# of days allowed to stay in Thailand

[Pantherz]

What is the current number of days being given to tourists entering Thailand? Is it 30, 45, or 60? I am reading different articles that are saying different things. It is a little bit confusing and I’m thinking about an extended visit. Thank you for your help.

[ichigo]

Depends on your nationality.

[gerefan]

I arrived from the UK. Usually 30 days.

Filled in the horrendous visa application form online and got 60 days stamped in my passport or arrival the other day.

All depends  where you are coming form and what’s available.

[Marc K]

23 hours ago, gerefan said:

I arrived from the UK. Usually 30 days.

Filled in the horrendous visa application form online and got 60 days stamped in my passport or arrival the other day.

Indeed that crazy TR visa application form is ridiculous. My Thai consulate here in Hawaii cannot even issue the TR visa any more, we must send off our packet to Los Angeles. It used to be a simple matter to get a tourist visa, no more. Why does Thailand make it so difficult for visitors and then complain about the smaller numbers of visitors??

[Boy69]

14 minutes ago, Marc K said:

Indeed that crazy TR visa application form is ridiculous. My Thai consulate here in Hawaii cannot even issue the TR visa any more, we must send off our packet to Los Angeles. It used to be a simple matter to get a tourist visa, no more. Why does Thailand make it so difficult for visitors and then complain about the smaller numbers of visitors??

Excatly.  the Thai government treaten potential tourists who ask tourist visa at their own countries as potential criminals with tiresome biorocratic procedure years ago it was so simple and easy Moreover more than 70 percent of the countries in the world are not eligible to visa exempt or visa on arrival and must ask for visa at the Thai embassy no wonder the numbers of visitors aren't recovering.

[DenverDude]

I'm from the US and when I arrived on the 9th of October I was given until the 7th of November.  I did not apply in advance for a visa.

[Gaybutton]

3 hours ago, Marc K said:

Why does Thailand make it so difficult for visitors and then complain about the smaller numbers of visitors??

Good question.  It makes no sense.  Meanwhile Thailand is offering all kinds of incentives trying to get Chinese tourists to come back, and so far it is failing miserably.  The Chinese tourist numbers are way down.

Farang expats living in Thailand have similar questions.  Here we are, living here, spending virtually all of our money here, and yet every time we turn around they're coming up with things that make it more difficult for us.  In Pattaya, now it's the requirement to have a TM-30 receipt in our passports in order to get service from immigration.  That is not always so easy to obtain and in all these years has never been a requirement.  Now suddenly it is.  No explanation as to why.  No advance notice.  Nothing about who came up with this.  But without that receipt Pattaya immigration will refuse expats any service, including extending our retirement visas.

Changing the rules without notice is nothing new with immigration.  They've done that several times before and sooner or later they'll do it again.

Unless you are on 1 year or more visas, such as the retirement visa, as it stands now, no matter how you do it the maximum number of days you can stay in Thailand per year is 180.

[macaroni21]

As for tourist visas (I'm in no position to speak about longer-stay visas), a lot of the explanation can be found in the issue of national pride. So long as Western countries require Thai citizens to apply in advance for visas, so Thailand will feel justified in requiring the same of those nationals. This is not a hard and fast rule of course; the need to attract tourists can overcome the question of pride, but the tourism authority has to battle its way against the default position often defended by foreign ministries.

This is true not just of Thailand. Reciprocity is the general principle around the world. Brazil for example is implementing visa requirements for US, Canadian and Australian passport holders and when Brasilia announced this, it cited the principle of reciprocity: So long as these countries require Brazilians to hold visas before visiting them, so the reverse shall apply. All that is left is whether to make the mechanics of issuing visas simple or fiendishly difficult.

Thai bureaucracy, of course, leans towards the latter.

[kokopelli3]

3 hours ago, DenverDude said:

I'm from the US and when I arrived on the 9th of October I was given until the 7th of November.  I did not apply in advance for a visa.

You entered on Visa Exempt which allows 30 days with no Visa. This can be extended by another 30 days once in Thailand.

[Gaybutton]

2 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

As for tourist visas (I'm in no position to speak about longer-stay visas), a lot of the explanation can be found in the issue of national pride. So long as Western countries require Thai citizens to apply in advance for visas, so Thailand will feel justified in requiring the same of those nationals.

