Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing overstay and the notion of whether or not overstay can be "fixed" in Thailand. What we are talking about here is you end up in overstay, can you get it rectified without leaving the country?

Now two years ago, 18 months ago, prior to the Emergency Decree here in March 2020, I would say yeah that is pretty much impossible. Again all things occur at the discretion of Immigration Officers, it is plenary, so with respect to rectification of one's status, depending on circumstances an Immigration Officer during the adjudication may make a favourable use of their discretion to go ahead and waive the overstay, fix it, so called; probably dealing with a fine of some sort but your status is rectified. It may be possible even under pre-emergency decree. We have seen circumstances work out. It takes a lot of work and a lot of explanation as to what happened but we have seen situations under the Emergency Decree where people inadvertently fell out of status, they couldn't get in to another status or they were delayed in doing so and there were methodologies of keeping those folks in legal status. So theoretically it may be possible. One of the best fixes for an overstay is to not end up in an overstay, or if you end up in an overstay to get out quickly before you get blacklisted because that is another portion of this. If you go over 90 days in overstay the presumption is you are blacklisted at least for a certain period of time. Now again, circumstances may dictate and we have seen circumstances dictate where that might not necessarily apply if one inadvertently ended up in that situation but again it is all based on a favourable exercise of discretion of a Thai Immigration Officer. 

So the thing to take away from this video, yes it perhaps might be possible. Do not presume it by any stretch of the imagination. If you can keep yourself in lawful status in Thailand, do it. It is far better than presuming it is going to be possible to fix the situation after the fact. That said, especially during this Emergency Decree, there is more discretion vested in Immigration Officers for the specific purpose of dealing with these kind of unforeseen circumstances. Yeah there may be a method of getting a situation rectified or fixed but those situations are probably going to be few and far between. If you are already in this situation, it is probably a good idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.