Section 269/12: Forging a visa seal, seal impression or visa sticker
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดทำปลอมขึ้นซึ่งดวงตรา รอยตรา หรือแผ่นปะตรวจลงตราอันใช้ในการตรวจลงตราสำหรับการเดินทางระหว่างประเทศ ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่หนึ่งปีถึงสิบปี และปรับตั้งแต่สองหมื่นบาทถึงสองแสนบาท
English translation
Whoever forges a seal, a seal impression, or a visa sticker used in issuing a visa for international travel shall be liable to imprisonment from one year to ten years and a fine from twenty thousand baht to two hundred thousand baht.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 269/12 opens the visa group, which sits alongside the passport group and is aimed at the entry permission rather than the identity document. Three things are protected: the seal itself, meaning the physical die or stamp; the seal impression, meaning the mark it leaves; and the visa sticker, the adhesive label affixed to a passport page by most states including Thailand. The qualifying words are that the thing is used in issuing a visa for international travel, so a domestic administrative stamp is outside the Section, and a foreign state's visa apparatus is inside it. Because this Section reaches the instrument, it is complete before any passport has been marked, which makes it the visa counterpart of the tools offence in Section 269/2. Section 269/13 punishes using what is forged under this Section, Section 269/14 punishes moving it across the border, and Section 269/15 deals with the different case of misusing a genuine seal or sticker.
Why this matters in practice
This Section is the charge used against visa agents who produce their own stamps and stickers, and it does not require that any traveller ever used the product. Seizure of a die, a stamp, or a sheet of blank labels is enough. For expatriates the relevance is indirect but real: buying an extension of stay from an agent who does not lodge the application at an Immigration office means the stamp in the passport is likely forged, and the holder then faces Section 269/13 for using it even if he believed the service was legitimate. The safeguard is simple, insist on attending the Immigration office and on a receipt, and check that the extension appears in the Immigration system.
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 269/12 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 269/12. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-12/ (accessed 8 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 269/12 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-12/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-12/"><p>Whoever forges a seal, a seal impression, or a visa sticker used in issuing a visa for international travel shall be liable to imprisonment from one year to ten years and a fine from twenty thousand baht to two hundred thousand baht.</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 269/12 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-12/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.