Has anyone ever managed to drop off the radar and stay in a country

>>1225602
Haven't done this, but it wouldn't be tough in most places. If you can find employment then you're pretty much set, the government isn't going to come knocking for some foreigner in their country, not worth the resources. The only problem is that you probably won't be able to leave the country and if you're in any sort of major incident where the police need to investigate, then you're fucked. It's all a matter of luck from there.

knew a Chinese girl who was living in New York City and working under the table for some import / export company in Chinatown, long after her tourist visa had expired. (statistically this is much more common than the "mexicans climbing over the wall" cliche).

everything was fine as long as she could pay cash (presumably she also had to find a landlord who was willing to take cash without asking questions - which in turn meant another friend from chinatown, which meant they were really persnickety about not letting her have overnight guests and stuff.) not sure how she managed banking but somehow she was sending money home. Western Union i guess?

as soon as she needed an iD, any kind of ID, she was done. couldn't get on a plane, even domestically. couldn't travel by most other means either. couldn't even use my guest pass at the YMCA because they flipped out when she didn't have a drivers license (no idea why they care).

basically as long as you aren't breaking other laws the government doesn't give a crap -

>>1225836
>the government isn't going to come knocking for some foreigner in their country, not worth the resources.
In most European countries, you will not be able to get an apartment illegally, and even on the off chance that you do, your neighbor will report you as a "suspicious person" and they'll come check your documents.

>>1227550
You won't be able to rent an apartment in your own name, but that's easily circumvented.

Should be possible in most countries.

In lots of places you'll have trouble getting a hotel room, because they'll check and make a copy of your visa. If you've overstayed it, then it's a problem. But AirBnB's and other less official accommodation like that don't check.

The other problem is when leaving the country... I think the US and Canada are the only countries that don't require you to go through checks when exiting the country. Usually they'll check your visa and at least give you a huge fine if you've overstayed it.

>>1225602
So scummy whatever happened to respecting the people in the country you are visiting.

>>1225836
This sounds terrible and is completely untrue. 80% of countries WILL come and knock on your door if they suspect you are doing anything wrong. In a lot of countries you are expected to show your hotel arrangements for your entire trip and they do check it.

>>1227612
What happened to this board....
Anywhere besides most of the west you will end up in jail for the kind of shit these idiots are talking about. Overstay your visa in Mexico or China the police will literally go out of their way to find you.

>>1227649
And I"m not trying to be

>muh /pol/

It's a warning that being on the wrong side of the law in most countries is GIANT pain in the ass and I'm warning you against it. Besides be respectful to the rules and customs. You won't be a piece of shit and the locals will like you more.

>>1225602
I've got a good, rather foolish old friend who worked illegally on an expired tourist visa for a little over two years in Phnom Penh. Never had a problem (Cambodia isn't big on rule of law) until he tried to leave the country and was arrested at the airport. They detained him and intended to either fine him thousands of dollars or imprison him, but as a very silver-tongued bullshit artist he was able to do the immigration officers some favors (interpreting a few hours of dictation in Khmer, which he speaks fairly well, into formal English business letters, basically) and get out of it. He was still ultimately led to his departing plane in handcuffs, with the arresting officer telling him, "You good man. I think you good for Cambodia. But you also very stupid asshole, and now you have to get out," but he didn't have to pay any fines. He's still not sure if he's been banned from re-entry; this was five or six years ago and he hasn't been back yet.

I've never personally attempted to stay anywhere illegally, but I have done under the table work a small number of times, and have on two separate occasions been forced by airplane/airline problems to stay overnight in countries for which I had no visas (El Salvador and Vietnam, respectively). In both cases, my passport was held at the airport, and I was smuggled through immigration and customs like a piece of contraband. Creepy experiences.

>>1227601
>but that's easily circumvented.
Lol, how?

>>1227649
>Overstay your visa in Mexico

hahahahahahahaha sorry but i'm dying of laughter here

in latin america as a white man the police will never check any sort of id as long as you are not taking part in political manifestations

in some places they even have special rules for european immigrants like in argentina, you'd get a fine like $50 for overstaying two years

>>1227649
>Overstay your visa in Mexico the police will literally go out of their way to find you.
http://countercurrentnews.com/2017/03/91-2-of-americans-who-live-in-mexico-are-living-there-illegally/

>>1227728
You, as an indigenous person, can rent or buy 100 apartments and give them to aliens. That's it.

>>1225602
Yeah, I snuck across the Swiss/French border a few times. If you're white and on a bicycle they don't question it. Managed to work my way from Geneva to Zurich and back again, didn't get caught at all. It really made me think.

>>1229051
When was this? Switzerland has been part of Schengen for 10 years. And how would it have been illegal anyway?

Slightly different but I worked in Deportations in California. If you don't commit a crime the odds are that no one will ever look for you. But there is always this computer record of you that is very easy to pull up. With the visa waiver program people don't really understand that if you violate the terms of your admission, by say working, or overstaying, that you waive your rights to a hearing before a judge and will just be deported. Some of the funniest moments of the job were when some European would get picked up by investigations, and brought to the office. First they would deal of their rights, but they had none as the waived them all away. Then I would place them in a cell with the realeases that came from the State prison. Thirty minutes of that, they then wanted to go back to Europe. I would then give them the opportunity to buy their own ticket for that day, or they would wait in jail while I arranged a flight. Same day one way ticket SF to Europe are expensive but that was always the option they selected.

My point is, go ahead and overstay, but if things go south, they go south quickly and badly.

>>1227649
>80% of countries WILL come and knock on your door if they suspect you are doing anything wrong
Yeah, so like I said, it's all a matter of luck if they think you're doing something wrong. Police will generally not go out of their way to find you for simply being there, unless you're somewhere like Tibet or Bhutan and they have draconian laws on tourism.
>In a lot of countries you are expected to show your hotel arrangements for your entire trip and they do check it
I've never seen this happen, if you say you are planning on backpacking around the country then that's usually enough. They will likely ask for one location you're staying, though I've never seen anyone check, and this isn't even counting the entire EU where a huge number of tourists don't know where they're staying.

Now I'm not recommending this, since leaving is a pain especially if you want to come back to the country, and if you ever get tied up in anything law related you're fucked, but I've known people to do it and in most countries it's quite likely you'll get away with it.

I was able to sneak onto a ferry from France to England and Wales to Ireland last year with a 4-months expired ID. The British Isles are not part of Schengen. In Caen I tried buying a boarding ticket anyway, hoping the lady at the port terminal wouldn't notice. Unfortunately, she did.
It did cause me some trouble but after explaining myself to the police the terminal lady gave the UK immigration office a lengthy call and tried explaining my case. They gave me the OK after about an hour of sweatingman.png.
The old dude in Wales took a look at my ID and either didn't noticed the expired date or just didn't give a fuck.

>>1229053
>When was this? Switzerland has been part of Schengen for 10 years
Yeah, that's the joke.

On a serious note though, some Schengen countries have reintroduced border controls in the wake of the immigrant crises.