In a surprising turn of events, police in Thailand arrested a British man for overstaying his tourist visa by an astonishing 25 years, making headlines as the longest overstay on record.
A senior officer revealed the news to AFP on Tuesday, sparking curiosity about how someone could live in the country for so long without detection.
A 30-Day Visa Turned Into 25 Years
The 60-year-old British man, whose identity has not been disclosed, entered Thailand back in 2000 on a 30-day tourist visa.
However, he never left and continued to live in the country, even managing to avoid previous police checks.
His excuse for not renewing his visa was that he was in the process of extending it, but it seems that this claim was never verified.
A Record Overstay
It wasn’t until a crackdown by immigration officials in Chiang Mai that the man was caught.
The operation, which was aimed at foreigners overstaying their visas, uncovered his situation after he failed to produce his passport.
Upon further investigation, officials found that he had overstayed for a total of 9,135 days, setting a new record for the longest visa overstay in Thailand.
The previous record holder was a Pakistani man who had overstayed for 10 years.
A Life Built in Thailand
During his time in Thailand, the man lived in Bangkok for 13 years, where he started a family with a Thai woman and had a child.
For the past 12 years, he had been living in Chiang Mai for economic reasons.
However, despite building a life there, the man did not hold a job and reportedly survived on financial support from his family in the UK.
Avoiding Detection
Interestingly, the man was able to evade arrest for so long by telling authorities that he was in the process of extending his visa.
This allowed him to slip through the cracks, as only the immigration bureau could confirm his visa status.
Even more surprising, when he renewed his passport in 2018, it came back with no immigration stamps, leaving no trace of his extended stay in Thailand.
Deportation Looms
The British man is now set to be deported back to the UK.
His case has sparked discussions about how one can stay in a foreign country for so long without getting caught.
It raises the question: how much do you have to love a country to stay for 9,135 days?