Thailand Visa

Exemption stamps, the e-Visa portal, the digital arrival card, and the ninety-day report — what a tourist actually needs to know.

Thailand is one of the most forgiving countries in the region for short-term tourism. Citizens of around ninety-three countries — including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and most of the Gulf — do not need to apply for a visa in advance for a normal holiday. Stay longer or work remotely and the paperwork begins; the rules below are the ones that matter.

Table of Contents

Visa Exemption (60 Days)

Since 15 July 2024 Thailand has granted citizens of approximately ninety-three countries a sixty-day visa exemption stamp on arrival, free of charge, for tourism. The exemption used to be thirty days — older guidebooks and forum posts will still say so. Show up at a Thai airport with a valid passport, an onward ticket, and the digital arrival card, and the immigration officer stamps you in for sixty days. No application, no fee.

Visa-exempt entries can be extended by a further thirty days at any Immigration Bureau office inside Thailand (see Extensions), giving a maximum of ninety days on a single arrival. Land-border entries are sometimes still granted only thirty days — arrive by air if you want the full sixty.

Tourist e-Visa

If you don’t qualify for the visa exemption, or you want to stay longer than sixty days from the start, apply for a Tourist Visa online before you fly. Thailand consolidated all its consular visa applications into a single e-Visa portal in 2024.

You upload a passport scan, a recent photo, your itinerary, hotel bookings, and bank-statement evidence of funds (typically THB 20,000 / USD 600 per person, double for a family). The visa is issued as a PDF; print it and carry it with your passport.

Visa on Arrival

Visa on Arrival (VoA) is a separate, narrower scheme for citizens of about eighteen countries that don’t qualify for the sixty-day exemption — including India, China, and several Central Asian states. It’s a fifteen-day single-entry stamp, costs THB 2,000 (cash, exact change helpful), and is issued at the airport. If your country is on the visa-exemption list, you don’t need this and shouldn’t join the VoA queue.

Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC)

As of 1 May 2025 Thailand replaced the paper TM6 arrival card with the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC). Every foreign visitor — including visa-exempt tourists — must complete it online within three days of arrival. Submit it before you board if possible; the airline may ask to see the confirmation at check-in.

30-Day Extension

Whether you arrived visa-exempt or on a TR / METV, you can extend your stay once by thirty days at any Thai Immigration Bureau office. The fee is THB 1,900, paid in cash. Bring your passport, the TM7 application form (available at the office), one passport-size photo, a copy of your passport photo page and arrival stamp, and a Thai address where you’re staying. Apply a few days before your stamp expires; offices in Bangkok (Chaeng Wattana) get crowded mid-morning — arrive at opening or use the appointment booking system.

90-Day Reporting (TM47)

This is the rule the prompt is asking about, and it catches long-stay travellers out every year. Any foreigner staying continuously in Thailand for more than ninety days on a non-immigrant visa must report their current address to Thai Immigration every ninety days using form TM47. The clock runs from your most recent date of entry, not from the start of the calendar year, and it resets every time you leave and re-enter the country.

In practice this rule applies to long-stay visa holders — retirement visa, education visa, marriage visa, the new Destination Thailand Visa (DTV), and longer Non-Immigrant categories. Pure tourists on a sixty-day exemption or a single-entry TR almost never trigger it because their permitted stay is shorter than ninety days. But if you arrived visa-exempt, extended by thirty days, then converted to another visa class without leaving the country, the ninety-day clock has been running since you arrived — and the first report can be due before you realise it.

How to file:

The window for reporting is fifteen days before to seven days after the ninety-day mark. Late filings carry a fine of THB 2,000 (or THB 5,000 if caught at the airport on departure). Reporting your address does not extend your permission to stay — that’s a separate process. Don’t confuse the two.

TM30 Address Notification

A separate form, often confused with the ninety-day report. The TM30 is the obligation of the property owner or hotel to notify Immigration within twenty-four hours that a foreigner is staying at the address. Hotels file it automatically. If you’re renting a condo, an Airbnb, or staying with a friend, the host is technically required to file it — in practice this is usually only enforced when you next visit Immigration for an extension, and they’ll ask for a TM30 receipt. If your landlord is unfamiliar with the form, the online portal at https://extranet.immigration.go.th/ handles the filing.

Destination Thailand Visa (DTV)

Launched in July 2024 for digital nomads, remote workers, and participants in Thai cultural activities (Muay Thai training, Thai cooking schools, medical tourism). Five-year multiple-entry validity, each stay up to one hundred and eighty days, extendable by another one hundred and eighty days inside Thailand. Application fee THB 10,000. You apply through the e-Visa portal and need to show employment outside Thailand or enrolment in a qualifying activity, plus THB 500,000 (about USD 14,000) in savings. DTV holders are subject to ninety-day reporting once they cross that threshold of continuous stay.

Passport, Funds, Onward Ticket

Where to Apply & Official Sources

One last note. Thai visa rules have been rewritten three times since 2023. If a forum post or a printed guidebook contradicts what’s on this page, the official portals above are the authority — check them last, just before you fly.

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