The first time I met my wife she told me "you take care of yourself" (when in Thailand)

I took that to mean don't expect anyone to save you from danger or troubles and mind my own business.

It's been good advice so far.

My visas is current.

Just as a matter of interest how much more "slack" do you believe the 'unfortunates' should be given ?

The previous system in place for the last 40 years was just fine - i.e. 20k fine and no blacklisting, and less frequent stop and searches, nightclub raids, etc. I'd vote for that.

I am sure you would but you just lost out because the popular vote is against you !

popular vote from who? I think you are living in cloud cuckoo land

Just as a matter of interest how much more "slack" do you believe the 'unfortunates' should be given ?

The previous system in place for the last 40 years was just fine - i.e. 20k fine and no blacklisting, and less frequent stop and searches, nightclub raids, etc. I'd vote for that.

The fact is that it did not work.

The riff raff took advantage.

At least now the authorities are doing something about it.

About time too.

So many bitter and angry expats ranting on about the oh so crime of the century of overstaying a visa.....whilst the average Thai isn't bothered by it; why should they be?

The fact is that it did not work.

The riff raff took advantage.

At least now the authorities are doing something about it.

About time too.

It did work. You're looking at it from the wrong perspective.

The fact that they kept it for so many years suggests they were quite happy with the revenue. Everybody, including overstayers, advertised how nice and beautiful and a great place Thailand is and tourism exploded.

What do you think everybody's advertising now? Eveybody's complaining and moaning.

I'm not.

Speak for yourself.

To be truthful every country or nearly every country has over stayers illegal immigrants in a multitude of forms, shapes and sizes Calais Is I suppose A fine European role model. So should we really be knocking these people who are in many cases supporting their family?

Simplify the system, there is no welfare system here, so really is Thailand such an attractive place?

No, the system encouraged overstays by the lubrication of the wheels of officialdom with oil of lucre which has and will keep the wheels of the overstay vehicle turning in the future..

Edited March 10, 201610 yr by shunter

May the Immigration police get REALLY tough. Send out the orders General Prayuth

I know an over stayer. He's a friend but not close friend here in Viet Nam.

He's been here nearly 5 years.

His passport has been expired for nearly 5 years.

He was a bit slack and should have sorted it out at the time.

A couple of years ago, despite being on over stay and not having a current passport, he was admitted into hospital for liver failure after he'd been partying too much.

The hospital eventually let him leave without paying because it was a public holiday and there was nobody there to deal with him, plus keeping him there was - as he told them himself - just making more pointless debt that he couldn't pay.

Many bars, guesthouses and restaurants here are off-limits to him because he ran up bills and didn't pay the tab. Some is rent money, for days, weeks or months owed but some is just a few dollars for a plate of something to eat, but he never did pay and so he can't go there now.

The pretty cigarette seller girl he bought his weed from will no longer sell to him because he got some on tick and never paid.

His options as an English teacher here have run out, more or less. He never had a degree. I don't think he's even got a TEFL. He's worked for or been rejected by all. If he gets anything now, it's some dodgy place paying him just 50% of the standard salary, then apparently after two weeks he's out of there too because the students 'stabbed him in the back.'

Sometimes he ends up in some fan room in the sticks outside the city, living and teaching in someone's house, someone not from the city who didn't already know him and who wants a pet foreigner to parade around. Eventually someone stabs him in the back again though, and he's back in the pool bar drinking water and borrowing cigarettes.

He's actually a lovely guy, that's why I consider him a friend (but again I must add: but not a close one). He's under no illusions: he can't go anywhere. He has to pay the hospital eventually or he can never go home.

I am sympathetic to some people on over stay. I sympathize with examples already mentioned in this thread. As to my friend, though, every decision he made along the way was a bad one.

It's unbelievable the patience the Vietnamese people have for him. Then again, he's not nearly as obviously offensive as the bunch of drunk teachers and retirees who parade their drinking, drug-taking and general loud-mouth remarks about the country and its people in front of everyone. But apparently they are abiding by the law or what they themselves are doing isn't bothering anyone and the natives "don't care."

