Overstaying visa by 5 days. Jail time? Ban from country?

[redwing777]

Hello everyone. My visa expires tomorrow and I will be leaving Thailand on the 9th. I'd rather pay the 500 baht a day fee than try and make it to immigration today and pay 1,900 baht for an extension. Can I be jailed or get a bad stamp on my passport for doing this? Thanks!

[ldiablo]

You can and most likely will be jailed when caught on an overstay. You will get a stamp in your passport after you pay your fine indicating your overstay with the amount paid. It will not affect you from returning to Thailand. If you are going to decide to overstay I would highly recommend laying low. Good luck.

Edited July 3, 2015 by ldiablo

[ubonjoe]

Just pay the fine on departure. No jail and no ban.

Get caught with it and you will end up in detention until you pay the fine and then you will be escorted to airport to leave.

You could go to immigration on Monday and not be fined for the one day of overstay you will have if you apply for an extension since your permit to stay ends when immigration is closed.

[cadle1]

I just last week got back to the UK from Thailand I overstayed by 1 day he asked at passport control for 500 bht.. I said in thai I have no money and shook his hand, he laughed and let me go no charge but he wrote in my passport in thai that I overstayed by 1 day...

[Mario2008]

At the airport the fine is not charged for only 1 day of overstay.

[nithisa78]

You'd rather break the law then do the right thing. You have problems.

[timendres]

PLEASE

Do not go to immigration. Get a ticket to leave the country and go straight to the airport.

When you leave via the airport, they have one objective - get you on the plane. They will process your overstay, and happily take your money. That is what they do.

When you go to immigration, you are dealing with an immigration officer and a department whose sole purpose is to manage the immigration process and laws. They are much more inclined to process you according to the law and their whim. As such, you are much more likely to go to jail! I am not saying that is what will happen. I am saying the odds are an order of magnitude higher that it can happen.

I had a friend who overstayed by 10 days. He went to immigration and they tossed him into jail for 4 days until they escorted him to the airport for departure.

Another friend overstayed by 23 days, went straight to the airport with a ticket in hand. He paid a steep fine and had no issues at all.

Finally, you absolutely do not want to hang out here and hope you are not caught. That is the worst possible scenario. Either take your chances at immigration, or get on a plane.

[mickjn]

Pay the fine at the airport,nothing for first day,1000 baht for the second day,500 for every day after.You do not have to worry about the coppers they will not put you in jail but might want a little compensation from you.You only problem is if immigration want you and they wouldn't worry a few days

[Guest]

You have received valid input from other members.

Go to the airport really early.
Thailand is all about personal appearance and grooming.be neat and clean, shaved and combed, sane an sober. Wear a button down shirt and slacks ... think "office attire."

Two hours before your flight, go to the desk and they will then tell you you are on a a relatively harmless overstay, and fine you 500 per day.

Pay and go. Be extremely polite, soft spoken and do nothing that even suggests you are talking back.

They have a royal straight flush and you have telephone numbers in this poker hand.

Not too concerned about much trouble here, at the airport, this is just business as usual. As they say "it is as big a problem as you make it." Stay away from immigration, just go to the airport.

Edited July 3, 2015 by Guest

[Monkeyrobot]

Just pay at the airport and lay low just tell them you got food poisoning eating Farang food , don't say thai food , they will laugh take your money and put a stamp with overstay for number of days.

[ubonjoe]

I see now where in this topic where going to immigration to pay the fine was mentioned. Only go to the airport.

But if he does as I suggested earlier he will not pay any overstay fine just the 1900 baht for an extension.

[Langeman]

PLEASE

Do not go to immigration. Get a ticket to leave the country and go straight to the airport.

When you leave via the airport, they have one objective - get you on the plane. They will process your overstay, and happily take your money. That is what they do.

