Overstay while in hospital - fined at Chaeng Wattana

[Minnehaha]

I was hospitalized with serious illness from 31 Dec to Jan 18. Doc told me to stay in bed and rest for a week. But, since my Non B Visa extension of stay based on marriage was up for renewal on Jan 6, I collected my documents, along with a letter from the hospital, bills, credit card receipts and more to prove is was bedridden at this hospital for this duration.

Immigration threw back all my documents and fined me 14 days, or 7,000 Baht.

Now, I have been in country for 10 years, and again for 15 years, never on a tourist visa. And I was hospitalized once back in 2009 for a month and had a similar situation - but then it was with a Non B for work. Somehow the paperwork worked then.

I was not happy about the 7,000 baht fine. They said they see these bullshit documents all the time. So I produced other documents, from social security, from medical reports, from all kinds of stuff that showed I was in hospital.

They said my wife should have come to immigration and notified them. What the <deleted> difference would that make? They made no reference to a document she needed to 'notify them', it seemed to be her presence.

Oh, and the situation at Lard Prao 5th floor is a mess. Pretty chaotic. The only good part seems to be that they want to process everyone and get them out. They processed things fairly quickly for me and for others from what I could tell. At Chaeng Wattana they take their time, enjoy an hour lunch break and chat with friends and let you wait half the day.

[ubonjoe]

If you are sick and cannot travel to immigration you need a letter from the doctor stating that and have somebody apply for an extension for you based upon medical treatment. The will not wave an overstay for being sick.

[Mario2008]

That is fairly standerd. if you are sick they expect the hospital or your family to apply for a temporary extension of stay based on medical reasons with full paperwork.

If you go later they will consider it overstay.

[Briggsy]

Hospitals, usually private ones dealing with foreigners admittedly, have an immigration liaison officer who deals with this very kind of issue.

[Cylon]

I know it costs more, but I get all my work permit,visa etc done by agent (my accountant).Saves a lot of hassles.

[NancyL]

What the Immigration officer told you seems to be the procedure in Chiang Mai. Someone should have gone on your behalf on or (better yet) before Jan 6 with documentation that you were in the hospital and likely to remain there for X days and unable to travel to Immigration for an additional XX days. CM Immigration has a specific format they want to see for the letter from the doctor and they would have given your wife an example. All the private hospitals here have customer service people who either could have performed this task and/or gone with your wife to assist.

I've known cases here in Chiang Mai where they aren't so gentle as to merely levy an overstay fine after the fact -- they've been known tell someone they have to go to the border, pay their overstay fine, leave the country and start their visa process all over again. Especially when the person got argumentative and claimed they couldn't pay an overstay fine because they'd just given all their money to the hospital.

You got off lucky.

[IMA_FARANG]

Funny, back in November I spent 4 days in the Bangkok Christian Hospital.

Was on an antibiotics IV drip for two days due to the recurrence of an old Staph infection.

On the 2nd day, a hospital patient representative who spoke very good English came to see me and specifically asked if I needed any help.

One of the things she specifically asked about was my visa status.

But I didn't need any help with my visa.

She did however, contact the hotel I was staying in at the time (when I got sick) and arranged for the transfer of some things left in my hotel room to me in the hospital.

By the way the bill was for a little over 40K Baht for those 4 days in that hospital.

Not exactly cheap.

[martynsnowmans]

same here in udon thani , i had a big off with the motorbike in hospital 6 days with 6 broken ribs could,nt walk

for 3 weeks , got a letter from doctor, wife took to immigration who gave me 30 day extenshion cost 1900 baht

but that was july last year . i was on a type O multy entry at the time .

[rak sa_ngop]

Funny, back in November I spent 4 days in the Bangkok Christian Hospital.

Was on an antibiotics IV drip for two days due to the recurrence of an old Staph infection.

On the 2nd day, a hospital patient representative who spoke very good English came to see me and specifically asked if I needed any help.

One of the things she specifically asked about was my visa status.

But I didn't need any help with my visa.

She did however, contact the hotel I was staying in at the time (when I got sick) and arranged for the transfer of some things left in my hotel room to me in the hospital.

By the way the bill was for a little over 40K Baht for those 4 days in that hospital.

Not exactly cheap.

I had a liver infection and spent 11 days in the BNH hospital about 5 years ago. The bill then came to about 25,000 baht a day (including some minor medical procedures).

I would say you got off cheap!

[Minnehaha]

I cannot explain what happened back in 2009, except to say that the hospital must have contacted Immigration on my behalf. I cannot trace it in my Passport because I have a new book now. So, I did not know that someone had to go see them before the expiration date.

For what it is worth, I asked this at the hospital admissions on day one of this adventure. They assured me that the 'Bai Rap Rong Paet' written by the doctor will serve as official documentation to show I was in hospital. It may have done for something like employers records or what ever but it does not serve for Immigration. Now I know. Expensive lesson, in my opinion.

I read Thai Visa regularly and use it regularly to answer questions like this all the time. It has helped me in a million different ways over the years. Its a great resource.

The hospital Wifi was down the first few days, plus I was non compis mentis most of that time anyway. Not sure I would have been able to log on and find the answer to this question in time to send the wife. Goes to show ya... TV can make your life a lot easier and save you money at the same time here in LOS.

[Minnehaha]

What the Immigration officer told you seems to be the procedure in Chiang Mai. Someone should have gone on your behalf on or (better yet) before Jan 6 with documentation that you were in the hospital and likely to remain there for X days and unable to travel to Immigration for an additional XX days. CM Immigration has a specific format they want to see for the letter from the doctor and they would have given your wife an example. All the private hospitals here have customer service people who either could have performed this task and/or gone with your wife to assist.

I've known cases here in Chiang Mai where they aren't so gentle as to merely levy an overstay fine after the fact -- they've been known tell someone they have to go to the border, pay their overstay fine, leave the country and start their visa process all over again. Especially when the person got argumentative and claimed they couldn't pay an overstay fine because they'd just given all their money to the hospital.

You got off lucky.

Lucky?

Why would they send me to the border to pay and overstay? 1. I flew into country. 2. I am applying for an extension of stay based on legit documents, which were received in full and verified by this point of discussion of overstay. 3. My passport is full of visas - mostly for work, some from Ministry of Interior as a foreign expert. 4. I put up a polite objection but was not argumentative and never have been with any Thai official. When they got pissy, I asked the Mrs. to run interference, as is always a good idea in Thailand (using a 3rd party always diffuses the confrontation). Fine was paid and extension is under consideration for 30 days.

edited to format clearly

[lopburi3]

You can not apply for an extension of stay when here illegally (overstay). Officers have recently been allowing short overstays to be paid and extensions issued but by law you would need to exit paying fine and return on a new visa and then apply for extensions before that stay expires. Your doctors paperwork was likely helpful in this regard.