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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawThailand Immigration LawThe End of Visa Amnesty: Thai O Visas Examined

The End of Visa Amnesty: Thai O Visas Examined

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing O Visas in the context of the ending Thai Visa Amnesty. So the Thai Immigration Amnesty, the Amnesty that has been provided by the Thai Immigration apparatus here in Thailand which basically waives overstay; waives the fines associated with that; waives the criminal penalties as well as the blacklist penalties associated with it is coming to an end September the 26th 

 n a recent article from Thai Examiner that is thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Visa Amnesty to End with 30-day Extensions on Application as the Focus Moves to Long Stay Visa Holders.  This article quotes directly from Deputy Commissioner Major General Porchjai Kantee and I am specifically quoting this because there is useful information in here but there is a lot of information in here. I urge folks watching this video to go check out that article over on thaiexaminer.com. Quoting directly and this first quote is directly from the Deputy Commissioner who is someone you want to listen to with respect to Immigration things: "All long-term visa holders whose permits to stay expired after March 26th, also must submit an application for an extension to stay from now until September 26th, 2020 he said. He urged such foreigners to hasten their applications to regularize their visa status, and now quoting him again directly "please contact a local immigration office as soon as possible in order to avoid congestion in the last few days", and let me say this unequivocally: yeah as we come into the home stretch of the end of this visa Amnesty I really cannot urge this enough to people watching these videos. If you need to regularize status or you think you might need to regularize status, it is a very good idea to contact a legal professional and I urge folks to take action on this, whatever action they decide to take, take it earlier sooner rather than later. As the old saying goes when they said "vote early and often", you need to deal with this early and often. You need to get this sorted out before the Amnesty ends least you find yourself in an untenable situation after the Amnesty expires because I can see scenarios playing out where people are just stuck in an overstay scenario and it can't be rectified after this. I am not saying that is a foregone conclusion but I can see situations occurring where that becomes the facts on the ground for folks and that is really not a place you want to be. Being in overstay after this ends, the old rules are coming back into force and if you are in overstay, if you are even picked up a day after overstay, if you have a police interaction, you can end up in detention for a prolonged period of time prior to being deported and presumably even blacklisted.

So those watching this video, if you think you need to normalize your status I urge you to do it sooner rather than later.