What Happens If You Overstay Your Visa (Fines and Bans by Country)

If you stay past the last day your entry allows, you have overstayed, and what it costs depends on where you are: a daily fine in Thailand or Indonesia, a record in the EU’s border system, or a 3- or 10-year bar on returning to the US after a long overstay. Below are each country’s fines and bans as of October 2026, how the days are counted, and what to do if you are already over.

When an overstay starts

The date that matters is the last day your entry record allows, not the expiry date printed on a visa. In the US that is the date on your I-94 record. In most other countries it is the date in your entry stamp, and in Schengen it is set by a running count of your days.

The stay you are given can also be shorter than the country’s maximum. Mexico gives a tourist a passport stamp with the number of days allowed, and 180 days is the longest a tourist stay can run, so the number on your stamp is your limit even when it is lower.

What happens if you overstay in the US

One day past your I-94 date does not trigger a ban, but it does cost you the visa or the Visa Waiver access you came in on. The bigger penalty is a bar on coming back, and it depends on how many days of unlawful presence you build up.

Unlawful presence	What follows	Runs from
180 days or fewer	No 3- or 10-year bar, but the visa you entered on is void	No bar to run
More than 180 days, less than 1 year	3-year bar, if you leave before removal proceedings start	The day you leave
1 year or more	10-year bar	The day you leave or are removed
More than 1 year in total, then entering or trying to enter without being admitted	A bar with no end date; DHS can consent to a new application after 10 years outside the US	Your last departure

Some time never counts toward the bars: days before your 18th birthday, days while a genuine asylum application is pending (unless you work without authorization), and time under family-unity protection. Some victims of trafficking or abuse are exempt.

Filing on time also matters. A nonfrivolous application to extend or change your status, filed before your I-94 date and without any unauthorized work, pauses the count toward the 3-year bar while it is pending, for up to 120 days.

For a green card or immigrant visa, the waiver of the 3- and 10-year bars exists only for the spouse, son or daughter of a US citizen or permanent resident, when refusal would cause extreme hardship to that citizen or resident spouse or parent. It is discretionary, and no court can review the decision. A separate discretionary waiver can let someone with a bar visit temporarily on a nonimmigrant visa.

Daniel, a sample visitor on a B-2 visa, has an I-94 record that authorizes his stay until 1 Mar 2026. He stays on and flies home on 17 Sep 2026.

Date	Day of unlawful presence	Where he stands
2 Mar 2026	1	Overstaying, and his visa is now void
28 Aug 2026	180	A departure on this day or earlier brings no 3-year bar
29 Aug 2026	181	Past 180 days: the 3-year bar applies when he leaves
17 Sep 2026	200	Departs; the 3-year bar runs until 17 Sep 2029

Day 180 itself does not trigger the bar; it takes more than 180 days. Even with a departure on 28 Aug, his visa would still be void.

Overstay fines and bans by country

Outside the US, most countries charge a fine by the day or the month, then move to deportation or a ban once an overstay runs long.

Country	Fine	What can follow	Ban length
Schengen area	Set by each country	Removal, detention, an EES overstayer listing, an entry ban with some return decisions	In principle 5 years at most
Thailand	500 baht a day, up to 20,000 baht	Deportation and a ban after more than 90 days over; a ban after any arrest	1 to 10 years
Indonesia	IDR 1,000,000 a day, for under 60 days	Deportation and a re-entry ban after more than 60 days	Up to 10 years, extendable by up to 10
Philippines	PHP 500 a month, paid with an extension	A blacklist order that bars entry	Lifting it takes a letter to the BI Commissioner
Vietnam	A fine you must pay before you can leave	Deportation and a ban on future visits	No length given

Schengen area: EES records and entry bans

A visa-free visitor overstays in Schengen on the first day that breaks the 90/180 rule: more than 90 days inside the 29 countries in the 180 days ending that day. Since 10 Apr 2026, the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) records every entry and exit of a short-stay visitor and adds overstayers automatically to a list that border, immigration and visa staff can see.

Each Schengen country sets its own penalty, which can include removal, a fine, detention and being refused entry on a later trip. Some return decisions come with an entry ban. Both are entered in the Schengen Information System, and a ban should not in principle exceed 5 years. If no exit is recorded, the EES keeps your data for 5 years from the end of your authorized stay.

