Transcript of the above video on:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing overstaying in Thailand and the law enforcement capability, the law enforcement activity going on semi behind the scenes with respect to apprehending overstayers in the Kingdom. 

In a recent article from the Bangkok Post print edition, Monday, September 21, 2020, the article is titled: Tourists Face Arrest, Jail for Overstaying. I thought this was very interesting. Quoting directly: "Failure to report to obtain a Visa renewal by the deadline will incur a daily fine and lead to authorities" and I want to be clear on this, "tracking down tourists at addresses kept in the IB" that is Immigration Bureau, "in the IB's database." Quoting further: "Police Colonel Pakpong said tourists will be arrested and face legal action" that is arrested if they overstay, "if they fail to get their visa rectified before the end of the Amnesty." and I urge you, we are making this video prior to the end of the Amnesty.  We hope to have it published before then. Please if you are not already in a Visa status, try to get into a Visa status if you are planning to stay in Thailand. There are solutions. We have gone over a number of them on this channel. If you are feeling overwhelmed or you don't know what to do or you are in a really precarious situation, contact a legal professional to gain some insight and guidance. 

The thing I want taken away from this video is the enforcement apparatus associated with overstay is not messing around and they have resources at their disposal. Arguably they have more resources at their disposal than they otherwise would normally have and they have a database of addresses. They are going to be looking for people that have, I shouldn't prescribe thoughts to what Immigration is thinking or words in anyone's mouth, but I think it is reasonable to presume that Immigration is looking on folks that have had these 6 months of Amnesty and have failed to either leave Thailand in due course or failed to get a visa to rectify their status. I suspect Immigration is not going to be looking at those folks with a lot of sympathy because I think they are going to be viewed as being people who just intentionally went into overstay or allowed themselves to be placed into overstay without being assiduous in keeping up their status. 

So the thing to take away from this video: they have the resources at their disposal to apprehend overstayers in Thailand and for lack of a better term they don't really have much else to do. They are not really admitting a lot of folks lawfully into Thailand right now as they normally would and that personnel can be redirected to other endeavors and some of those other endeavors in my opinion, are likely to be apprehending overstayers. So if you can, try to rectify your Visa status before Amnesty ends otherwise it is possible that you may be dealing with a more enhanced enforcement apparatus dealing with overstay after the Amnesty comes to an end.