Anonymous participant 145 Those long overstays are a terrible idea but from reports I've read and based on my understanding of enforcement, they are treated as "resolved" if you surrender yourself at the airport: pay a fine, accept a ban, and move on with your life. Assuming you never intend to come back, you're fine, no jail time. But still a terrible idea because Thailand is a great place to be.

Regarding police checks, I've lived in Thailand from 2009-2012 and again from July of last year until today, and some trips in between. I've literally only been stopped and questioned by the cops once: I was looking sketchy hanging out alone near Khao San, totally understand why they questioned me. They just searched me to see if I had drugs, then moved on. No immigration or passport check.

No clue? I've had a 3 day overstay in 2012, 1 day overstay in 2017, and none of those presented any issues for a visit to Thailand in 2019, 60 day stay last year, getting a DTV and entering on it last year. This is about small overstays of a few days, not 90+ day overstays. Getting caught in the street after overstays of 1-3 days is extremely rare, especially if you go straight to the airport. Making claims that these rare small overstays dealt with at the airport lead to future consequences is just fear-mongering. All that said, I do think it's best to follow the law which I intent to do going forward.

Overstaying any amount of time is best avoided, but it’s nowhere near as serious as these bootlickers here in the comment section make it out to be.