Red Tape and Visas Requirements

There are three main entry categories for Thailand; for all of them your passport must be valid for at least six months from the date of entry. As visa requirements are often subject to change, you should always check with a Thai embassy or consulate, or a reliable travel agent, before departure.

Most foreign passport holders are allowed to enter the country for stays of up to thirty days without having to apply for a visa (New Zealanders are allowed up to ninety days). The period of stay will be stamped into your passport by immigration officials upon entry, but you’re supposed to show proof of onward travel arrangements: unless you have a confirmed bus, train or air ticket out of Thailand, you may be put back on the next plane or sent back to get a sixty-day tourist visa from the nearest Thai embassy. Such thirty-day stays cannot be extended under any but the most exceptional circumstances, though it’s easy enough to get a new one by hopping across the border into a neighbouring country, especially Malaysia, and back again.

If you’re fairly certain you may want to stay longer than thirty days, then from the outset you should apply for a sixty-day tourist visa from a Thai embassy or consulate, accompanying your application – which always takes several days to process – with your passport and two photos. The sixty-day visa currently costs £8 per entry in the UK, for example – multiple-entry versions are available, which are handy if you’re going to be leaving and re-entering Thailand. Entering on a sixty-day visa, you don’t need to show proof of onward travel but, as in all countries, it’s up to immigration officials at the port of entry as to what expiry date they stamp on your visa, so it’s always advisable to dress respectably when crossing borders.

Thai embassies also consider applications for the slightly more expensive ninety-day non-immigrant visas (£15 in the UK) as long as you can offer a good reason for your visit, such as study or business (there are different categories of non-immigrant visa for which different levels of proof are needed). As it’s quite a hassle to organize a ninety-day visa from outside the country (and generally not feasible for most tourists), you’re better off applying for a thirty-day extension to your sixty-day visa once inside Thai borders.

A note about day-trips to Burma at Kaw Thaung, Three Pagodas Pass, Mae Sot and Mae Sai: on re-entering Thailand, you’ll generally be given a new thirty-day entry stamp in your passport, regardless of any Thai visa you may already have. This is handy if your permitted time in Thailand is running out, but not so great if you’ve still got the best part of a sixty- or ninety-day visa left. If you’re planning a Burma day-trip, it may well be worth your while to get a multiple-entry visa for Thailand.

If you overstay your visa limits, expect to be fined B100 per extra day when you leave Thailand, though an overstay of a month or more could land you in trouble with immigration officials.

Thai embassies and consulates abroad

For a full listing of Thai diplomatic missions abroad, check out the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website at www.mfa.go.th/embassy/default.htm

Visa extensions and re-entry permits

All sixty-day tourist visas can be extended in Thailand for a further thirty days, at the discretion of officials; extensions cost B500 and are issued over the counter at immigration offices (kann khao muang) in nearly every provincial capital – most offices ask for one or two photos as well, plus two photocopies of the photos as well, plus two photocopies of the first four pages and latest Thai visa page of your passport. Immigration offices also issue re-entry permits (B500) if you want to leave the country and come back again within the validity of your visa.

Staying on in Thailand

Unless you have work or study fixed up before you arrive, staying on in Thailand is a precarious affair. Plenty of people do teaching English, working in resort bars and guest houses, acting as a dive instructor or even unofficially buying into tourist businesses (farangs are generally barred from owning businesses in Thailand) – but it involves frequent and expensive visa runs to neighbouring countries, and often entails hassle from the local police. All non-residents who acquire income while in Thailand should get a tax clearance certificate from the Revenue Department, which has offices in every provincial capital and on Thanon Chakrapong near Democracy Monument in Bangkok, Tel +662-282 9899 or +662-281 5777).