PeaceBlondie Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 I'm still fuming over the black stamp and overstay fine I got in Mae Sai on Friday. I was en route there the previous Saturday when I was seriously injured, spending three days in hospital for serious surgery. I hobbled over to the Chiang Mai immigration office without my doctor's paper on the 90th day. They told me to come back on the 91st day with the doctor's paper, but that I'd still have to pay the overstay. I came back the next day, and they told me to just go to Mae Sai rather than pay for an extension. At Mae Sai, the officer smiled at my doctor's statement, ignored it, and handed it back as he fined me 600 baht and put the black stamp in my passport, permanently. Is there no compassion, no 'reasonable cause' to forego a penalty? Even the IRS of the USA has an entire chapter on 'reasonable cause.' How important is the black ink penalty in my passport, if I never get another one? They'll never accept any explanation that the stamp was undeserved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaiflyer1 Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 Sorry to hear PeaceBlondie.............i would of thought the doctors note would of swung it. ..............and as you say any explanation in the future will fall on deaf ears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartender100 Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 I've had a few over the years,don't worry about it,never heard of anyone having a problem because of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terdsak_12 Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 It's normal mentality here, weilding their power over you because they can, they want to feel important bless them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy in Bangkok Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 PeaceBlondie, I have one (black stamp) and it hasn't given me any problems with immigration at all. I was pretty worried at the time as well mate but it doesn't seem to make any difference here. Although that said I'm not in any hurry to get another one just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayenram Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 I was 'fined' at Poi Pet a few years ago, 2 days late (took me a few days to get over the New Year celebrations). The 'black' stamp was duly entered into my passport and I thought little of it. During the next few months I was doing a little w*rk in Singapore and past through Don Muang a number of tmes before one over zealous immigration officer pointed to the 'black' stamp and repremanded me for being a naughty boy. I smiled apologetically and he stamped me in without further ado. After leaving the next time, I came back on my second passport and never used the first for travel into Thailand again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neeranam Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 I'm still fuming over the black stamp and overstay fine I got in Mae Sai on Friday. I was en route there the previous Saturday when I was seriously injured, spending three days in hospital for serious surgery. I hobbled over to the Chiang Mai immigration office without my doctor's paper on the 90th day. They told me to come back on the 91st day with the doctor's paper, but that I'd still have to pay the overstay. I came back the next day, and they told me to just go to Mae Sai rather than pay for an extension. At Mae Sai, the officer smiled at my doctor's statement, ignored it, and handed it back as he fined me 600 baht and put the black stamp in my passport, permanently.Is there no compassion, no 'reasonable cause' to forego a penalty? Even the IRS of the USA has an entire chapter on 'reasonable cause.' Come on, every Tom Dick and Harry would be producing these certificates from doctors and faking injuries. Just pure and simple bad luck. Forget it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepdiver Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 don't worry, have a few too...normaly they don't "stamp" you with only one day overstay and you don't need to pay the fine ... second day of overstay is 400 bath plus the "black stamp" , good luck next time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ya5702 Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 Get a new passport! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Sanford Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 Do NOT get a new passport. I always hate when people recommend this nonsense. Do you know how many people have overstays in their passports? I don't have the number but I'd say it's a lot. Plus most of these people still live here. I've got an overstay of 53 days 2 years ago in mine. Who cares? No one has ever said anything to me about it. You're worried about 2 or 3 days? Gimme a break pal. You expected them to take your note and say, oh you're such a good boy about visa stuff, we won't black mark your passport. Give me a break. I know your story and it's a bummer but jesus, those cats at immi have heard 'em all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdenner Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 I have one as well, no worries. Would have been a more interesting thread if you had attached a 'Poll' to it to guage the number who have em and how many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dan Sai Kid Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 Maybe you should "lose" your passport Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sua yai Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 I posted on this on PB's get well thread. In March I was fined 25 days over as I was also recovering from a bad accident - 11 days in hospital, two operations etc. Went to Soi Suan Plu with my doctor's letter, saw the immigration doctor there who gave me another month before I would be fit to make a long journey for a visa. Still 5,000 fine and 1,900 for a 14 day extension. I reckon that even if you left in a coffin, relatives would have to pay the overstay if you were late. