The Thai police arrested a Briton for overstaying his tourist visa by 25 years – this is a record violation, stated a high-ranking police official on Monday. The man, who is 60 years old and whose identity is not disclosed, arrived in Thailand at the beginning of 2000 on a tourist visa and did not leave the country since that time. He escaped previous checks by the police, claiming that he was planning to apply for a visa extension.
He was arrested in the final tally in the Chaiyaphum province in Thailand on Monday during an operation conducted by immigration officials aimed at foreigners who have violated visa regulations in the country, after staying more than nine thousand days after arriving with a 30-day visa.
The police focused on areas where foreigners regularly appear, and noticed the Briton, who did not present them with his passport. During the interrogation, he admitted that he arrived in Thailand on a tourist visa for 30 days in 2000 and stayed in the country until the moment of his arrest.
The police officer who participated in the operation said: "After checking his name in our immigration system, it became known that he entered Thailand in 2000 and since that time has not had other stamps in our system." "He overstayed his visa in Thailand for 9135 days, which appears to be a record after the previous record of a Pakistani, who was in the country for a period of 10 years after the expiry of his visa."
The police noted that the man will be deported to the UK, and even managed to renew his passport in 2018, while the new document did not have stamps from immigration authorities. The police reported that the man had lived in Bangkok for 13 years, met a Thai woman, with whom he has a child, and moved to Chaiyaphum 12 years ago for economic reasons.
Despite the fact that the man has no job, he lives off his family in the UK. Police dismissed that he absconded from the address, claiming that he is supposedly planning to apply for a visa, which is impossible to verify without the knowledge of immigration authorities.