Hi,

here's my situation:

• overstayed for 4 months
• previously in Thailand on ED visa for 4 years
• have a child & wife in Thailand, but neither legalized father nor legally married yet
• want to come back to Thailand asap (ideally not more than 1 or 2 weeks in a neighbouring country)

What's the best way of dealing with this?

1. Should I go to the immigration office in Bangkok, pay the 20,000 Baht fine there, leave the country by airplane and come back on a tourist visa? (Will I be able to enter Thailand again, or will they deny my entrance when they see the overstay stamp in my passport?)
2. Same as above, but just go directly to Suvarnabhumi instead of immigration office first?
3. Get legally married (but is this even possible when my visa is expired already? Sure the officers will look in my passport and notice this.) and then go to immigration and pay the fine?
4. ... or something completely different?

Very grateful for any constructive advice :-)

George

Go to the airport and pay on your way out.

You can return the same day and try to get legally married or have your child ligitimized and start things from there. Applying for a tourist visa in Laos (double entry even) will give you more time.

Based on reported experiences, your option Number 2 is probably most likely to succeed. Bear in mind that you are currently in the country illegally and if you are stopped prior to getting to immigration at the airport, you might get locked up.

Take the fine and a good attitude for the immigration officer in the airport as your best chance. Check with them, but reports indicate that you can come back as soon as you get a new visa (probably toursit visa). You can then explore the options for converting that and extending it based on supporting your child.

Good luck

Best way is leave from the airport and pay the 20k baht fine on departure.

You could turn around and come back the same day without a problem. Flying somewhere to get a tourist visa would be the best thing to do. Vientiane Laos does 2 entry visas.

You can get married or get your parenthood legitimized by a court.

Hi Mario, jpinx, Joe,

thanks a lot :-)

George

A off topic post and replies to it have been removed.

This is a weekly thread. Is tehre anyway that we can put this at the top of the list of threads so we do not have teh same same every week or so.

Nonsense post removed.

Based on reported experiences, your option Number 2 is probably most likely to succeed. Bear in mind that you are currently in the country illegally and if you are stopped prior to getting to immigration at the airport, you might get locked up.

Take the fine and a good attitude for the immigration officer in the airport as your best chance. Check with them, but reports indicate that you can come back as soon as you get a new visa (probably toursit visa). You can then explore the options for converting that and extending it based on supporting your child.

Good luck

Absolutely the best choice, direct to the airport, and pay with a smile, even when they laugh

From experience, fly out but when going thru immigration try to go thru the section for pilots, embassy people etc; that guy never looks for overstays and he just stamps you out but have the 20k THB ready just in case. No recriminations when coming back in.