Showing posts with label Overstayers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Overstayers. Show all posts

Thursday 6 December 2018

Foreigners in Pattaya to get SMS alert before their visa expires


Immigration Police are going to start sending SMS reminders to foreigners in Chonburi province — including everyone’s favorite party city Pattaya — to make sure that they don’t overstay their visa.

Immigration Police Chief Surachate Hakpan said yesterday that the visa notification will first debut in Chonburi, thanks to the large number of foreigners staying there, and he has assigned the provincial immigration police chief Songprode Sirisukha to implement the service. 

The SMS will be sent out 15 days before the visa expiry date in order to prevent tourists and expats from forgetting or “misunderstanding” their length of stay.
One big question, however, remains unanswered. When will this actually kick off?
When contacted by Coconuts this afternoon, an officer at Chonburi Immigration Police, who requested anonymity, said there is no time frame yet set for when the service will be implemented in the province.




The alerts will only be sent to those who have registered their phone numbers when they applied for a visa or an extension.
The text notification is part of the Immigration Police’s project to decrease the number of overstayers to “zero.”

Surachate said that foreigners who do not sort out their visas and intentionally overstay will face “harsh measures,” including being deported and blacklisted anywhere from 5 to 10 years, depending on their cases. 

Source - Coconuts.co 
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https://www.hotelscombined.com/?a_aid=145054
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Monday 26 October 2015

Overstayers face stiff re-entry bans, #Thailand

Immigration police say these are just a few of the estimated 800,000 foreigners who are in Thailand on passports and papers that have expired.

The Immigration Bureau has asked Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to exercise his special powers to issue a ban on foreigners found guilty of overstaying in Thailand from re-entering the country for one to 10 years. 

The move is aimed at cutting the number of illegal migrants by 80%, down from the current crop of overstayers estimated at 800,000 people.

Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn Prousoontorn, the bureau chief, said in cases of overstaying of more than 90 days to one year, the ban from re-entry will be one year.

In cases of overstaying between more than one year and three years, the ban from re-entry will be three years, while those found guilty of overstaying between more than three years and five years will face a ban from re-entry of five years.

For those found guilty of overstaying more than five years, the ban from re-entry will be 10 years.

Most illegal migrants in Thailand came originally from Africa, India and Bangladesh and their motives for breaking the immigration law here were mainly that they wanted to use Thailand as a temporary shelter before migrating on to a third country, said Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn.

One reason for the growth of overstayers was the rather weak penalties for overstaying that comprise a fine of 500 baht-20,000 baht and deportation, he said.

Anyone who doesn't have money for the fine can opt for imprisonment in which one day is equivalent to the payment of 200 baht in fines, he said.

However, under the present law, after being deported to their countries of origin, those illegal migrants can still return to Thailand again and again, he said.

The proposal to impose a re-entry ban on illegal migrants via the prime minister's order under Section 44 of the interim charter has won approval from the Interior Ministry and is now being considered by the prime minister, he said.

In a crackdown over the past week, 9,265 foreign suspects were arrested, 97.5% of whom were accused of violating the immigration law by overstaying, said Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn.

Of this number, only 18 people were detained on other criminal charges.

A vast majority of the detained suspects were African people, he said.

Pol Gen Dechnarong Suthichanbancha, a Level 10 police adviser who specialises in security affairs, said an instruction had been issued to stamp out illegal migrants in Thailand, which led to authorities deciding on the 80% initial reduction target.

In four notable cases recently, a total of six foreigners were detained. In the first case, Kristina Monka, 23, and Grigory Lyaskov, 24, both from Russia and wanted by Russian authorities and Interpol on fraud charges, were detained in Pattaya City on Oct 21.

Ms Monka was wanted by police in Russia after she was found to have transferred about 4 million baht from customers' accounts at the bank where she worked to her own secret accounts before fleeing to Thailand.

She worked as a customer relations manager for the Russian Bank and colluded with Mr Lyaskov who himself secretly transferred about 945,000 baht from customers' accounts to his own, police said.

