Hi guys

I had a quick question on an overstay scenario. I browsed through previous topics but just wanted to clarify my understanding particularly as Thailand now has new laws around overstay.

My wife who is an Uzbekistan national overstayed her Thailand visa by 8 months (May 2012 to December 2012). When she left Thailand she paid her 20,000 baht fine and departed. We now live in Australia and she is a permanent resident of Australia. We are hoping to go to Thailand in July 2015 for a ten day holiday. We will apply for a tourist visa at the Thailand embassy in Australia.

We were informed that although she will be granted a tourist visa by the Thailand embassy in Australia and the fact she has paid her 20,000 baht fine and she has a Thailand police clearance certificate from Royal Thai Police which highlights she has never committed a crime in the kingdom of Thailand she still may be rejected entry by immigration at Bangkok airport due to the new laws.

She has a new passport but I am assuming that won’t help as they do a fingerprint scan and will identify she overstayed last time. Do you think it’s worth the risk for her to travel to Thailand and hopefully she can enter or we should just visit another country.

Thanks in advance for any advice offered.

Jason

Overstay is not a problem when returning to Thailand.

New rules have not come into effect yet.

There no new laws. The rules that were proposed and never approved were only for being on a new overstay not one that a person had before.

She will not have a problem entering the country.

She has a new passport but I am assuming that won’t help as they do a fingerprint scan and will identify she overstayed last time.

There is no fingeprinting to enter Thailand.

thankyou Mario2008 , ubonjoe , paz for your responses. Really appreciate it as it has put my wife and I more at ease.

Just want to clarify one think after doing some browsing on this site.

When I stated my wife paid the fine and left the country to be precise she did the following

1) She went to the Uzbekistan Embassy in Bangkok and highlighted she has overstayed her Thailand visa by 8 months.

2) The Uzbekistan embassy then sorted all the paperwork and then my wife purchased a plane ticket back to Uzbekistan.

3) The next day she went back to the Uzbekistan embassy where a Thai immigration officer took my wife to the Thai immigration office.

4)At the Thai immigration office they filled out more paperwork , made her pay the $20,000 baht fine and then she stayed overnight at the Thai immigration facility.

5) Then in the morning the Thai immigration officers took her to the airport where she departed.

Based on the reading on this forum is the above steps seen as deportation hence she will be blacklisted or is this normal procedure when someone leaves the country.

Thanks again for all your time.

She is not blacklisted.

The embassy made it more complicated, she just should have gone to the airport and upon leaving paid her fine without the need to spend the night in detention till the airplane left. Otherwise the normal procedure was follwed of simply paying the fine.

ok thanks mario2008.

does the fact she was taken to the airport by Thailand immigration mean she was "deported". So what you are saying regardless of how she was taken to the airport eg on her own accord or by thai immigration the fact she paid the fine she should be ok to reenter next time.

She will not have any problem entering the country.

It was what they call a voluntary deportation.

As said she could of just went to the airport and paid the fine on departure from the country. Just another example of an embassy doing things the wrong way.