went to immigration..

Can make a big difference sometimes. Anyway, most of the civil servants anywhere will be willing to help is it saves them a headache and that can be done by asking a question politely and quietly (ie not when there are a few hundred people maybe pestering them all day...).

The sooner one gets out of that 200000 or 300000 people group, the better.

Immigration CAN extend a visum when they want or not when they donot want...

AND, every one of their customers they work out of a line waiting with similar questions, the better for them.

I myself stay in Phuket and while I see many people complaining, they really never gave me a bad time extending the visa.

Never been asked to pay extra either...

But at start of high season (which likely this year will not come anyway) and many people stuck you arent going to find Immigration in the best of moods!!

Looking back what you write, you likely should have visited them when the shutdown started and ask for a month extension.

Costs money but you are more flexible as it even allows you to check with EVA air for flights from Singapore/KL to Austria..

[ALFREDO]

-neverdie-

Thank you for the compliments and the roses for my language skills.

In school, I was lazy, so I still do not know a lot of vocabularys.

My mother took me than with her on many trips, she travelled a lot and later I kept that passion for traveling and in doing that, I get to know more English.

I am an Austrian, in Thailand, always a

....oh, you are Australien.

No! I Austrian! ....ok, what? Where is that?

With the officer I spoke English, in Thai I can not really communicate, speak only some words.

-abdulrahman-. -tracer-

No big problem, solved now, the border I went was Nong Khai-Vientiane (Laos)

I went directly to the border, maybe I should have gone to the Immigration office in Nong Khai, there, as I knew is also a angry faced senior officer, I wanted to avoid. Maybe wrong decision, but now to late.

Thanks to all for writing.

[neverdie]

-neverdie-

Thank you for the compliments and the roses for my language skills.

In school, I was lazy, so I still do not know a lot of vocabularys.

My mother took me than with her on many trips, she travelled a lot and later I kept that passion for traveling and in doing that, I get to know more English.

I am an Austrian, in Thailand, always a

....oh, you are Australien.

No! I Austrian! ....ok, what? Where is that?

With the officer I spoke English, in Thai I can not really communicate, speak only some words.

-abdulrahman-. -tracer-

No big problem, solved now, the border I went was Nong Khai-Vientiane (Laos)

I went directly to the border, maybe I should have gone to the Immigration office in Nong Khai, there, as I knew is also a angry faced senior officer, I wanted to avoid. Maybe wrong decision, but now to late.

Thanks to all for writing.

Alf,

You made me laugh, I'm an Australian and when the thais ask me where I'm from I always get the opposite to you, I get, "aahhh Austria" I say, "No Australia"...always helps if i mention the jin joe (Kangaroo).

Anyway, communication can make difficult situations much more difficult. I recently met a frenchman, who was travelling in Australia, he could speak english, french, german, italian, thai and a few others. He lives between thailand and france, the bit that got me was he was apparently fluent in all the languges, read and write the whole lot.

Anyway, I'm not that gifted, my thai is all over the shop, i also learnt some arabic as I had a stint in the middle east, but that stuff tears my throat out. Alright, I understand about Nong khai, ive went through there a few years ago. The thing I have learnt about this place (thailand) is to always expect the unexpected & when something first appears difficult just remind yourself, somehow these situations can nearly always become even more difficult or perhaps easier>>>>I think it all depends where the moon is?

Cheers to you!

[EmU]

You might show them this from their own website.

- other activities (Category "O") as follows:

to stay with the family, to perform duties for the state enterprise or social welfare organizations,

to stay after retirement for the elderly, to receive medical treatment, to be a sport coach as

required by Thai Government, to be a contestant or witness for the judicial process.

It's on page 4 of this document.

Link: http://www.thaiembassy.at/images/stories/e...20OF%20VISA.pdf

While I was living in phuket ,where I lived for about 4yrs ,an older man was attacked beaten and robbed while while riding his motorcycle home one night during the attack he was hit in the head with a machetty and was hospitalised for about a week ,he was due to do his visa run to Ranong the day after the attack, he was assured by the hospital that if he took their reports and the police reports with him he would not have to pay the overstay so he went to the border armed with all the paperwork but the imm.officer refused to read the reports and made him pay the overstay so it seems that what is stated in the law doesn't mean a thing.

