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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawWhat Are the Odds of Readmission to Thailand After Blacklisting?

What Are the Odds of Readmission to Thailand After Blacklisting?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Blacklist here in Thailand. I have had some people email us, I have seen some comments on YouTube. Basically folks have been asking "Look what happens if I get blacklisted? I basically do my time, I remain abroad, I fulfill the terms of the blacklisting and then I try to come back into Thailand. What are my odds of coming back?" Well I would say that is going to be very circumstantially dependent. I would say those that have been blacklisted for example for a decade, they might effectively just be blacklisted for life. Somebody may see that in the system and just say "look, I am not going to take the chance of re-admitting this person." That being said, somebody who has had a one-year blacklisting for having overstayed, you know this could happen in the context of somebody who doesn't fully understand for example, their multiple entry Non-immigrant Visa where they get it issued abroad, it is one year. They think that the expiration date on the sticker is the lawful status that is given at the time of entry when in fact, for example the multi-entry B visa, it is the stamp you get at every entry so it is 90 days every time you are stamped in. 

So the thing to take away from this video is, yeah you can see a person who you know they made an honest error, thought that they were in status and overstayed by another 90 days before they found out and then left and got blacklisted. That person, I think if they explain themselves when they are trying to re-enter and explain what happened, that they were put on The Blacklist, I can see a situation where a reasonable adjudicating officer would say "yeah okay it was an error. You did your time. We are going to let you back in."

That being said you know these folks that you have heard about that overstayed by 5 years in Thailand, their blacklisting maybe 10 years only lease on paper but as a practical matter, Immigration Officers have the discretion to turn folks away based on various sections of the Immigration Act and they might see a prolonged blacklisting and just say "I don't really want to be on the hook for letting this person back in especially as they show a proclivity for being willing to overstay for a fairly long period of time." So I would say it is going to be circumstantially dependent and I think common sense probably prevails. There are probably going to be cases that are somewhere in the middle where it was a person that was kind of on a rather more prolonged overstay but all things being equal they weren't really trying to do anything nefarious. Again it is going to be touch and go and you are going to have to deal with that on a case-by-case basis.