Sure, an over stayer may be many things... but so are those who sit and wag their fingers at the world.

Edited March 10, 201610 yr by Squeegee

I know an over stayer. He's a friend but not close friend here in Viet Nam.

He's been here nearly 5 years.

His passport has been expired for nearly 5 years.

He was a bit slack and should have sorted it out at the time.

A couple of years ago, despite being on over stay and not having a current passport, he was admitted into hospital for liver failure after he'd been partying too much.

The hospital eventually let him leave without paying because it was a public holiday and there was nobody there to deal with him, plus keeping him there was - as he told them himself - just making more pointless debt that he couldn't pay.

Many bars, guesthouses and restaurants here are off-limits to him because he ran up bills and didn't pay the tab. Some is rent money, for days, weeks or months owed but some is just a few dollars for a plate of something to eat, but he never did pay and so he can't go there now.

The pretty cigarette seller girl he bought his weed from will no longer sell to him because he got some on tick and never paid.

His options as an English teacher here have run out, more or less. He never had a degree. I don't think he's even got a TEFL. He's worked for or been rejected by all. If he gets anything now, it's some dodgy place paying him just 50% of the standard salary, then apparently after two weeks he's out of there too because the students 'stabbed him in the back.'

Sometimes he ends up in some fan room in the sticks outside the city, living and teaching in someone's house, someone not from the city who didn't already know him and who wants a pet foreigner to parade around. Eventually someone stabs him in the back again though, and he's back in the pool bar drinking water and borrowing cigarettes.

He's actually a lovely guy, that's why I consider him a friend (but again I must add: but not a close one). He's under no illusions: he can't go anywhere. He has to pay the hospital eventually or he can never go home.

I am sympathetic to some people on over stay. I sympathize with examples already mentioned in this thread. As to my friend, though, every decision he made along the way was a bad one.

It's unbelievable the patience the Vietnamese people have for him. Then again, he's not nearly as obviously offensive as the bunch of drunk teachers and retirees who parade their drinking, drug-taking and general loud-mouth remarks about the country and its people in front of everyone. But apparently they are abiding by the law or what they themselves are doing isn't bothering anyone and the natives "don't care."

Sure, an over stayer may be many things... but so are those who sit and wag their fingers at the world.

Would you entrust this "lovely guy" with "teaching" and caring for your child ?

once i was an idiot and read my visa wrong and got hit with 5 days i think....was bad. maybe 5 years ago. you feel so stupid.

but time flies when things are bad.....days, weeks, months, and you are in "survival" mode and your brain shuts down. maybe you try to get a job, but you know you are doomed....you are like a convict on the run......you entire point of living is to hide...not fun, i'm sure...

this is why friends and family exist.....but my feeling the guy(s) would be doomed anywhere in the world.....

7 billion people in the world?? sure, there will be a lot, including us, who have some bad moments....some worse

once i was an idiot and read my visa wrong and got hit with 5 days i think....was bad. maybe 5 years ago. you feel so stupid.

but time flies when things are bad.....days, weeks, months, and you are in "survival" mode and your brain shuts down. maybe you try to get a job, but you know you are doomed....you are like a convict on the run......you entire point of living is to hide...not fun, i'm sure...

this is why friends and family exist.....but my feeling the guy(s) would be doomed anywhere in the world.....

7 billion people in the world?? sure, there will be a lot, including us, who have some bad moments....some worse

I, like many people, have experienced times when "things were bad". Most use their brains to resolve their problem(s) and do not enter "survival mode" or suffer " brain shutdown".

Problems are rarely solved by pretending a problem does not exist or by entering a state of denial and avoidance.

Edited March 10, 201610 yr by sunnyjim5

I know an over stayer. He's a friend but not close friend here in Viet Nam.

He's been here nearly 5 years.

His passport has been expired for nearly 5 years.

He was a bit slack and should have sorted it out at the time.

A couple of years ago, despite being on over stay and not having a current passport, he was admitted into hospital for liver failure after he'd been partying too much.