[yamaharr1]

While I was living in phuket ,where I lived for about 4yrs ,an older man was attacked beaten and robbed while while riding his motorcycle home one night during the attack he was hit in the head with a machetty and was hospitalised for about a week ,he was due to do his visa run to Ranong the day after the attack, he was assured by the hospital that if he took their reports and the police reports with him he would not have to pay the overstay so he went to the border armed with all the paperwork but the imm.officer refused to read the reports and made him pay the overstay so it seems that what is stated in the law doesn't mean a thing.

Unfortunately it was correct for the immigration officer not to take the papers, this poor unfortunate soul was supposed to go to the Bangkok immigration office and get the medical approval and then he would have been OK at the boarder.

Well looking at the bright side, at least he survived to go to the boarder and have the problem with the immigration, because being hit in the head with a machete could have had a much different outcome.

Another thing he could have done was go to the police station and press charges on the person and even if he didn't know who the person was he could have gotten the overstay fixed and 90 extensions until the perpetrator was arrested and the courts give a ruling.

The only reason I know about that rule is because my brother was walking out of a 7-11 one night and one of the street vendors who was drunk into oblivion stabbed him 3 times twice through the lings and he has been on this kind of visa for almost a year now.

[pothai]

I just took someone to the airport. They were due to fly 27/11 as the airport was closed they couldnt and their airline couldnt get them on a flight until 27/12.....they had a ten day overstay with proof of flights for the day the airport was closed....they got charged 5,000 baht. How many others have been charged due to no fault of their own

[ALFREDO]

Pothai,

thank you for your Posting, it convinces me, that I had a good chance to pay at the Airport also.

And, that the Immigration was and is not easy going with that Airport desaster and plunder.

They want to get theire money to fill the funds!

[jdinasia]

ALFREDO--

again you CHOSE to be on overstay BEFORE the situation at the airport and then chose to make a border run instead of the flight out. Why blame someone else for your choices?

[beechguy]

I just took someone to the airport. They were due to fly 27/11 as the airport was closed they couldnt and their airline couldnt get them on a flight until 27/12.....they had a ten day overstay with proof of flights for the day the airport was closed....they got charged 5,000 baht. How many others have been charged due to no fault of their own

What airline was that? Most airlines were able to clear their backlog in a few days. I was supposed to leave 1 December, could have departed on the 9th, but opted to wait until the 11th. Fortunately, overstay didn't become issue.

[Junglejumbo]

Nongkhai immigration can be difficult at times, especially outgoing.

I can well imagine the Nongkhai police not really being fully in touch with the airport closures, because they will just think that Nongkhai border was always open so why you can't make your way to Nong-khai before when you eventually did?

They won't sympathise with you unless the waiver for the airport days is an official law which it never was. Blame the old and new governments for this. The police issued a mention (via the tourism minister, i think) to not charge for overstaying for all flights leaving during the closure.

However, it wasn't legislation and your flight wasn't during that date as other writers point out. From my experience of Nong-Khai you would certainly be fined for this by any of the officers there regardless of how many legs they may have.

Your best hope, was to show a change in ticket date to that during the closure and head to the airport where the officers are a bit more with it.

[Mario2008]

The no overstay fine is published on the immigration website: www.immigration.go.th first page. Not what i will call just an anouncement.

Edit:

Till yesterday it was even on the front page.

Edited December 29, 2008 by Mario2008

[ALFREDO]

Some did not understand my point of view.

1. Yes, I decided to overstay, because I felt sick, had a flu, also my children and my GF and I was lazy to go to the Vientiane Thai embassy to make a new Visa which I had to do under the law, as far as I new it.

From the new 15 days all the time Visaruns, I had no knowledge. So, I was willing to pay the 7 day 3.500.- B. fine.

2. I had a valid ticket for 24.11. I changed that on 23.11. to 1.12. so in the timeframe of the Airport problems.

I could proof that, but the officer at Nong Khai immigration did not look my papers I brought. He was uninterested!

3. Later I changed to one of the first available flights which went Non Stop to Vienna, same I had booked.

4. I would say, they should have me let pay the 1 week overstay until 1.12. and than as it was not my wrongdoing,

but the PAD's,

I should not have been charged for the longer overstay. I would have flown out on 1.12. without the Airport closure!

5. When I noticed the new law with the 15 days visaruns without limitation, I went fror it.

Maybe the outcome on the Airport would have been different.

Anyway, I still in Thailand, make now 15 day borderruns and fly to Vienna 15.1. or later in Jan.

The Immigration officer in Nong Khai was a really unfriendly man. With another officer the outcome would have been probably different.