Officially Advised To Overstay!

[necronx99]

My BiL is here from Oz for a 40 something day trip. As a trip to Laos was planned he did not get a visa and arrived with a 30 day exemption.

Deciding that Laos was off the table they all went to the local immigration office to get advice as to his options.

Immigration told him they could only extend for 7 days and if he did not want to go outside the country and re-enter he

should just overstay and pay the fine.

Is it not somewhat boggling that an official whose job it is to enforce visa laws would tell you to casually break them?

They also neglected to tell him of the potential for trouble should he get caught prior to getting to the airport....TiT!

Edited July 9, 2012 by necronx99

[notmyself]

Been told the same in the past.

[lazygourmet]

So did I...

And on the phone, during the floods last year!

[ignis]

a 30 day exemption = 29 days.... a 40 something day trip.... overstay = 500 baht per day fine.

for less the 2,000 baht can get a Visa Run bus to the boarder Cambodia or Burma = another 15 days, cost less on a casino bus and DIY, do that 2x is far less then the overstay fine

​Just an idea, but sure immigration would prefer a 7,000 + cash as the fine.

[saengsureeya]

Ignis, the point was that an official advised someone to overstay rather then doing a borderrun.

The financial and legal differences may be clear!