The hospital eventually let him leave without paying because it was a public holiday and there was nobody there to deal with him, plus keeping him there was - as he told them himself - just making more pointless debt that he couldn't pay.

Many bars, guesthouses and restaurants here are off-limits to him because he ran up bills and didn't pay the tab. Some is rent money, for days, weeks or months owed but some is just a few dollars for a plate of something to eat, but he never did pay and so he can't go there now.

The pretty cigarette seller girl he bought his weed from will no longer sell to him because he got some on tick and never paid.

His options as an English teacher here have run out, more or less. He never had a degree. I don't think he's even got a TEFL. He's worked for or been rejected by all. If he gets anything now, it's some dodgy place paying him just 50% of the standard salary, then apparently after two weeks he's out of there too because the students 'stabbed him in the back.'

Sometimes he ends up in some fan room in the sticks outside the city, living and teaching in someone's house, someone not from the city who didn't already know him and who wants a pet foreigner to parade around. Eventually someone stabs him in the back again though, and he's back in the pool bar drinking water and borrowing cigarettes.

He's actually a lovely guy, that's why I consider him a friend (but again I must add: but not a close one). He's under no illusions: he can't go anywhere. He has to pay the hospital eventually or he can never go home.

I am sympathetic to some people on over stay. I sympathize with examples already mentioned in this thread. As to my friend, though, every decision he made along the way was a bad one.

It's unbelievable the patience the Vietnamese people have for him. Then again, he's not nearly as obviously offensive as the bunch of drunk teachers and retirees who parade their drinking, drug-taking and general loud-mouth remarks about the country and its people in front of everyone. But apparently they are abiding by the law or what they themselves are doing isn't bothering anyone and the natives "don't care."

Sure, an over stayer may be many things... but so are those who sit and wag their fingers at the world.

Would you entrust this "lovely guy" with "teaching" and caring for your child ?

I'd answer the question if it were relevant to my post or my point.

I know an over stayer. He's a friend but not close friend here in Viet Nam.

He's been here nearly 5 years.

His passport has been expired for nearly 5 years.

He was a bit slack and should have sorted it out at the time.

A couple of years ago, despite being on over stay and not having a current passport, he was admitted into hospital for liver failure after he'd been partying too much.

The hospital eventually let him leave without paying because it was a public holiday and there was nobody there to deal with him, plus keeping him there was - as he told them himself - just making more pointless debt that he couldn't pay.

Many bars, guesthouses and restaurants here are off-limits to him because he ran up bills and didn't pay the tab. Some is rent money, for days, weeks or months owed but some is just a few dollars for a plate of something to eat, but he never did pay and so he can't go there now.

The pretty cigarette seller girl he bought his weed from will no longer sell to him because he got some on tick and never paid.

His options as an English teacher here have run out, more or less. He never had a degree. I don't think he's even got a TEFL. He's worked for or been rejected by all. If he gets anything now, it's some dodgy place paying him just 50% of the standard salary, then apparently after two weeks he's out of there too because the students 'stabbed him in the back.'

Sometimes he ends up in some fan room in the sticks outside the city, living and teaching in someone's house, someone not from the city who didn't already know him and who wants a pet foreigner to parade around. Eventually someone stabs him in the back again though, and he's back in the pool bar drinking water and borrowing cigarettes.

He's actually a lovely guy, that's why I consider him a friend (but again I must add: but not a close one). He's under no illusions: he can't go anywhere. He has to pay the hospital eventually or he can never go home.

I am sympathetic to some people on over stay. I sympathize with examples already mentioned in this thread. As to my friend, though, every decision he made along the way was a bad one.

It's unbelievable the patience the Vietnamese people have for him. Then again, he's not nearly as obviously offensive as the bunch of drunk teachers and retirees who parade their drinking, drug-taking and general loud-mouth remarks about the country and its people in front of everyone. But apparently they are abiding by the law or what they themselves are doing isn't bothering anyone and the natives "don't care."

Sure, an over stayer may be many things... but so are those who sit and wag their fingers at the world.

Would you entrust this "lovely guy" with "teaching" and caring for your child ?

