Royal Thai Consulate
New Visa Exemption Rule
Please note that with effect from Saturday 06 December 2008 any person eligible to enter Thailand under the “Visa Exemption Rule” will be granted a maximum stay of 30 days only if entering Thailand via an international airport. Persons entering Thailand through a land border checkpoint from a neighboring country will be granted a maximum stay of just 15 days.
Any person intending to enter Thailand under the ”Visa Exemption Rule” for a stay of either 30 days or 15 days must:-
a) hold a valid passport of any of the 48 countries which are a signatory to the ”Visa Exemption
Rule” including:
Australia Austria Bahrain Belgium Canada
Denmark Finland France Germany Greece
Iceland Ireland Italy Luxembourg Monaco
Netherlands New Zealand Norway Portugal South Africa
Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States
b) be visiting for tourism purposes only. It is not possible to enter Thailand under the ”Visa Exemption Rule” with the intention of working.
c) hold a confirmed flight ticket to show they will be exiting Thailand within 30 days or 15 days of entry, as
appropriate.
Persons who do not meet conditions ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’ above can no longer expect to be allowed to enter Thailand under the ”Visa Exemption Rule”. They may find they will not even be allowed to board their flight to Thailand.
Accordingly persons are advised to obtain a visa appropriate to their purpose of visit and length of stay.
There is also another rule to take into account which says that a person wishing to enter Thailand under the ”Visa Exemption Rule” will not be allowed to spend more that a total of 90 days in the Kingdom in any six month period. These days include the day of entry and the day of exit. If exiting and re-entering Thailand on the same day, that day will count twice.
Royal Thai Consulate
GENERAL VISA RULES & REGULATIONS
Visa Exemption
With effect from 06 December 2008 any person eligible to enter Thailand under the “Visa Exemption Rule” will be granted a stay of maximum 30 days but only if entering the Kingdom via an international airport. Persons entering Thailand through a land border checkpoint from a neighboring country will be granted a maximum stay of just 15 days.
Passport holders of the 48 countries listed below are entitled to enter Thailand under the “Visa Exemption Rule” provided they meet all of the following criteria:-
a) Purpose of visit is strictly tourism.
b) Must be in possession of a confirmed flight ticket (e-ticket acceptable) to show they will be flying out of
Thailand within 30 days or 15 days of entry, as appropriate. Open tickets do not qualify. Travelling overland
out of Thailand by train, bus, etc to Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia (including en route to Singapore), Myanmar
(Burma), etc is not accepted as proof of exiting Thailand.
You may be asked to show your flight ticket on entering Thailand. If you do not possess a flight ticket to
show you will be exiting Thailand within 30 or 15 days of entry you are likely to be refused entry and may not
even be allowed to check in for your flight to Thailand.
c) Having access to living expenses of 20,000 baht (approx £300) per person or 40,000 baht (approx £600) per family. It may be necessary to be able to prove this on entry.
Please also note that a maximum of 90 days in Thailand are allowed within any 6-month period under the Visa Exemption Rule