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_l Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Do NOT get a new passport. I always hate when people recommend this nonsense. Do you know how many people have overstays in their passports? I don't have the number but I'd say it's a lot. Plus most of these people still live here. I've got an overstay of 53 days 2 years ago in mine. Who cares? No one has ever said anything to me about it. I agree,I think these suggestions about 'losing' your passport to get rid of an overstay stamp are crazy. I previously actually did lose my passport in Thailand, and getting it replaced was a real hassle (trips to local police, Immigration, and UK embassy). Of course in the new passport there's a note in Thai saying the previous passport was lost, and that's what's caused more trouble than anything. Several times upon reading that instead of just stamping the passport, the immigration officer calls over someone else to help, chat to them for a while, eye me suspiciously and eventually stamp the passport. On a couple of occasions I've been called away to sit in the immigration office for a while too. It's always been ok in the end though, but still it seems that losing your passport does a fair bit to draw attention to yourself with immigration. In contrast, I reckon the chance of any trouble from a single overstay stamp of a few days is very very low. I'm not sure how much losing your passport would even help either, it would remove the overstay stamp but there's no guarantee Immigration wouldn't mark your new passport in some way and of course there will still be the record of the overstay in the immigration computer too (presuming they link the records of old and new passport). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Losing your passport for a few days overstay is downright moronic. I was caught up in that infamous dodgy visa stamp scandle a few years back and so many people insisted I should lose the passport. I never did and the stamp in question is still in there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paully Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 (edited) I think PB was more annoyed about the principle of an overstay fine in the case of sickness or hospital treatment rather than just getting the stamp out of his passport. It does seem ridiculous that a fine could be levied where someone was clearly unable to cross the border because of quite a serious injury, namely a dislocated shoulder. Unlikely to be faked merely to present yourself at the border a few days late, I would have thought. Edited July 27, 2005 by paully Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefan Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Ah but some here love Thailand SOOOO much that they might even dislocate their own shoulder on PURPOSE just to stay! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sua yai Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Right on Firefan. Just like I had a car hit me on the motorbike and split my leg open from knee to ankle. Be real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefan Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Man. Sua Yai - you REALLY wanted to stay here! Hope you have recovered. Also hope you understand irony when you see it... this: normally indicates that if you don't get it from the text alone (which you probably should;) ). Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sua yai Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Fair enough Firefan. I suppose I'm just a bit biased in these situations since it's happened to me. It's called blind rage. And yes, I've been having motorcycle accidents regularly for the past 7 years just to stay here!!! That was cynical. Got no smilies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefan Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Holy smoke! Maybe time to buy a car? Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_Pat_Pong Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 Second the motion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkkmadness Posted July 27, 2005 Share Posted July 27, 2005 My friend was in need of hospital treatment, repairing some bones or something and he managed to extend his visa at immigration with the correct doctors notification. His sisters brother was a policeman though with a friend in immigration so perhaps that helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeaceBlondie Posted July 29, 2005 Author Share Posted July 29, 2005 Thanks to everybody for their kind replies. Yeah, the lady who seemed in charge of the CMai station that day read my doctor's letter (it isn't like I just dislocated a muscle, the ball came out of the socket) asked me to show her the injury. When I did, she was impressed. Still, no mercy (except that she saved me the 1,900 baht extension, so let's give her credit for that). So, I shan't worry about the black stamp. I've had worse, in Mexico. Thank God that Vicente Fox got voted in while my deportation was being considered. Then, while they were convinced I was violating the Mexican constitution by meddling in politics, they gave me an unlimited non-immigrant one year visa, on the cheap. Thailand would not be that generous. Hua Hin is great. Now if I can start swimming again. Thanks, y'all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryHacker Posted July 29, 2005 Share Posted July 29, 2005 Why not pen a letter to Immigration in BKK and nicely express your feelings. It may be interesting to see their response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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