Thailand visa exemption
The entry route most people actually use, and the one that changed most in 2026. Thirty days on arrival for 60 nationalities, one extension, then you leave.
This is not a visa and not a status. It is permission to enter granted at the border, and it carries no residence, no work rights and no path to anything longer. Anyone planning to stay more than two months needs one of the routes on the Thailand hub instead.
Programme snapshot
| Item | Current rule |
|---|---|
| Main audience | Tourists and short stay visitors from 60 named nationalities |
| Route family | visa-free |
| Validity | Not a permit. Permission to enter, granted at the border |
| Stay per entry | 30 days |
| Extension | One 30 day extension at an immigration office, THB 1,900 |
| Maximum without leaving | 60 days |
| Threshold | None. Onward travel and accommodation evidence can be asked for |
| Renewal | None. Exit and re-enter, subject to the land border cap |
| Settlement | None |
| PR clock | None. Time on the exemption does not count toward permanent residence |
| Citizenship clock | None |
| Family | Each traveller qualifies on their own nationality. No dependant category exists |
| Local employment | Prohibited |
| Tax headline | A stay under 180 days in a calendar year does not by itself make you a Thai tax resident |
| Processing | None, decided at the border |
What changed on 15 September 2026
The 60 day exemption for 93 countries, introduced in July 2024, was repealed. Four Ministry of Interior regulations were published in the Royal Gazette on 31 August 2026 and took effect 15 days later.
- The stay halved. Thirty days for 60 nationalities, down from 60 days for 93.
- The purpose narrowed. The regulation frames the exemption as tourism. The short term work and business engagement the 2024 scheme allowed is no longer written into it.
- Land borders were capped. Two entries per calendar year at land checkpoints. Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are exempt from the cap.
- Visa on arrival was almost abolished. Down from 31 nationalities to three: Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia.
- A 15 day tier was created for Mauritius and Seychelles.
Anyone admitted before 15 September keeps the period stamped in their passport. The change does not shorten a stay already granted.
Bilateral agreements sit outside all of this and still run. Fourteen days for Cambodia and Myanmar, with Myanmar limited to arrivals at international airports. Thirty days for China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Laos, Macao, Mongolia, Russia, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. Ninety days for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, South Korea and Peru.
Application flow
- Check your nationality against the gazette list of 60. It is a fixed list, and it is shorter than it was.
- Book travel. No approval, invitation or insurance is required in advance.
- Complete the TDAC arrival card online within three days of arrival.
- Present your passport at the border. Expect questions about onward travel if you have a one way ticket.
- If you need longer, apply at an immigration office for the single 30 day extension, THB 1,900. Do it before the stamp expires, not after.
- Leave, or convert to a proper visa. Conversion to a Non-Immigrant O or another category is possible at an immigration office while your permission to stay is still live, and it is discretionary rather than owed.
Good fit
Visitors, people scouting the country before committing to a long stay route, and residents of neighbouring countries making frequent short trips. Anyone whose plan genuinely ends within two months.
Poor fit
Anyone intending to live in Thailand. Remote workers, since working on the exemption is prohibited and enforcement has tightened. People who need a local bank account, a driving licence conversion or a long lease in their own name, all of which want a proper visa. Anyone planning back-to-back entries to simulate residence, which is what the land border cap and the tourism framing are aimed at.
Watchpoints
- Sixty days is the ceiling, not the starting point. One extension is all there is. A second attempt means leaving the country.
- The count is per entry, but the pattern is watched. Each entry resets the 30 days for most passports. Repeated back-to-back entries attract questions at the counter, and the land border cap now limits the cheapest version of that strategy to twice a year.
- It is not a work authorisation. The 2024 scheme carried limited short term work and business engagement. The 2026 regulations do not. Working remotely for a foreign employer sits in a grey area that immigration has been reading strictly, and working for a Thai entity is a deportable offence.
- The nationality list is fixed and shorter. Sixty nationalities, named in the gazette. Check the list rather than a blog, and check it again before booking, because the 2024 version was also 93 and no longer exists.
- Visa on arrival is now a rarity. Three nationalities. Most people who used to rely on it need an e-Visa in advance.
- Overstay is a ban, not a fine. The fine is THB 500 a day to a cap of THB 20,000, but a stay over 90 days past expiry carries a one year ban and longer overstays carry longer bans.
Sources
- Royal Gazette, Ministry of Interior visa exemption regulations, Volume 143, Special Issue 207 Ngor, 31 August 2026, https://ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/documents/128703.pdf, checked 2026-10-23
- Immigration Bureau, extension of stay and overstay rules, checked 2026-10-23
- Thai e-Visa, visa exemption and visa on arrival pages, checked 2026-10-23