When you go to immigration, you are dealing with an immigration officer and a department whose sole purpose is to manage the immigration process and laws. They are much more inclined to process you according to the law and their whim. As such, you are much more likely to go to jail! I am not saying that is what will happen. I am saying the odds are an order of magnitude higher that it can happen.

I had a friend who overstayed by 10 days. He went to immigration and they tossed him into jail for 4 days until they escorted him to the airport for departure.

Another friend overstayed by 23 days, went straight to the airport with a ticket in hand. He paid a steep fine and had no issues at all.

Finally, you absolutely do not want to hang out here and hope you are not caught. That is the worst possible scenario. Either take your chances at immigration, or get on a plane.

Follow the law end go to I - M, end pay for 1 week end have a nice trip

[Guest]

Ummm ... "and try and make it to immigration" .... ?

[jspill]

Just pay at the airport and lay low just tell them you got food poisoning eating Farang food , don't say thai food , they will laugh take your money and put a stamp with overstay for number of days.

Good advice.

When I overstayed I was asked 'what you do in Thailand?' - common sense but don't say 'work'. I said 'I stay with girlfriend' and they laughed me through after taking my money. It's a police desk around the corner after passport control and before luggage X-ray.

That was a reply I got recommended to use by a friend. Because it implies you do nothing but stay at home, some Thai woman benefits from you in some way. Worked for me.

[divndave]

Overstayed 8 days paid 500b x 8 = 4000 b paid 1900b for 7 day extension got stamp must leave kingdom in 7 days

Chiang Mai immigration office. Was(by immigration officer) told go to Thai embassy in Laos get visa renewed.(retirement, tourist,ect )

went home. Going to Laos next week

no advice just my story

Edited July 3, 2015 by divndave

[KhunBENQ]

At first sight browsing through topics I misread: "Overstaying visa by 5 years. Jail time? Ban from country?"

Expected answer: drive to airport cautiously well ahead of time with air ticket at hand, turn yourself in at immigration police, smile politely, pay 20000 and come back next day.

Is it still true?

Edited July 3, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[connda]

I had a good friend in exactly your situation. And he got busted, tossed in jail. and after the family came up with enough money to bail him out, he then was tossed out of the country. Prior to getting busted, all he was trying to do was make it to the airport to catch his flight at pay the overstay fine. So don't for a second think it will go that smoothly. And look at your airline ticket: Does it have a disclaimer that if you're being deported from Thailand that the airline does not have to honor your ticket? Some of them do that. So if you get busted, you may fined that your airline cancels your ticket, you now have to pay fines to get out of jail, and have the funds to purchase another airline ticket back to your home country at a premium price, or else you get to stay in jail until you do.

You don't want to mess around with overstays. Unlike Obama and friends, the Thai government doesn't have a thimble full of compassion for overstays regardless of your situation. Imho.

Maybe that's why Prayut had such a difficult time getting a Fourth of July invitation. In one way or another, issues like draconian immigration laws are viewed by the West as Human Rights issues. Lol

Edited July 3, 2015 by connda

[BuckBee]

For 5 days immigration won't blink when turn up at swampy airport, just look at amount of people on few day overstay when you queued at airport or look at counter line for overstay at land borders ....

Only risk is getting picked up before hand in a routine checkpoint or some other incident such as accident/fight etc.

In all the time I been in thailand (with valid visas) I only been stopped by police 3 times & out of those 3 times only 1 wanted see passport & that was while on vip bus going to Mukdahan which quite common for police checks ;-) Generally works out cheaper & less stress/hassle to get an extension but if everything against you then a few day overstay not a huge concern especially if previous visa entry is exemplary.

[Ludwigdd]

People do stupid things , just have to pay the price .

Not knowing , will not protect you either .

If you like to save money , stay home .

And read the bible .

