What happens if you overstay your visa in Thailand in 2024?

If you’re a tourist visiting Thailand you’ll most likely be on a 30 day visa. The day you arrive in Thailand counts as day 1, and you need to leave by the end of the 30th day.

But if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you’re thinking about staying longer than 30 days, and wondering what might happen if you do.

Let me help.

I’ve just got back from a month in Thailand (I left on March 13th 2024), and I overstayed my visa by two days, so I’ve got very recent experience of what you can expect.

Full disclaimer, although I hope it’s obvious, I’m not an immigration officer. So if you follow my advice and you’re never allowed into Thailand again, it’s not my fault. 

How to extend your visa in Thailand

You have two options when it comes to extending your tourist visa in Thailand:

1. The official route – Visit your nearest immigration office, fill in some forms, pay 1,900 THB and get a 30 day extension. This is the official route and ensures you won’t have any issues when you go through immigration at the airport
   
   
2. The unofficial route – Don’t go to the immigration office, stay in the country, and pay 500 THB for each day you overstay (up to a maximum of 20,000 THB*) payable at immigration when you leave 

*The fine never exceeds 20,000 THB even if you overstay for years (don’t do this).

The consequences for overstaying your visa in Thailand

Overstaying your visa in Thailand is illegal and Thailand has rules in place based on how long you’ve overstayed by, although there’s no mention of actually being banned from the country until you’ve overstayed by 90 days.

declaring your overstay

If you leave the country and declare your overstay, the rules are:

1. Overstay of less than 90 days = 500 THB fine per day (max 20,000 THB)
   
   
2. Overstay of more than 90 days = 1 year ban and 20,000 THB fine
   
   
3. Overstay of over 1 year = 3 year ban and 20,000 THB fine
   
   
4. Overstay of over 3 years = 5 year ban and 20,000 THB fine
   
   
5. Overstay of over five years = 10 year ban and 20,000 THB fine

With this in mind, it only really makes sense to officially extend your visa if you’re planning to overstay by more than 4 days.

4 days of overstay at 500 THB a day = 2,000 THB (100 THB more than the 1,900 THB fee for doing it officially).

Even at 4 days, you might decide to save yourself the hassle of going to the immigration office and pay the extra 100 THB.

Only you can really decide what you’re comfortable with, but if you’re staying any longer than a week I’d suggest getting a proper extension to avoid it getting very expensive.

getting caught overstaying

The situation looks quite different if you’re caught overstaying though. If the authorities catch you, even if you’re only one day over your visa, you’ll be fined, you could be imprisoned and you’ll face a ban of 5 years.

What happens at the airport if you’ve overstayed your visa in Thailand?

I never intended to outstay my visa, but I had a last minute change of plans that meant it was easier to stay in Thailand for a couple of days rather than go to Vietnam as I’d originally planned.

I went to the immigration office in Chiang Mai with the best intentions of doing it officially, but an immigration officer advised me that it would be cheaper for me to pay the 1,000 baht fee for the 2 days, and I wouldn’t get in any trouble because the overstay was less than 90 days.

So that’s what I did.

I was a bit apprehensive when I got to the airport – I’ve watched a lot of border control episodes, but overall it was pretty uneventful.

I checked in, passed through security and then headed to immigration, where the officer informed me I needed to pay for an overstay.

I was then pointed in the direction of the immigration desk, where I handed my passport over, along with the fee, and waited for the officer to fill out a form whilst I scanned my fingerprints. 

I had to sign a receipt to acknowledge the overstay, my passport was then stamped, and I was on my way.

I now have two stamps on my passport, one standard stamp that states the date I left Thailand, and another stating when I left, plus how many days I overstayed by.

Usually an avid rule abider, I don’t love having that plastered across my passport, but there’s no one to blame but me.

How do you extend your tourist visa in Thailand?

If you want to extend your visa officially, you’ll need to go to your nearest immigration office.

You’ll need to bring:

• Your passport
• A photocopy of the main passport page
• A photocopy of the passport page showing your stamp
• A passport photos of yourself
• A TM30 registration form (ask your hotel for this)
• 1,900 THB

If you don’t have copies of your passport or pictures of yourself, you should be able to get them at the immigration centre.