Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Immigration. This does not happen overly often although I am sure on the internet and it will probably be in the comments below, a bunch of people will tell you it happens all the time. In our experience this is pretty rare but it does happen. Nobody is perfect. Thai Immigration can make mistakes and notwithstanding their mistake, it can still hurt YOU. 

What am I talking about here? Well for example, where we see this happen the most and it hasn't been very frequent lately, mostly because Thai Immigration has a lot more time on their hands out at the airport, but during peak travel we would see this a lot where for example someone would come into Thailand on a multi-entry visa and they just get stamped in. They don't even look at that stamp and they think "oh they stamped in my multi-entry Visa." That may not necessarily be the case. The Immigration Officer may have been moving quickly and they just see the passport and they just give an Exemption Stamp. I have seen that happen a lot when in fact that person had a multi-entry sticker in their passport. It just got overlooked and they were stamped in for 30 days for example, with a Business Visa when they should have been stamped in for 90 days in Business Visa status; more importantly, in Business Visa status to act as a platform for a Work Permit. I have seen this happen. I can think of one client specifically that there was a mistake made and that person was intending to come in and get their Work Permit issued then they had to leave for another business meeting in the region only they couldn't do it on that trip because by the time we would have had to fix the mistake, which Immigration will fix their mistakes, but it can cost you time. 

The other thing that happens is folks think that their visa worked one way and when they come in it in fact didn't work the same way that they thought it would work. Let me explain what I am talking about. So again, the same thing can happen where somebody thinks they came in on a multi-entry Visa and got a 90-day stamp but in fact they got a 30 and they didn't check it at the time that they came in. They inadvertently now are at least the prima facie, on its face, they are on overstay in Thailand. Now again, we have seen those circumstances. It is difficult to deal with but one can rectify it. My point is in making this video for example when you are coming through Thai Immigration, check to make sure you were stamped in in the Visa status you were seeking. 

The other thing is and we have seen this happen in extension matters where they will get the date off sometimes. They will have the day one day behind when it should be, and that can cause other problems a month later when you have to go back and get your visa further extended because that date is off. You are not going to be there on the day of, you need to be there the next day. Again Immigration has the plenary power to fix these little mistakes but it can be a problem if you don't look at your documentation and keep an eye on it. Now I am not saying be overly paranoid about your Immigration documentation, but just keep an eye. I especially find this to be the case when Immigration is really busy when coming through a border checkpoint. Just double check and make sure "okay I was stamped in with the Visa that I have got" and go from there. The other thing that we do see sometimes is sometimes Immigration won't necessarily volunteer, it is really not their job but people will leave the country not knowing they need a re-entry permit. If you have a Visa extension in order to maintain one's status and go abroad simultaneously, you have to get a re-entry permit to do that. Well Immigration may not necessarily tell you that. That is not really their mistake; it is more on the applicant to understand that. I have definitely seen people they will go get their extension, they will have a one year extension and then they will leave the country and they will fall out of status because they didn't have a re-entry permit. 

So again it is not all about Thai Immigration's mistake but even their mistakes can cause you some problems down the road. Any time you interact with Immigration and you go ahead and get a stamp, it is not a terrible idea to just double check it, ascertain where you stand with respect to that stamp before departing the scene if you will, in order to ensure that your status is what you believe it to be.