One extra day past your permitted stay means a different number in every country you might be sitting in. Thailand caps its fine at 40 days of accrual. Indonesia doesn’t cap it at all — it just keeps adding up until deportation becomes automatic. Singapore doesn’t quote a daily rate whatsoever; it’s a flat fine up to a ceiling, at an officer’s discretion. Cambodia and Laos both charge the same $10 a day, but one lets you keep accruing indefinitely and the other tips into a near-$2,000 penalty once you cross 90 days.
None of this is set up to be intuitive across borders, which is exactly why it’s worth having in one place before you’re the one doing the mental math at an immigration counter.
The Master Table
| Country | Daily Fine | Cap / Escalation Point | Beyond the Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thailand | THB 500/day (~$15) | Caps at THB 20,000 (40 days) | Past 90 days: detention risk, re-entry ban starting at 1 year, scaling to 10 years |
| Indonesia | IDR 1,000,000/day (~$65), per person | No cap — accrues indefinitely | Past 60 days: automatic deportation, entry ban 6 months–10 years |
| Malaysia | RM 30/day (1–30 days) | Flat RM 1,000 (31–60 days), RM 2,000 (61–90 days) | Past 90 days: referred for prosecution, detention, deportation |
| Singapore | No daily rate — flat composition fine | Up to S$4,000 (~$3,000), officer discretion | Past 90 days: criminal offense — up to 6 months jail, minimum 3 strokes caning, or fine up to S$6,000 |
| Cambodia | $10/day | No official cap | Past 30 days: detention risk while deportation is arranged |
| Laos | $10/day | No official cap | Past 90 days: fine equivalent to ~$2,000, deportation, re-entry ban |
| Vietnam | VND 500,000–2,000,000 for 1–15 days (~$19–76) | Rises in bands to VND 40,000,000 (~$1,519) for the most severe cases | Refusal to comply with an exit order: separate, heavier fine tier |
| Philippines | Not daily — PHP 500 per month or part-month | Plus fixed processing fees (express lane, ECC, ACR-I renewal) | Past 6 months: treated as a major overstay requiring a formal Motion for Reconsideration |
Every figure above is the administrative fine paid to leave. None of it includes what an overstay does to your record for future visa applications anywhere in the region — that’s a separate, longer-lasting cost none of these tables can put a number on.
Country by Country
Thailand: the cleanest math in the region
THB 500 a day, flat, no matter your nationality or visa type, up to a hard ceiling of THB 20,000 at 40 days — so a 41-day overstay costs exactly what a 400-day overstay costs in cash. What changes past that point isn’t the fine, it’s the ban: voluntary surrender under 90 days usually means no ban at all, cross 90 days and you’re looking at a 1-year re-entry ban, scaling up to 10 years for overstays measured in years. Short delays caused by a genuine flight disruption are sometimes waived at the officer’s discretion — don’t rely on it, but it’s worth explaining your situation calmly rather than assuming the fine is automatic to the minute.
Full guide: Thailand entry requirements 2026
Indonesia: the one with no ceiling
IDR 1,000,000 a day (about $65) from day one, charged per person — a family of four overstaying ten days isn’t paying for ten person-days, it’s paying for forty. There’s no cap; the fine simply keeps accruing until you either pay and leave or cross 60 days, at which point deportation stops being a possibility and becomes automatic, with an entry ban running anywhere from six months to ten years under the 2024 immigration law amendment. Indonesia is currently the strictest system in the region on this specific metric: no ceiling, no grace period, and a genuinely hard deadline at 60 days.
Full guide: Indonesia eVisa vs Visa on Arrival 2026
Malaysia: fixed bands, not a running total
Since late 2025, Malaysia moved away from officer-discretion fines toward a fixed compound structure: RM 30 per day for the first 30 days (capping at RM 900), then a flat RM 1,000 for 31–60 days, and RM 2,000 for 61–90 days — regardless of exactly how many days into that window you are. Cross 90 days and you’re out of the compound system entirely; cases go to the Enforcement Division for possible prosecution, detention, and deportation instead of a fixed fine.
Full guide: Malaysia entry requirements 2026
Singapore: no per-day number at all
Singapore is the outlier on this list — there’s no published daily rate. Under 90 days, an overstay is typically resolved through a “composition fine” up to S$4,000, set at the officer’s discretion rather than calculated by the day. Cross 90 days and the entire framing changes: it becomes a criminal offense carrying up to 6 months’ imprisonment and a mandatory minimum of 3 strokes of caning (or a fine up to S$6,000 if caning doesn’t apply, such as for women or those over 50). This is genuinely one of the harsher enforcement regimes in the world for what elsewhere is a purely administrative matter.
