What Happens If I Overstay?

Once your permitted stay ends, you are on overstay from the following day. There is no grace period. Overstay is an offence under the Immigration Act, and it carries both a fine and, in serious cases, a ban on re-entry or detention.

The fine accrues at 500 THB per day, capped at 20,000 THB. The bigger risk is not the fine but the ban: an overstay of more than 90 days can bring a one-year ban, and longer overstays bring bans of three, five or ten years.

If you surrender at the airport and pay the fine, the matter is usually dealt with at departure. This is treated more leniently than being apprehended. Being caught, whether at an immigration checkpoint, a raid, or a routine stop, can lead to detention at an immigration detention centre and a ban on top of the fine.

The distinction matters. A voluntary departure with the fine paid is a problem resolved; an apprehended overstay is a problem that follows you. If you discover you are overstaying, the right move is to take advice before you travel, not to hope the border officer will not notice.

First, do not make it worse. Do not try to leave through a remote checkpoint in the hope of lighter checks. Second, work out whether an extension is still possible. If your underlying basis for stay still exists and you simply failed to file, an extension may be available with a fine, which resolves the overstay without departure.

If an extension is not possible, we arrange a managed departure: the fine is calculated, the documentation is prepared, and the exit is handled at the airport so you leave cleanly and with the ban, if any, understood in advance.