[mochafan]

You'd rather break the law then do the right thing. You have problems.

sometimes breaking the law is doing the right thing. What's wrong with 'overstaying?' That word 'overstay' is just a cliche. I was told by a former General that an overstay is comparable to a parking ticket....and he laughed. There are more important things in life to worry about....especially when it affects you in no way. So you don't like it...get over it and move on. GEEZ! Let's say a person buys alcohol during a time designated 'illegal'...does that affect you, too? does that person have a problem? Who knows,Maybe you're the one with the problem....ya never know.

Edited July 3, 2015 by mochafan

[paz]

I had a good friend in exactly your situation. And he got busted, tossed in jail. and after the family came up with enough money to bail him out ...

One of the worst postings ever. Starts with wrong information, use of strong words for scaremongering, then further descends into a political tirade and nonsense. Bah.

[stegmann]

I overstayed for 36 hrs I was put straight in the monkey house no ifs no buts

But on the plus side I got to keep my ears, and scored the winning goal in the World Cup for the Nigerian drug smugglers in 2002 !

But I have heard you pay a fine on departure 500 a day (was 200) until it gets to 20 K that might be when you worry

[shaggy851]

If it only expires today why not go to a land border and re enter with 15 day visa exempt? You could get a plant or a bus to a border. Nok air do flights online for 800baht or a bus could go for less than 500. Walk across the border and come straight back with a new stamp. It would possibly all in equal the cost that you will pay on departure anyway. But I've overstayed a couple of days and not even needed to pay a fine. Must have caught the guy in a good mood

Edited July 4, 2015 by shaggy851

[gemguy]

What to do?

Generally speaking....you have to grovel and feign innocence and or ignorance while asking for their help while letting them know you understand the social role each person assumes.

Works great....or........ get your self a "Mr.Fix it"..... Visa Agent.....

That also works well.

Like many others are pointing out.....you can still pay the 500 baht a day overstay at the airport. ( I remember when it was only 100 baht )

Thing is....do they still stamp that info ( fine paid for overstay ) into the pages of your passport???

If that is the case then Thai embassy officials and immigration officers do not like to see any "over stay paid stamp" in your passport and that can and often does come back to haunt you when applying for a visa or immigration status of any kind in the future.

I know this from multiple experiences, although over 25 years ago when the overstay was 100 baht per day and near everyone it seems overstayed long periods of time and multiple times knowing that no one was going to come down on you for overstay.....except the street level police that would arrest you if they demanded to see your passport and see that you are currently overstayed.

That is where the trouble lies.....but the "go to the airport and pay the fine routine" still exists while the authorities in charge would rather take the money verses prosecuting you and all that is entailed.

In other words...it is back to business as usual while overstay has always been a low cost but highly profitable aspect of immigration revenues for more than 40 years and is not about to change anytime soon.

Cheers

Edited July 4, 2015 by gemguy

[gemguy]

Does anyone remember the days when you also had to perform a tax assessment before leaving Thailand if you had stayed for more than 90 days in one calendar year.

I would like to hear from those that were subjected to that aspect of the "bureaucratic circus " concerning those immigration rules and regulations back in the day...lol

Cheers

[paz]

That is where the trouble lies.....but the "go to the airport and pay the fine routine" still exists while the authorities in charge would rather take the money verses prosecuting you and all that is entailed.

No need to go to the airport, one can pay and leave at a land border.

Immigration take the money not because it is their preference but because that is what the Immigration Act prescribes: no jail. People is detained and trialed only if unable to pay, at which point receives in most cases reduced fine paid with jail time paid at 200 Bt/day.

For the indigent the problems come after - indefinite length detention without a crime, trial and without appeal.

[BritTim]

Does anyone remember the days when you also had to perform a tax assessment before leaving Thailand if you had stayed for more than 90 days in one calendar year.

I would like to hear from those that were subjected to that aspect of the "bureaucratic circus " concerning those immigration rules and regulations back in the day...lol

Cheers

Yes, I remember that well. I used to travel out quite frequently, and should have been paying rent at the revenue department. If I had met Anand just after he abolished this, I probably would have embarrassed myself by kissing him!