In the second case, Agborbelle Mkpot Etah, 32, and Chanceline Ngenwie, 28, both from Cameroon, were arrested on Saturday, Mr Etha in Bang Kapi district of Bangkok and Ms Ngenwie in Chon Buri's Phanat Nikhom district.
These suspects were wanted by Khon Kaen police on document forgery charges. Police found they hired a Cameroonian visa broker in Khon Kaen to submit on their behalf fake documents claiming they were hired as language teachers in the northeastern province.

The fake documents were intended to deceive immigration officials into renewing their visas.

In the third case, Minwoo Cho, 43, from South Korea, who was wanted under a "red notice" issued by Interpol for alleged involvement in illegal online gambling was detained in Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district on Thursday.

Immigration officials in Chon Buri had been looking for this suspect for some time before they found he operated a massage shop on Sukhumvit Road in this district.

In the fourth case, Myo Kyi, 47, from Myanmar, was arrested on Oct 19 for allegedly forging a departure immigration clearance stamp at the immigration office in Ranong province.

This suspect was found to have used the fake immigration stamp on his passport during an immigration check at Suvarnabhumi airport.

Immigration officials who inspected his passport had detected signs of irregularities in the stamp on page 11 of his passport, prompting them to compare the stamp with the record stored in the VSC6000 immigration system.

They found the stamp on his passport was fake.

The suspect was believed to have used the fake stamp to extend his stay in Thailand when he was actually overstaying, an immigration source said.

No word was to hand on when the prime minister was likely to make a decision on the call for re-entry bans.

Source: BangkokPost

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Wednesday 30 July 2014

Immigration clarifies rules on foreigners carrying ID

Aliens must now carry valid ID at all times, report within 24 hours

 Following yesterday’s news regarding the requirement for foreigners in Thailand to carry ID with them at all times, Thaivisa.com and local Immigration offices have been inundated with messages and comments from foreigners concerned about how they may be affected by this news.
In order to seek fruther clarification about this, Thaivisa.com has today met with Pol.Col. Thanasak Vongluekiat, Superintendent of Prachuap Khirikhan and Phetchaburi Immigration.

Pol.Col. Thanasak confirmed the following:

1. By law, all tourists and expats nationwide are required to carry their original passports with them at all times. There is no exception to this. Failure to carry your original passport may result in a 2,000 THB fine. The reason behind this is that Immigration needs to keep track of overstayers and foreign criminals who may be staying illegally in the country.

2. The information provided at an Immigration meeting yesterday was unclear. The correct information, which has always been the case, is that no other forms of identification are acceptable. This includes any other form of photo ID, such as a Thai/foreign driving license or a photocopy of your passport.

3. Immigration does not provide any kind of ‘stamp’ verification on a photocopy of a passport as announced at the meeting yesterday. Therefore, you are required to keep your original passport with you at all times as per point #1 above.

Thaivisa.com would like to thank Pol.Col. Thanasak Vongluekiat and his staff for taking time out of their busy schedule in order to clarify this.

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 Hua Hin Immigration is from today enforcing the existing rule that foreigners are required to carry a valid photo ID at all times.

At a meeting with Hua Hin Immigration and municipality, Thaivisa.com was informed of the news about the immediate enforcement regarding the requirements for foreigners - both tourists and expats - to carry valid photo ID at all times. Thaivisa has learned that Immigration is likely to enforce this nationwide.

Valid ID's are:

- Thai Drivers License
- Passport original
- Copy of passport verified and stamped by Hua Hin Immigration

Penalty:
Failure to carry valid ID as above is 2,000 Baht.

24-hour reporting

Hua Hin Immigration is from today also enforcing the requirements that you and your landlord (condominium owner, house owner etc) must report to Immigration within 24 hours of moving in to a new address. On your arrival card you already reported your place of stay, and if that changes you need to visit Immigration and report your new address. This applies to both tourists and expats.

Here are the two Immigration forms to be used, they can be downloaded from Thaivisa here:

Here is the TM28 form that must be used from now in Hua Hin, and nationwide if/when enforced:
http://www.thaivisa....-over-24-hours/

There is also another reporting obligation, and this applies when a foreigner visits another province and stays for more than 48 hours. In that case the reporting of the new address must be provided to the police, or the immigration, within 48 hours.

Here is the form to be used by house master or owner or possessor of the residence where foreigners reside: