Phuket Immigration Missed 18,000 Overstay...part 1

[Projectpaperclip]

Earlier this year I had a mixup on my marriage visa... normally when you have the marriage visa you have to go in every three months to the immigration and let them know you are still living at the same address and fill out some forms and then you're good to go. The fourth time I went in to update my address I was under the assumption that might marriage visa was also finished and would need to be renewed. I sat down at the table and updated my address and then asked him what else was necessary to continue my stay in Thailand. They said nothing else was necessary and said I needed to come back in three more months to update my address. There it was stamped in my passport ... comeback in 90 days... I asked the guy one more time if there was anything else I needed to do and he said no, thank you, goodbye, next person please.

I was under the assumption that something more needed to be done but after the immigration man telling me nothing more was needed I went home thinking I needed to come back in 90 days.

36 days later days later I needed to renew my Thailand drivers license and when they looked at my passport they said that my visa was expired and that I had an overstay of 36 days already.

I did the math quickly in my head 36 days... 18,000 baht. I argued with them briefly showing them the stamp but they didn't care because that was just my address update stamp and had nothing to do with my visa ( news to me . )

Of course no amount of explaining or complaining could reverse my screwup so I booked a flight down to Malaysia immediately. When I checked in to air Asia the lady looked at my passport and and said I had a seven-day overstay... ..... I put on my poker face and said "yes... sorry about that"... she escorted me to the immigration where they promptly charged me 3500 baht instead of 18,000.

I could barely contain my excitement about saving 14,500 baht as the immigration officer completed all of my paperwork. As I boarded the plane I was thinking this was probably the first time a foreigner had gotten the positive side of one of these immigration screw ups.

has this happened to anyone else?

[lopburi3]

Without a rundown of the dates it is hard to confirm - normally you make application about 30 days before your extension of stay would start and that counts as your first address report - but your one year stay starts at the end of your current permitted to stay stamp - so airport could have been right.

[jb5music]

Earlier this year I had a mixup on my marriage visa... normally when you have the marriage visa you have to go in every three months to the immigration and let them know you are still living at the same address and fill out some forms and then you're good to go. The fourth time I went in to update my address I was under the assumption that might marriage visa was also finished and would need to be renewed. I sat down at the table and updated my address and then asked him what else was necessary to continue my stay in Thailand. They said nothing else was necessary and said I needed to come back in three more months to update my address. There it was stamped in my passport ... comeback in 90 days... I asked the guy one more time if there was anything else I needed to do and he said no, thank you, goodbye, next person please.

I was under the assumption that something more needed to be done but after the immigration man telling me nothing more was needed I went home thinking I needed to come back in 90 days.

36 days later days later I needed to renew my Thailand drivers license and when they looked at my passport they said that my visa was expired and that I had an overstay of 36 days already.

I did the math quickly in my head 36 days... 18,000 baht. I argued with them briefly showing them the stamp but they didn't care because that was just my address update stamp and had nothing to do with my visa ( news to me . )

Of course no amount of explaining or complaining could reverse my screwup so I booked a flight down to Malaysia immediately. When I checked in to air Asia the lady looked at my passport and and said I had a seven-day overstay... ..... I put on my poker face and said "yes... sorry about that"... she escorted me to the immigration where they promptly charged me 3500 baht instead of 18,000.

I could barely contain my excitement about saving 14,500 baht as the immigration officer completed all of my paperwork. As I boarded the plane I was thinking this was probably the first time a foreigner had gotten the positive side of one of these immigration screw ups.

has this happened to anyone else?

You had to fly to Malaysia - You had to pay 3500 baht because they told you you didn't need to renew your visa when you did.

But they don't do things like that on purpose to screw you up and cost you all kinds of money.

No - all in all I'd say this is a real positive experience waisting hundreds of dollars and days of your life running around meaninglessly

[geovalin]

To make the 90 days stamp does not replace the visa. OF COURSE.

But even the opposite is true. If you renew your visa (example on October 01), do not believe that it means you need to make your next "90 days" on January 01. You have to make your "90 days", 90 days after your last "90 days". The two processes are independent. Yes Immigration officers saw your passport when you did the visa renew but it's like they did not see anything.

This is stupid for sure (not because TIT but because This Is Administration Like Every Administration In The World) and probably one day, a bright guy will tell to the other ones: "And what if we stamped a 90 days at the same time than the visa renewal". The other: "Wow! Chief! How smart you are!". The chief: "It's why I'm the chief!"

[Tywais]

There it was stamped in my passport ... comeback in 90 days...

That's the part I don't understand, a stamp in the passport for a 90 day address report.

[thaiphoon]

There it was stamped in my passport ... comeback in 90 days...

That's the part I don't understand, a stamp in the passport for a 90 day address report.

Indeed. A slip of paper is attached to the passport for this purpose, not a stamp. Maybe that is what the Op means. I think the part about the Op believing his extension of stay had been renewed is down to misunderstanding. He says:

"I sat down at the table and updated my address and then asked him what else was necessary to continue my stay in Thailand. They said nothing else was necessary and said I needed to come back in three more months to update my address."

That sounds to be like immigration were talking about 90 day reporting only. If he was applying for extension of stay, where was the wife? Where were the documents that have to be supplied to immigration to extend stay? No mention of either. And he would have been given a 30 day "under consideration" stamp and told when to come back. Something is missing here ....

[Maestro]

...If you renew your visa (example on October 01...

I’m afraid your entire post makes no sense to me at all. For a start, please define “renew your visa” as used in the context of your post.

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Maestro

[Projectpaperclip]

This was my first marriage visa so I was under the assumption I would have to "renew the visa" aafter 9 or 12 months at the most... not extend it..... I went in a few days early to do the address update and was expecting them to tell me what was necessary to stay another year. They stamped the white slip that gets stapled into your passport and told me to return in 90.

So the trick was that the address update guys are busy and don't care about your actual visa expiration date. Like I said... I thought something was odd and asked him for confirmation. Why would the guy be able to extend my address without checking if my visa was valid?

Totally my fault for not quadruple checking with multiple people and not asking the experts on thai visa first.

I forgot to mention that we tried to get the marriage visa again ( after I found out I had overstayed ) ... this is when they denied us because the rules had changed from 40,000 a month combined income to 400,000 in the bank. Again my fault for not quadruple checking with multiple sources for the latest rules. This was during May 2009 at Phuket town immigration... the lady with short hair was who denied us flatly. We showed her the deeds to our house and property and banking record for second home in the works. She said that is nice but it is not 400,000 in the bank.

[Maestro]

Projectpaperclip, “marriage visa” and “renew the visa” are ambiguous terms that mean different things to different people. I believe that with “marriage visa” you mean your extension of stay for the reason of living with your Thai wife, and with “renew the visa” you mean an application for a subsequent application of extension of stay.

It is unfortunate but sometimes an immigration officer in one department may be unable to give valid information about the requirements applicable in another department, or in your case the officer may have been focussed so much on the work done in his department that he did not realise that your question related to an entirely different thing.

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Maestro