Thread: Blacklist for Visa Overstays to Launch in March

Originally Posted by boloa

Originally Posted by rickschoppers

This article suggests 2 million illegal immigrants in Thailand, but I bet it is more than that.

A deadly cocktail | The Economist

as I have said before on this thread

I would say that 95% of foreign nationals that overstay or that are illegals in Thailand are either Cambodians,Laos or Burmese ...I would have thought the number of western over-stayers was quiet small in comparison !

your link seems to prove this

Cheaper for illegal workers then legal, no need to pay tax or health insurance, no paper work needed.

Know Thais in the south who use Burmese rubber tappers, they pay immigration 500 Bt a month per tapper to look the other way.

Overstayers nabbed: Immigration cops arrest 108 offenders

finding many tourists not carrying their passports as legally required. Anyone unable to produce their immigration paperwork was taken to Pattaya police station for questioning.

I don't know anyone who habitually carries their passport, it's just too valuable to risk loosing it in a short time room

^^
Boloa, you pretty much nailed it. Just a token roundup to cover the truth which is SOP and peanuts in the grander scheme of things. Why do you think the ex-chief of human trafficking is running for his life?

Originally Posted by Stinky

finding many tourists not carrying their passports as legally required. Anyone unable to produce their immigration paperwork was taken to Pattaya police station for questioning.

I don't know anyone who habitually carries their passport, it's just too valuable to risk loosing it in a short time room

As has been mentioned before, copies will suffice or just being able to present the passport in a reasonable amount of time will meet the requirement.

The Immigration Police Bureau yesterday announced cases of foreigners caught for overstaying their visas and committing crimes.

So far, 108 foreigners have been rounded up for overstay after authorities decided to conduct regular checks on foreign visitors from 19 to 25 of every month. Those caught so far are eight Somalis, three from Papua New Guinea, three Nigerians, a Mali national, a Liberian, 50 Pakistanis, 15 Indians, a Sri Lankan, a Bangladeshi, three Vietnamese and 22 other nationals.

Immigration Bureau chief Pol Lt-General Natthorn Praosunthorn said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had issued an order banning those who overstay for more than a year from entering the country for three years. If they overstay their visa for three years, they will be banned for five years, while a five-year overstay carries a ban of 10 years.


The order, announced in the Royal Gazette, will go into effect in March.

Visitors whose visas have expired are encouraged to turn themselves in or they will face heavy penalties when caught. Natthorn said the crackdown was part of a move to boost security in the country as many foreigners who overstay their visas are involved in crimes.

Separately, a French man was arrested and charged with attempted murder, detention and robbery, police said yesterday. Kraiba Safy, 26, was arrested on December 11 in Bangkok's Bang Rak district. It has been alleged that Safy and two other men had been trafficking drugs in France, and had fled to Spain and Thailand after getting into conflicts. French police nabbed two suspects in Rayong, who then implicated Safy as being the mastermind.

In a second case, American boxer Malik Naeem Watson-Smith, 23, who once fought Thai boxer "Bua Kao", was caught on December 14 in Chon Buri for overstaying his visa. He had earlier been charged with assault and was granted bail on May 19, 2010, under condition that he could not leave the country without court permission.

Eveniy Gubarev, 37, a Russian national, was arrested on December 17 for overstaying, and is also wanted on charges of fraud and laundering money.

An unnamed 47-year-old Belgian was arrested on December 20 for overstaying by 305 days. He arrived on January 20 and was allowed to stay until February 18.

Thailand police nab 110 foreigners in overstay, criminal cases, AsiaOne Asia News

I have been to the Royal Gazette website and checked but it appears the order has yet to be announced..
Once it is I believe it's 90 days after that when it becomes a "real law"..
I'll keep lookin' for it though..

That old wive's tale of "foreigners must carry their passport all the time" has been repeated so many times people believe it's a law. IT IS NOT..

