hatel and friends on overstaying penalty problem

we have this message posted on the message board of the filipinos in mongolia website. i thought i'd post a response as a blog becase the message board is way down and kinda easy to miss.

hatel says " OS (overstaying) na po kami dito sa ulan abtor..galing po kami sa china..its our 6th day of being OS..ang sabi po kasi ng attorney na nakilala namain na mongolian eh we are allowed 30 days..only to find out na hindi naman pala. they are asking us to pay 250,000 tugruk and exit after 10 days..so meron na po kaming 3 days left..any advice po jan please..thank u..we are very desperate."

hatel, if you are here on a tourist visa, you're allowed 21 days to stay, based on a reciprocal agreement between the Mongolian and Philippine governments. obviously you got the wrong advice. the most reliable thing to have done was to look at your passports and took notice of your supposed exit date. if you wanted to stay longer, then should have applied for an extension.

we don't know the context of why you're here, whether you're dealing directly with the immigration office or through an intermediary, etc. nonetheless, if you have exhausted the allowed period of stay, of you have to pay the penalty. in a way, it seems that the rate and conditions (Mnt 250,000 plus allowance of ten more days stay and exit), are rather lenient given that by law the lowest penalty rate is Mnt300,000.