A Very Good Reason Not To Overstay Your Visa

[Guest MonkeySee]

PATTAYA: -- An American man was found dead in a Thai jail cell where he was being held for an alleged immigration offense, a newspaper reported Saturday.

 

Brian Dunn, 30, had been detained for overstaying his visa in the resort town of Pattaya southwest of the capital, Bangkok, The Nation newspaper reported, quoting police Lt. Col. Anan Thamchaikun.

 

Dunn was found dead with facial bruises over his cheekbones, the newspaper said. It didn't give the time or suspected cause of Dunn's death, his hometown, or his reason for being in Thailand.

 

Police were investigating the incident, the report said.

 

Police officials weren't immediately available for comment, and a U.S. Embassy spokesman said he was unable to confirm the incident.

 

Source: www.yahoo.co.th 2004-04-17

 

Probably another suicide case, don't you think?

[Guest bottomdad]

Please note that this article was posted in April of 2004 and is old news. It is a good warning though not to overstay your visa.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

Please note that this article was posted in April of 2004 and is old news. It is a good warning though not to overstay your visa.

What was the follow up story?

[Guest Astrrro]

It's never a great idea to overstay. I don't want any overstays in my passport.

 

However, the powers that be must be aware that if people are jailed for a short overstay that would be bad for tourism. Though closing airports doesn't help tourism either.

 

I suspect there was a long overstay or other unusual circumstances involved in the above story.

 

One day at Jomtien immigration, I saw about thirty shirtless men sitting outside. My guess is that they were Lao, Cambodian, or Burmese being deported.

[Guest ezfonzata]

I heard about a couple of British guys whose visas expired over a holiday, had overstayed only ONE day, and they went into the police station to ask how to deal with it. The Boys in Brown (such a fitting color) promptly locked both of them up in the Soi 9 monkey house.

 

They eventually got shipped to the IDC in Bangkok and were deported.

 

I just shook my head - the Thais have such a propensity to shoot themselves in the foot in regards to foreign relations. Here are two guys that were having a good time, enjoying their stay, made a small mistake, did what they thought was the "right" thing, and end up getting deported.

 

Here are two more people that will never come back to Thailand, and will no doubt tell countless others to do the same.

 

[Gaybutton]

Here are two more people that will never come back to Thailand, and will no doubt tell countless others to do the same.

That's quite an unfortunate incident. I'm glad you posted it. It's really strange, but if you overstay your visa and turn yourself in to the Immigration police, you pay a fine. If any police other than the Immigration police catch you having overstayed, then you get arrested.

 

If these men voluntarily went to the police, explained their situation, and made it clear that it was an honest mistake and only one day, then the police did have the authority to arrest them, but I think that was a terrible thing to do to them. Unless the hands of the police are absolutely tied in such a circumstance, then I don't understand why the police didn't explain things to them and perhaps even offer to take them to Immigration to get it straightened out. But to have arrested them and treat them as if they were trying to be criminals is truly deplorable, especially if the police had an option to help them.

[Guest fountainhall]

I heard about a couple of British guys whose visas expired over a holiday, had overstayed only ONE day, and they went into the police station to ask how to deal with it. The Boys in Brown (such a fitting color) promptly locked both of them up in the Soi 9 monkey house.

 

What's wrong with just turning up at the airport and paying the overstay fine on exit?

[Guest laurence]

What's wrong with just turning up at the airport and paying the overstay fine on exit?

You're right fountainhall. For a one day overstay there is no fine. Otherwise there is a modest daily fine at the airport. I know this from experience by overstaying one day. A lot of the above is hearsay and not necessarily fact.

[Gaybutton]

What's wrong with just turning up at the airport and paying the overstay fine on exit?

Nothing is wrong with doing that, provided you know you do that. I'm guessing these two men, if the story is true, realized their visa had expired, had no idea what to do, didn't want to run into problems at the airport, and just went to the police. Maybe they asked at their hotel and some clueless staff member told them to go to the police. Who knows?

 

I believe the story because quite often the more bizarre the story, the more likely it's a true story. I'm a little skeptical because you would think there would have been all kinds of publicity about something like this and I don't recall ever seeing anything at all about this.

 

However, whether the story is true or not, the fact remains that you want to go to Immigration and get an extension before the visa expires. If you screw up and accidentally overstay your visa, you go to Immigration, not the police. While it seems absurd that the police really would have done as the story says they did, they could do that.