I'd answer the question if it were relevant to my post or my point.

You claimed the person cited in your anecdote was your friend.

I asked a simple question relating directly to your friend who you say is a "lovely guy", so why now avoid providing an answer to a question which is clearly related to what you wrote and claimed ?

I know an over stayer. He's a friend but not close friend here in Viet Nam.

He's been here nearly 5 years.

His passport has been expired for nearly 5 years.

He was a bit slack and should have sorted it out at the time.

A couple of years ago, despite being on over stay and not having a current passport, he was admitted into hospital for liver failure after he'd been partying too much.

The hospital eventually let him leave without paying because it was a public holiday and there was nobody there to deal with him, plus keeping him there was - as he told them himself - just making more pointless debt that he couldn't pay.

Many bars, guesthouses and restaurants here are off-limits to him because he ran up bills and didn't pay the tab. Some is rent money, for days, weeks or months owed but some is just a few dollars for a plate of something to eat, but he never did pay and so he can't go there now.

The pretty cigarette seller girl he bought his weed from will no longer sell to him because he got some on tick and never paid.

His options as an English teacher here have run out, more or less. He never had a degree. I don't think he's even got a TEFL. He's worked for or been rejected by all. If he gets anything now, it's some dodgy place paying him just 50% of the standard salary, then apparently after two weeks he's out of there too because the students 'stabbed him in the back.'

Sometimes he ends up in some fan room in the sticks outside the city, living and teaching in someone's house, someone not from the city who didn't already know him and who wants a pet foreigner to parade around. Eventually someone stabs him in the back again though, and he's back in the pool bar drinking water and borrowing cigarettes.

He's actually a lovely guy, that's why I consider him a friend (but again I must add: but not a close one). He's under no illusions: he can't go anywhere. He has to pay the hospital eventually or he can never go home.

I am sympathetic to some people on over stay. I sympathize with examples already mentioned in this thread. As to my friend, though, every decision he made along the way was a bad one.

It's unbelievable the patience the Vietnamese people have for him. Then again, he's not nearly as obviously offensive as the bunch of drunk teachers and retirees who parade their drinking, drug-taking and general loud-mouth remarks about the country and its people in front of everyone. But apparently they are abiding by the law or what they themselves are doing isn't bothering anyone and the natives "don't care."

Sure, an over stayer may be many things... but so are those who sit and wag their fingers at the world.

Would you entrust this "lovely guy" with "teaching" and caring for your child ?

I'd answer the question if it were relevant to my post or my point.

You claimed the person cited in your anecdote was your friend.

I asked a simple question relating directly to your friend who you say is a "lovely guy", so why now avoid providing an answer to a question which is clearly related to what you wrote and claimed ?

I would definitely classify this example as an "undesirable" element -- from an immigration point of view. He might be a "lovely guy" to talk to or have a beer with, but he seems to lack all sense of responsibility. Just because he is "more desirable" than some other individuals who are legal (it is debatable), does not mean that the country should put up with him. A teacher should behave and act in a manner that represents moral standards of what is expected by most of the students parents (regardless of wages). Not only did he overstay - which I see as an administrative violation.... but he is working illegally (for which there are quotas and standards - i.e. queue jumping), but they are also violating drug laws (considerably more serious than North America/Europe) and acting as very very bad role models for their students. The only thing that you seem to indicate as a positive is that he is not as "loud and obnoxious" as some of the other "legal" teachers. If it were my decision I would throw both your friend and his "legal" buddies out of the country (after potentially prison for drug offenses). This is what Immigration is suppose to "protect" the country from.

Lately there have been posts of members clearing overstay, which has been really positive and good outcome for them. Some have very long overstays and now have clean sheet.

There is no data to back this up (that I know of) but im thinking there are many many here on overstay for various reasons. Do you think they will just do an Ostrich in regards to march 20

Yes.. Knowingly or not.. Like last year, it seemed like a serious messesge to clear your overstay or be banned for a significant amount of time, yet many still continued to overstay their visa! This year, some will miss or ignore this warning as well..

Edited March 11, 201610 yr by Lenard52