In limbo - work permit cancelled but not visa, 25 days overstay!

[Urban Guerilla]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me. I'm based in Chiang Mai, where until recently I was working for a local company. I quit and had some leave to use up, so my former employer said my visa would be cancelled by the end of last month.

I wanted to do everything by the book, so I kept asking them when, and they said they would do it when they got round to it. At the end of the month I went abroad, and when I came back I told the immigration officer at the airport that I didn't want to use the visa but would like to come in on a 30-day visa exemption instead. He said this wasn't possible as the old visa hadn't been cancelled, and that until it was I would have to come in and out of the country on it. This was confirmed to me by someone at the Immigration Office.

In the past few weeks I have made repeated trips to immigration to try to sort this out, and made repeated phone calls and emails to my former company. Eventually they gave me a photocopy of a letter which I believe was from the local labour office, showing my work permit had been cancelled. I took this to immigration yesterday and they said I needed the original paperwork, not copies - and in any case it was dated to the end of last month, meaning I was officially on a 25-day overstay! They told me the visa was invalidated the moment the work permit was cancelled.

Now I don't know what to do. There's no point leaving the country immediately if I have to come back in on the old visa, which still hasn't been officially cancelled. And the secretary at my former company says she will "try to help" but it might not be until next week. In the meantime, that overstay fine is going up and I feel like I'm in limbo and have been totally screwed over. I've repeatedly tried to do the right thing and sort this out, but it looks like I will have to pay the fine even though this appears to be entirely the fault of my former employer.

Any ideas on what I can do now? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[nzexpat]

Depends on what you actually have in the passport. A"visa", obtained outside the country cannot be cancelled and remains valid until it expires.

On the other hand you may have an "extension of stay" (not a visa) plus a re-entry permit obtained from the local immigration office.

If the latter the "extension of stay" ceased to be valid on the day you ceased work. Best ask your ex-employer for a new letter indicating a very recent termination date to take to immigration

[Urban Guerilla]

Thanks nzexpat. I have a non-immigrant B visa which was issued in London last June, and a stamp saying an extension of stay was granted on October 31. This is incredibly frustrating.

[Mario2008]

Go to the labour office, they should have a form for immigration that your WP has been canceled on XX date. Take that to immigration and cancel your extension of stay. as they now have a date of when your employment ended they can cancel your permission to stay and determine your overstay.

Overstay is 500 baht a day, with a maximum of 20,000 baht.

[ubonjoe]

You need to get the company to give you a letter dated for the date you go to immigration to cancel your extension and re-entry permit to avoid paying the overstay.

[sikishrory]

If i were you i would just forget about the whole situation and enjoy my life.

It is not the correct way and no doubt people will disagree but i can only tell you what i learned from my experience.

I was in pretty much the same situation. Work permit was cancelled but had an extension that expired about 4 months after the cancellation.

I emailed and spoke to about 5 lawyers, my 2 HR's from 2 workplaces and also posted questions on here. I got mixed responses from everyone so i decided to forget about it and if immigration asked i would just tell the truth that i was confused and couldn't get clear info.

Anyway i left the country to switch to a 2 month tourist visa at the end of the old extensions validity. No funny looks and no questions were asked. Now it is history.

If you bring it to there attention as you are then im sure they will sting you for overstay. Bit confused how you have already left the country and somehow re-entered apparently without a re-entry permit.

Thats my experience anyway. Good luck

[AlexProBkk]

You screwed up yourself dude that's what I think. All you had to do is leave the country without making a re-entry.

You wanted it by the book - you've got it. You could use your visa as long as you wanted without the work permit but since you insisted on cancelling visa (which no one ever wishes to do) the day you informed Immigration you don't work anymore your extension was void. No informing - no voiding. You can't get another paper from labour department. WP can't be uncancelled. You're going for 20k and then you may start thinking of saving 500 thb a day))

[bigt116]

You screwed up yourself dude that's what I think. All you had to do is leave the country without making a re-entry.

You wanted it by the book - you've got it. You could use your visa as long as you wanted without the work permit but since you insisted on cancelling visa (which no one ever wishes to do) the day you informed Immigration you don't work anymore your extension was void. No informing - no voiding. You can't get another paper from labour department. WP can't be uncancelled. You're going for 20k and then you may start thinking of saving 500 thb a day))

Really ? Why post if you have no idea what you are on about ?