A record can be corrected. If something you could not foresee, such as a hospital stay, caused the overstay, credible evidence given to the border or immigration authorities can get it amended.

Thailand: 500 baht a day and bans up to 10 years

Thailand fines 500 baht for each day over, up to 20,000 baht, and you pay it at the immigration checkpoint before you are allowed to leave. The fine stops growing at 40 days, since 40 days at 500 baht is 20,000.

Bans follow Ministry of Interior Order 1/2558, in force since 20 Mar 2016 and set out by the Thai embassy in Abu Dhabi. If you surrender, more than 90 days over brings a 1-year ban, more than 1 year a 3-year ban, more than 3 years a 5-year ban and more than 5 years a 10-year ban. If you are arrested, under 1 year over brings a 5-year ban and more than 1 year a 10-year ban. Every ban runs from the day you leave.

Indonesia: IDR 1,000,000 a day, deportation after 60 days

Indonesia charges IDR 1,000,000 for each day of overstay, and under its immigration law the fine covers overstays of less than 60 days. More than 60 days means deportation and a re-entry ban of up to 10 years, which can be extended by up to 10 more. Deportation is possible earlier if the fine goes unpaid.

Paying does not buy time. If your permit cannot be extended, as with a visa-exempt entry or a visa on arrival already extended once, you still have to leave after you pay.

Philippines: PHP 500 a month and the blacklist

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) fee list, dated 6 Mar 2014, adds an overstay fine of PHP 500 a month to the fees for extending a visa-free stay. An overstay of more than 6 months also needs a motion for reconsideration, at PHP 500 plus PHP 10. Overstaying is one of the common reasons for a Black List Order, which bars you from entering the Philippines, and lifting one takes a letter to the BI Commissioner.

Vietnam: no exit until the fine is paid

If you overstay in Vietnam, the authorities can stop you leaving until you pay a fine, and you could be deported and barred from future visits, according to UK government travel advice. Check the leave-by date in your entry stamp before you walk away from the border post: if it is wrong, you could be accused of overstaying.

Each sample traveler below leaves after the last date on their entry stamp, and the fines use the rates above.

Overstay	Country	Fine	Ban
3 days, after a canceled flight	Thailand	3 x 500 = 1,500 baht	None
45 days, surrenders at the airport	Thailand	22,500 baht, capped at 20,000	None
100 days, surrenders at the airport	Thailand	20,000 baht	1 year from departure
100 days, arrested	Thailand	20,000 baht	5 years from departure
3 days	Indonesia	IDR 3,000,000	None if paid
61 days	Indonesia	Deportation instead	Up to 10 years

The 2 Thai travelers who stayed 100 days pay the same capped fine. The difference between a 1-year and a 5-year ban is whether they came forward or were caught.

What to do if you have already overstayed

Every extra day adds to the fine or to the count toward a ban. Work out where you stand first, then settle the overstay through the official channel.

How to settle an overstay

1. Find the last date you were allowed to stay: the I-94 record in the US, the entry stamp in most of Asia, the EES record in Schengen.
2. Count the days since then, starting with the day after that date, and note which of the rules above already applies to you.
3. Collect proof if something outside your control kept you, such as hospital records or a cancellation notice from the airline.
4. Talk to an immigration lawyer if the overstay is in the US, because the bars start when you leave and the waiver rules are narrow.
5. Settle it through the official channel, with enough money for the fine: Thailand collects it at the departure checkpoint, and the Philippines adds it to an extension at a Bureau of Immigration office.
6. Keep the receipt for any fine and your exit record, and answer truthfully if a border officer on a later trip asks about the overstay.

How to stay longer without overstaying

The legal way to get more time is extending your tourist stay before your last day, where the country allows it. The Philippines lets visa-free visitors extend their first 30 days by 29 at a Bureau of Immigration office, and Indonesia extends a visa on arrival once but not a visa-exempt entry. In the US, USCIS asks visa holders to apply at least 45 days before the I-94 date, and Visa Waiver entrants cannot extend at all.

Visa Waiver visitors have one narrow fallback. If an emergency stops you leaving on time, US immigration can grant a satisfactory departure period of up to 30 days, and leaving within it does not count as an overstay.

If your plans keep outrunning visitor limits, a longer permit such as one of the digital nomad visas some countries issue to remote workers lets you stay without using up visitor days.