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Where Do I Pay My Overstay Fines in Thailand?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing overstay fines and specifically where those fines are paid in the Kingdom of Thailand. 

Well when one gets accessed with an overstay fine there is basically two scenarios where you're going to be dealing with that. One is in detention and one is at the airport basically, or some other port of entry. It doesn't necessarily have to be at the airport. a land border or even a sea border if you come and go by boat. Any one of those types of immigration checkpoints can go ahead and assess overstay fine but basically let's do it from the context of an airport. 

Here in Bangkok that is mostly where we deal with overstays and "yes, you have to pay the overstay fine at the time you depart." If you haven't been detained prior to leaving the country, you go ahead and pay your fines at the port of entry or port of exit in this case, at the immigration checkpoint.  Overstay fines are assessed at Bt500 per day and can go no higher than 20,000 baht at least at the time of this video. So if you've got in a more than essentially whatever 20,000 baht is in days you need to take Bt20,000 to the airport in order to pay the fine and depart the Kingdom. Again, this can occur at Immigration checkpoints both on a land and sea border but Immigration is going to assess that fine and they're going to have it paid into their, I think, general fund as a result of foreigners overstay.

Another thing to keep in mind is detention. So those who have been arrested and detained specifically for Immigration violations or in another criminal context but are now being processed out by Thai Immigration, generally speaking they will pay their overstay fines either at the Immigration Detention Center or in some cases I've seen it happen, where they just be processed out at the airport and they paid there. In either case, they are essentially dealing with those fines in detention, either at the airport or at the Detention Center directly, and then they are sort of given a voucher and they are processed out through an airport or it could be a land border; I don't think I've ever seen one at a sea border, but in any event they are detained and then they pay their fines while in detention and then they are processed out. Whether they are blacklisted or not depends on the given set of circumstances in their case but most folks that have been detained are going to be on the Blacklist for at least five years following the detention due to the new rules with respect and blacklisting and overstay here in the Kingdom. 

So the thing to take away from this video is paying your overstay fines is going to be one or two places. If you are not currently in detention and you want to know how to pay your overstay fines, the best piece of advice,”Leave the Kingdom. Pay your overstay fines upon your departure", because the alternative is being detained, paying your overstay fines and likely being subject to a five-year blacklisting associated therewith.