As rick said, copies usually suffice but being able to produce it in a reasonable amount of time also works.

Even Thonglor Police District put out a flyer a while back which said foreigners weren't required to carry their passports, just copies of the picture bio page, current entry stamp and current permission to stay until stamp.

Who gets asked to produce their passport.
Never been asked once.
Maybe if i was a Nigerian drug dealer ??

FWIW: I still have been unable to find the overstay rules published in the Royal Gazette.

Even though Prayuth signed them already, until they don't take effect until 60 days AFTER they're published.

I have googled every permutation of the title of the act in thai and just can't find it.

This leads me to believe that it has YET to be published and that's the reason they're saying end of March or early April.

sooner the better.

I believe they should ban the over stay folks for a bit and then give a look at rewards for the by the book folks such as increasing the 90day reports too 1yr

Originally Posted by mykthemin

sooner the better.

So you say until you "come off the rails". You'll be singing a different tune about then, believe me!

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for "getting legal", just that this seems like a typical thai knee-jerk reaction to a problem that's gone on for eons.

Originally Posted by navynine

I believe they should ban the over stay folks for a bit and then give a look at rewards for the by the book folks such as increasing the 90day reports too 1yr

They should set up a hotline that allows reporting of wrong doers. I'm totally fed up with the shit KCI dish out to legals when it's the illegals that are causing the problems here. Let's get rid of the dross.

Originally Posted by toddaniels

Originally Posted by mykthemin

sooner the better.

So you say until you "come off the rails". You'll be singing a different tune about then, believe me!

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for "getting legal", just that this seems like a typical thai knee-jerk reaction to a problem that's gone on for eons.

No do not agree they are criminals illegal immigrants and should go home now, I am fed up with all the do gooder bull shit.

Well it would appear mykthemin your wish has been granted.

The overstay rules will evidently come into effect March 20, 2016

Excellent news!!!!!!

^ I don't see how people overstaying their visas affects anyone but themselves.
I have a life i don't need to give it any thought.

^Which is why I always tell people to put their arrival/departure card between the pages of your passport which has either you extension of stay/re-entry permit OR a valid visa.

I know someone who used those little metal clips to hold the pages of his passport together so at first his extension/re-entry stamp page was the ONLY page the officer can see.. Then if the officer wanted to peruse other pages he had to take the clips off!

Indeed Tod but even then one can never underestimate just how inept they can be. On one occasion at Swampy I presented the passport with the L/C inserted at the extension page but that didn't stop the bimbette from flicking through the document, backward and forward, for several minutes or see it seemed, before she finally looked up to tell me " You no hab entry visa". I assumed my usual avuncular manner when dealing with slightly retarded infants and lent over the desk to point at said stamp which had been entered below my retirement extension endorsement. I smiled and without a single identifiable human response she then proceeded to stamp me in.

They really are a different species. Anyone else would have have made light of it and said something, anything, maybe a deprecatory grin, a laugh even, but no, not her, a totally expressionless blob of lard poured into a uniform.

Fucking spastics, really.

^
But any response would have been an admission of them being wrong. That would NEVER happen.

I'm still hearing people tell me they think this blacklisting/banning for overstays is not gonna happen. Despite the fact it's been published in the Royal Gazette and Thai Immigration in Bangkok compelling every private thai language school in the city to go to a meeting last week which went over the overstay rules.

Now you can't even get to the main Thai Immigration in Bangkok's homepage (well at least one of them) without first seeing this warning;


Note the catchy phrase: "Good guys in, Bad guys out"

This is purely conjecture on my part (so take it with a grain of salt), but I have a sinking suspicion that they're gonna do a BIG SWEEP of touristy areas right after this takes effect and make examples of the people they catch out on overstay.

I'd say, IF you're on overstay, get it sorted BEFORE the 20th of March.

Originally Posted by toddaniels

"Good guys in, Bad guys out"

A little hypocritical on their part.

Good at last sweep out the dross.