But many western countries, including the USA, are allowed to enter Thailand under the visa exempt rules.  No visa at all for that.  There is no reciprocity that I am aware of.  Meanwhile, the USA makes it next to impossible for Thais to get a visa to enter the USA.

[PeterRS]

3 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

Reciprocity is the general principle around the world

And with Thais not requiring visas for Russia, this is why Russians can enter Thailand without visas! Yet when I went to Moscow some years ago, as a UK citizen I required a visa. Since I would be travelling on to Europe after attending a Conference in Moscow and then returning via Russia for a few days sighseeing and to get my flight home, I applied in Bangkok for a double entry visa. Not possible, I was gruffly told by some Russian official days after the form had been submitted. I'd have to get a new Russia visa in London. When I replied that I would be nowhere within 400 miles of London, he just shrugged! But I absolutely had to get back to Moscow!

What that incompetent did not tell me is there is a Russia visa issuing office in Edinburgh where quickie 24 hour visas can be issued - at a massve cost. So my brother-in-law drove me a considerable distance to Edinburgh one day and back the next.

[macaroni21]

Replying to @Gaybutton, OK, I wasn't terribly clear. What I was saying is that since the default position is reciprocity (often the position of foreign ministries in many countries) giving US, EU and other westerners visa-free 30 days is already a concession. TAT will find it hard to push othe government agencies to agree to longer.

For example, Thailand had long required visas from Indian nationals, but because India is a huge country and Thailand cannot afford to have consulates, Thailand operated a visa-on-arrival scheme for Indians. Now, why bother to demand visa-on -arrival when almost all arriving passengers get one? Might as well let them enter visa-free, you would think. The only logic is because India demands visa of Thai nationals.

Only recently when Chinese tourists were far below trend did Thailand institute visa-free travel for indians. And even then, it was a temporary exception, just a few months. Why? Probably the Thai foreign ministry's pride had to be accommodated. 

(Though I can also think of another factor: the need to monitor how many Indian tourists overstay their visits - a perennial problem in western countries.)

[floridarob]

8 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

So long as these countries require Brazilians to hold visas before visiting them, so the reverse shall apply.

I wonder why Mexicans don't need a visa, yet Brasilians need one to enter Mexico now....

[Pantherz]

On 12/8/2023 at 6:26 PM, Gaybutton said:

Unless you are on 1 year or more visas, such as the retirement visa, as it stands now, no matter how you do it the maximum number of days you can stay in Thailand per year is 180.

How do the digital nomads, bar boys from Cambodia, etc manage to live in Thailand year round if the maximum number of days you can stay per year is 180? I thought that with periodic visits to other countries for a few days at a time they essentially allow people to keep coming back in. 

[Boy69]

Cambodians do constant visa runs or cross the boarders illegally also the Thai authorities are not restricted with the Cambodians because they are filling many jobs that Thai's are not willing to do . they are necessary for the Thai economy.

[reader]

ASEAN residents are treated differently than those from other countries. Many have work permits (that exempt them from frequent border runs) if they are working construction and some other type of manual labor.

[gerefan]

If you ask a non Thai boy who you know, and who has been here a long time, you will be surprised at the number who willingly admit they are over-stayers.

Shhhhhh! 

[Gaybutton]

1 hour ago, gerefan said:

If you ask a non Thai boy who you know, and who has been here a long time, you will be surprised at the number who willingly admit they are over-stayers.

When these boys are caught over-staying, nothing much happens to them the same as happens to farang over-stayers.  Most of the time, if anything happens at all, they are merely sent back to their home country.  And it won't be long before they're right back, whether they entered legally or not.

[fedssocr]

7 hours ago, Pantherz said:

How do the digital nomads, bar boys from Cambodia, etc manage to live in Thailand year round if the maximum number of days you can stay per year is 180? I thought that with periodic visits to other countries for a few days at a time they essentially allow people to keep coming back in. 

The digital nomads and YouTubers are interesting cases. I think some of them are on student visas or they teach English part time so they have a work visa. Some have other businesses that they manage to get work visas for or they work for companies that arrange visas for them. Some are on retirement visas. Thailand keeps talking about offering digital nomad visas but I don't believe that's actually been created yet.

There was a gay travel YouTuber based in Thailand who was told he was exceeding the 180 day limit after several exits and re-entries.