Anyone heard anything new about this and stopping the allowance for kids up to 15 from being fined or any negativity from it ?

Was told today that its changed and they have to abide by normal visa rules, will be fined and in fact overstays of serious proportions or repeat offenders will be banned.

I not seen anything about any change for the rules relating to children under the age of 15 not paying overstay fines.

I believe immigration would of announced any change like that that along with the announcement about the new overstay rules.

Upon entry, my daughter's Thai passport was expired and entered with her US passport. (no Thai birth certificate documents required) my wife and 6yr old daughter exited Thailand on July 8th, daughter overstayed by 3days on US passport and had no problem exiting without penalty. I took a glance at my daughters exit Stamp on US passport and strangely, immigration fudged early the departure date to reflect exactly 30 days or the entitlement duration granted for US citizen.

Upon entry, my daughter's Thai passport was expired and entered with her US passport. (no Thai birth certificate documents required) my wife and 6yr old daughter exited Thailand on July 8th, daughter overstayed by 3days on US passport and had no problem exiting without penalty. I took a glance at my daughters exit Stamp on US passport and strangely, immigration fudged early the departure date to reflect exactly 30 days or the entitlement duration granted for US citizen.

The strange thing is that Thais are allowed to enter country with an expired passport so that is what they should have done in first place.

I understand that if you are a foreign kid below 15, you still have to follow the visa rules. If you overstay, you are still violating the law but they won't fine you.

I don't think any responsable parent would want to put their child into that position, though.

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The Penal Code mentions two age limits, 7 years and 14 years, for not applying punishment. I thought immigration used 14 years, but apparently they use 15 years.

From the Penal Code ( http://www.samuiforsale.com/law-texts/thailand-penal-code.html):

Section 73 A child not yet over seven years of age shall not be punished for committing what is provided by the law to be an offence.

Section 74 Whenever a child over seven years but not yet over fourteen years of age commits what is provided by the law to be an offence, he shall not be punished, but the Court shall have the power as follows...

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The Penal Code mentions two age limits, 7 years and 14 years, for not applying punishment. I thought immigration used 14 years, but apparently they use 15 years.

From the Penal Code ( http://www.samuiforsale.com/law-texts/thailand-penal-code.html):

Section 73 A child not yet over seven years of age shall not be punished for committing what is provided by the law to be an offence.

Section 74 Whenever a child over seven years but not yet over fourteen years of age commits what is provided by the law to be an offence, he shall not be punished, but the Court shall have the power as follows...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Over 14 or under 15 is the same age. Just a different way of saying it. But I have seen people write under 14 which is not correct.

"The strange thing is that Thais are allowed to enter country with an expired passport so that is what they should have done in first place."

But then they would have to get the Thai passport renewed, which as we saw a couple of weeks ago is not always so simple.

With a foreign passport the person can get a year extension at immigration by proving they are Thai.

As per the immigration office in Nakhon Ratchasima on July 23, children 14 and under do not need a visa if they are not planning to attend a school. If they attend school they should get an education visa. A 3rd option is to get a Non-O visa under the parent. This seems a bit contradictory to me, but that was the word from the horses mouth. And they said overstays will not be charged or punished. I'm hoping this is the case.

As per the immigration office in Nakhon Ratchasima on July 23, children 14 and under do not need a visa if they are not planning to attend a school. If they attend school they should get an education visa. A 3rd option is to get a Non-O visa under the parent. This seems a bit contradictory to me, but that was the word from the horses mouth. And they said overstays will not be charged or punished. I'm hoping this is the case.

Under the regulations children do need their own visa and permisison and extensions of stay. That no overstay fine is levied is a different matter. It is still a breach of the rules.

If children stay here long term they should have a visa or an extension of stay.

Coming here a few weeks on a holiday with their parents and then overstaying for few a days is acceptable but not months and years.

Huh........unless they are changing the rules as we speak....they have never shown an ounce of care for a child on overstay.

It is not correct that they do not need a visa, they do need one to enter the country....but as proven over 12 years, they do not botherwith renewals.

And as for school, he has just completed year 7, so including kindergarten, 9 years of education here.......

Huh........unless they are changing the rules as we speak....they have never shown an ounce of care for a child on overstay.

It is not correct that they do not need a visa, they do need one to enter the country....but as proven over 12 years, they do not botherwith renewals.

But that is exactly whats happening.. They have just made guidelines so that overstay gets blacklisted.. And no where do they say that children are exempted from this rule.

Hence the concern.

