At present, the only penalty for foreign tourists who overstay is a penalty of THB500 for each day past the permitted date to stay stamped in the holder’s passport when he or she enters Thailand via an official immigration checkpoint. The THB500 only accrues to a maximum of THB20,000 and after 40 days no penalty applies.
With the new rules, the government is addressing the issue of long-term overstayers. From Sunday, people with 90-day overstays who voluntarily go to an exit point will be barred from re-entering for one year. With a one-year overstay the ban is three years.
Three year overstays get the offender a five-year persona non grata listing while five-year overstays garner a 10-year ban. Different bans apply to foreigners with overstay who are caught by police or immigration officers. In this case, under one year gets a five-year ban and over gets 10 years.
D Day approaches for foreigners in Thailand with expired visas
News in Asia
Sunday is D Day for foreigners in Thailand who have overstayed their permits to be here. Strict new rules come into force on 20 March 2016 which could see visa violators prohibited from returning to Thailand for 10 years.