I Almost Got Deported From Thailand

I almost got deported from Thailand

We’ve all had those moments while traveling, everything is going just fine, you’ve got everything together, and then in a second it all goes to shit.

I had one of those wonderful moments at the Bangkok airport going through Thai passport control.

US passport

We were leaving Thailand to catch a flight to Indonesia, and Rob went through before me no problem. Then it was my turn, I walked up to the counter handed the agent my passport and ticket per usual. As I stood there, I realized this process was taking way longer than normal and the agent was calling someone over, he was say something to me in Thai that I couldn’t understand, and I started to get nervous. What was going on? I managed to decipher that the agent was saying I’d overstayed my visa, but I knew I hadn’t. I had a six month visa, and therefore could stay 60 days at time before having to leave the country.

In Thailand, when you come in on a standard tourist visa you get 30 days in the country then you have to leave. Many people will do “visa run”, taking a quick trip to one of the surrounding countries for a day, and then coming back into Thailand, starting their 30 days over.

We knew we would want to stay in Thailand for an extended period of time so we’d gotten a six month tourist visa. But even with that we still had to leave every 60 days for a visa run.

Thai Visa

I tried telling that to the agent, I also knew we were on day 59 so that might not look so good. But he’d just let Rob through right before me and we have the same visa. Another agent came over and asked me to follow her to a small room behind all the agent counters. I could see Rob around the corner asking what was happeing. All I could do was shake my head and shrug as I was led into the room.

I almost got deported from Thailand

Once in the room the agent explained to me that I’d over stayed my 30 day visa. I explained again that I had a six month visa so I had 60 days. She shook her head and pointed at my passport, “your stamp says 30 days, you were supposed to leave in August”. I looked at her confused and stared down at my passport stamp, it did indeed say August 25th, and it was now September 24th.

I sat there stunned for a second, I was an illegal alien!

I managed to snap back into reality and told her to turn to the front of my passport, I did have a six month visa. The agent that stamped me in must have made a mistake, he hadn’t seen the visa and given me the wrong stamp.

She looked at the visa for a bit and then took me back out to an empty passport control counter. She started working away on the computer without saying anything to me. I stood there nervously, hoping I would be able to come back into the country after our Indonesia trip. She then started scribbling notes in my passport, and handed it back to me. She told me that she’d fixed the mistake and the next time I come into the country to make sure I hand the agent my passport open to the page with my visa on it.

Make sure to check your stamps!

And I was free to go. I walked away, heart pounding with adrenaline and relief.

So while my situation got resolved fairly painlessly, overstaying your visa is no joke. Depending on how long you overstay in Thailand, it can range from a hefty fine to being banned from the country.

In all my years of traveling I’d never thought to check my stamp to make sure I got the right one when entering a country. But I will from now on. If you have any kind of special visa it’s a good idea to check after getting stamped to make sure the date in your passport matches up with the timeline of your visa. You don’t want to find yourself trying to explain to passport control that you didn’t over stay, even if you technically did.

Oregon Girl Around the World
9 comments

9 thoughts on “I Almost Got Deported From Thailand

  1. Arielle

    I had a similar problem in Poland, but our residency paperwork was just left on someone’s desk when they went on maternity leave and thus wasn’t processed in time! Luckily no one checks your Schengen visa when you travel by bus or train.

    Reply
    1. nattiekaf Post author

      Oh no thats awful! Glad it all worked out for you though, also interesting to know that visa’s don’t get checked when you travel by bus or train. Thanks for reading!

      Reply
  2. Ava Meena

    What a scary situation! I had a problem in Germany when my husband and I had work / residence visas that were supposed to last until our flight on October 1st, but for some reason they had put the last day as September 30th instead. Luckily, we realized this a month beforehand and were able to get one-day extensions. I’m glad we did, because the passport staff demanded to see them almost as soon as we showed up at the airport! That is definitely not a fun situation to be in. #FarawayFiles

    Reply
  3. Clare (Suitcases and Sandcastles)

    Phew! That was a hairy moment! I was nearly deported from Hawaii once for ticking the bit that said I was there to work instead of leisure. It’s such a horrible feeling, isn’t it? Glad you survived to tell the tale on #FarawayFiles

    Reply
  4. Erin Gustafson

    We’ve had a few run-in’s traveling about Europe and back to the States if we forget to show our Danish residency permits and get the 30-day stamp instead. It is stressful and now we never forget to show that with our passports! Glad it all got sorted and it’s just a good story! #FarawayFiles

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.