As per the immigration office in Nakhon Ratchasima on July 23, children 14 and under do not need a visa if they are not planning to attend a school. If they attend school they should get an education visa. A 3rd option is to get a Non-O visa under the parent. This seems a bit contradictory to me, but that was the word from the horses mouth. And they said overstays will not be charged or punished. I'm hoping this is the case.

There is no visa requirement to study. You can be on any visa if you plan to attend school. However, if you are not entitled to any other kind of visa, then there is the ED visa to help you out.-

I just flew out of Phuket with my kids on 30 day overstays. Had to see the immigration supervisor and additional stamps were put in their passports. No fine and we were on our way. Everyone was very friendly about the situation. Applied for Ed visas in Penang and re entered Phuket a few days later with no issues.

It doesn't answer the question as to whether kids on 90+ day overstay will be subject to the new rules, but it does confirm that there currently appears to be no change in regards to overstay fines for children.

We left for Vietnam last Wednesday to get Visa for my 8 and 14 year old both overstayed from 2010,Immigration lady informed that if she was 15 she couldve been penalized and in addition to that she warned us about our 8 year old daughters' visa that the parents will have to pay for the overstays under new visa rules as soon as it takes effect. So I decided to get her a visa just in case

So it means that there's an upcoming new rules about over stay for a child 7 or 15 below? i'm confused.

There are no imminent changes to the rules that state that children under the age of 15 do not pay overstay fines that I know of.

It could just be a an officer making an offhand comment to push them to get a proper visa for their child.

Thank's for clarification Ubonjoe, just keep us posted because i have a children 7 and 5 years old, and we planning to get them a visa on 2nd week of September.

Hi All,

Just go back from Laos, with my 7 and 4 years old kids, I've got NON-O visa for my 7 years old but not for my 4 years old, because as i understand there's no changes in the policy for the kid. However upon enter in Thailand the immigration advise me that my 4 year old child cannot overstay within 233 days or else they will impost the policy to him for over stay. attached is the copy of the stamp to his passport, i ask our HR about the translation and they said the same as the immigration advise me, but i still advise our HR to go to the immigration to check about this matter, because she also not quite sure about this. Is there anyone who experience the same?

No responsible parent would let their children overstay. Just to save a few baht on a visa

No responsible parent would let their children overstay. Just to save a few baht on a visa

Even more when the kids are eligible for Thai passports...

No responsible parent would let their children overstay. Just to save a few baht on a visa

Even more when the kids are eligible for Thai passports...

can they black list thai citizens that have overstayed? And how would they know if they enter on foreign passport and exit on thai passport

A Thai national cannot be denied entry into Thailand.

can they black list thai citizens that have overstayed? And how would they know if they enter on foreign passport and exit on thai passport

No. Even the overstay fine they give is illegal, It's just that people prefers to pay it instead of going to Justice.

If you read the Immigration rule carefully, the 1 year extension is given to people is used (past tense) to have Thai nationality, that can be read in ancestral sense, e.g a Thai by birth that have not yet completed the process to get a Thai ID card.

People that have (present tense) full Thai nationality does not even need an extension to stay in country, again many do obey to save hassle and confrontation.

The only section of the Thai immigration act that refers to Thai national is when dictating the obligation (and related fine) for entering the country outside a regular border post. Nothing else applies to them, because Thai nationals are not aliens.

All that being said, it not a good idea to have Thai children to stay in country if they have entered a foreign passport.

Hi All,

Just go back from Laos, with my 7 and 4 years old kids, I've got NON-O visa for my 7 years old but not for my 4 years old, because as i understand there's no changes in the policy for the kid. However upon enter in Thailand the immigration advise me that my 4 year old child cannot overstay within 233 days or else they will impost the policy to him for over stay. attached is the copy of the stamp to his passport, i ask our HR about the translation and they said the same as the immigration advise me, but i still advise our HR to go to the immigration to check about this matter, because she also not quite sure about this. Is there anyone who experience the same?

That's a very interesting and probably very rare stamp your child got in its passport. Treasure it; it may get to be a valuable collectors' item in years to come.

Your photo is out of focus but the text appears to make reference to an internal guideline dated 29 OCT 2001, issued by the Immigration Bureau to its officers. I can't read the reference number of the guideline, the three-part number preceding the date 29 ต.ค. 2544. Could you post that please? It is probably too old to be accessible on the Internet, but I would like to try.

Hi Maestro,

Here's the other copy

Are you sure that is the stamp your child got on entry not one they got on departure from the country with a overstay of 233 days. That is what it looks like to me.

Yes your correct ubonjoe, he got it on departure, what does it mean? if we go out again is there any problem arises with us? please advise.

I will not be a problem. The stamp is just a record of the overstay and the basis for the fine not being collected.