Full guide: Singapore entry requirements 2026
Cambodia: cheap per day, no ceiling, fast detention risk
At $10 a day with no official cap, Cambodia’s fine looks like the least alarming number on this list — until you notice there’s no maximum and the detention risk kicks in early. Overstays beyond 30 days routinely mean immigration holds you until deportation is arranged, rather than letting the fine keep accumulating indefinitely the way Indonesia’s does. It’s also strictly air-arrival enforcement in the sense that fines are settled at Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, or Sihanoukville airport on exit; land border overstays are handled with the same fine structure but through a separate visa office process, not at the crossing itself.
Full guide: Cambodia entry requirements 2026
Laos: the same $10/day, a harder wall at 90
Laos charges the identical $10-a-day rate as Cambodia, with no official cap either — but the consequence structure is different. Push past 90 days and you’re not just facing a bigger version of the same fine; the penalty effectively jumps to roughly $2,000, alongside deportation and a re-entry ban. The distance between “manageable daily fine” and “serious problem” in Laos is almost entirely about that 90-day line.
Full guide: Laos entry requirements 2026
Vietnam: recently doubled, and still climbing
Vietnam significantly tightened its overstay penalties under Decree 282/2025, effective December 2025 — the top tier of the fine schedule roughly doubled, now reaching VND 40,000,000 (about $1,519) for the most serious cases. The structure runs in bands rather than a flat daily rate: VND 500,000–2,000,000 for 1–15 days, rising through several tiers for longer overstays, with a separate, heavier fine if you fail to comply with a formal exit order once one’s been issued. This is the fastest-moving fine schedule in the region right now — worth double-checking the current bands directly before you travel, since another revision inside 2026 wouldn’t be a surprise.
Full guide: Vietnam entry requirements 2026
Philippines: billed by the month, not the day
The Philippines doesn’t charge per day at all — it’s roughly PHP 500 per month or part-month overstayed, which means a 3-day overstay and a 29-day overstay cost the same base amount, since both fall inside a single month’s fraction. On top of that base fine, expect additional fixed fees depending on your situation: an Express Lane Fee if you want same-day processing, an Emigration Clearance Certificate fee before you can depart, and separate penalties if your ACR-I Card registration lapsed during the overstay. It adds up to a fee structure that rewards leaving as soon as you notice the problem, since crossing into a new month resets the clock upward regardless of how many days remain in it.
Full guide: Philippines entry requirements 2026
Where You Actually Pay
In every country on this list, the standard path for a short overstay is paying at the airport or land border on your way out — Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos all process this directly at the immigration counter on departure. Indonesia and Vietnam expect you to have visited an immigration office beforehand once you’re past a certain number of days, rather than settling everything cold at the airport. The Philippines requires an in-person visit to a Bureau of Immigration office to get the Order of Payment Slip processed before you’re cleared to leave — you cannot resolve a Philippines overstay at the airport itself. Cash is standard everywhere; several countries (Laos and Cambodia specifically) prefer or require USD over local currency for the fine itself.
FAQ
Does the fine reset if I leave and re-enter the same day? No. Overstay fines are tied to your exit, not your visa cycle. You have to pay whatever’s accrued before you’re allowed to leave, regardless of what you do afterward.
Can I pay an overstay fine in advance if I know I’ll be late? No — every system on this list calculates the fine at the point of exit or at an immigration office visit, based on actual days overstayed. There’s no way to pre-pay or estimate in advance.
Does travel insurance ever cover overstay fines? Generally no. Overstay fines are treated as a personal legal/administrative matter, not a covered travel disruption, even when the overstay was caused by something like a flight cancellation.
If I overstay in one country, does it affect my entry into a neighboring one? It can. Several countries in the region, including Vietnam and Cambodia, have noted increasing data-sharing and stricter cross-referencing of immigration records, meaning a serious overstay or deportation in one country can draw additional scrutiny at a neighboring border, even without a formal regional blacklist system.
Is a one- or two-day overstay actually a problem, or is that overblown? For most of these countries — Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam — a one- or two-day overstay is a minor, routine fine paid on exit with no lasting consequence. Indonesia and Singapore are less forgiving in tone even for very short overstays, and Indonesia’s fine starts accruing from literally the first day with zero grace period.
What happens if I genuinely can’t pay the fine at the border? You’ll typically be held at an immigration facility until the amount is settled, either by you, a contact who can wire funds, or in rare cases through your embassy. This is true across the region — none of these countries let you exit while owing an unpaid overstay fine.
The Bottom Line
The daily numbers themselves are mostly small — $10 to $65 a day across the region — which is exactly what makes it easy to underestimate how differently each country treats what happens after. Thailand and Malaysia give you a predictable ceiling. Indonesia and Cambodia don’t cap the daily fine at all. Singapore skips the daily fine framing entirely and moves straight to a criminal threshold at 90 days. Know your specific country’s escalation point — not just the per-day rate — and a short overstay stays what it should be: an annoying but manageable mistake, not the start of a deportation file.
