YourThaiPlanet.com

Citizens of most countries can enter Thailand without a visa and stay for up to 30 days, but if you plan to be in Thailand for more than 30 days, then get a travel visa for Thailand -- either a "tourist visa" if you are here just for tourism, or a "nonimmigrant" visa if here for business, to be with your Thai spouse, or retirement. Nonimmigrant visas can be extended beyond 90 days.

The basics: A "visa" is not a credit card, it is a stamp put in your passport by a Thai embassy or consulate in your country stating how long you can stay in Thailand. You can usually mail your passport in rather than needing to travel and visit in person. I strongly suggest registered mail.

You should make sure your passport is not about to expire, nor the passport of anyone traveling in your party, and has more than 6 months validity left before your entry date into Thailand; otherwise, you can be denied entry. It's 6 months validity required in most of Southeast Asia. While you can get a new passport in Bangkok from your local embassy, Southeast Asian countries generally will not give visas (and some won't allow entry) for passports about to expire.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website at www.mfa.go.th is the best place to start on the web for detailed current information. Their Consulates sub page has information on passport visas, but I suggest you call your particular consulate first and verify because I've found that this information sometimes changes without notice. Their Diplomatic Missions Abroad sub page has a list of embassies and consulates around the world, most of which have their own separate websites.

This section does not cover getting a visa for your Thai girlfriend to visit your country. That's a matter between you and your own government's embassy or consulate, not an issue with the Thai government (besides your girlfriend getting her Thai passport), and is discussed within the Culture section.

Some of the Thai consulates are very helpful, providing a lot of information, very courteous on the phone, and even asking if you have any more questions! This mainly is in regard to consulates outside Asia, but includes some inside Asia. However, as a general rule, you can expect the consulates outside Asia to be much more helpful than those in Asia, on average. It is important to stay diplomatic but firm and respectable. For those where email doesn't work, you will usually get a better response over the phone. However, some consulates just go thru a phase where the staff is hopelessly incompetent at providing decent service, and there's no sense flogging a dead horse, just change your plans to a better part of the world. There are Thai consulates in so many cities with good people.

Nationals from 56 countries can enter Thailand for 30 days without a visa, whereby you can get the visa stamped into your passport from an immigration officer at the airport. This is called "visa upon arrival". Nationals of another 76 countries, most of which don't have a Thai consulate, can get a 15-day visa stamp upon arrival. Nationals from Sweden and Korea can get a 90-day visa upon arrival. However, these are supposed to be used for tourists, not people intending to work and/or live in Thailand.

Nationals from countries near Thailand from which many impoverished illegal workers come often have problems (e.g., Bangladesh, India). Immigration officers have the power to deny a visa, including a visa on arrival at the airport (whereby you could be put on the next plane going back with available seating), so if there's any doubt, get a visa before you come, and check the minimum amount of currency you must have on you (in one form or another) which varies by visa category.

If you plan to be in Thailand longer, then you should bring your passport to the Thai embassy or a Thai consulate nearest you in the country where you are currently residing, and apply for whichever visa is appropriate:

Tourist visa 90 days - No special paperwork is needed for westerners from rich countries and those from rich Asian countries. However, lately, many Thai embassies and consulates have been giving 60-day visas and tell you to extend to 90 days in Thailand. Try to get a "double entry" tourist visa that you can stretch to 180 days with one border run.

Non-immigrant visa (90 days, renewable to 1 year) - If you plan to do business here, or reside with a spouse, or retire. This requires documentation of your intent, usually a letter from your employer or your spouse's employer, or a marriage certificate with your Thai spouse.

Type B: If you are coming to Thailand for business, then you apply for a Nonimmigrant B (Business) Visa. This 90-day visa can be extended for up to 1 year (and again for the next year) if you subsequently get a work permit and can show you've been paid the minimum monthly salary (50,000 baht for nationals of most Western countries, less for others, details below).

Type O: If you have a registered legal marriage to a Thai (or to a foreigner who has a work permit in Thailand), then you apply for a Nonimmigrant O Visa. This 90-day visa can be extended for up to 1 year (and again for the next year) if you can display sufficient funds in a Thai bank savings account (a minimum balance of 400,000 baht over the previous 3 months). You show immigration your bankbook, but immigration can also check its list of applicants using its contacts in the banks.

Type O-A: Retirement Visa (so-called) for those over 50 years old who keep a minimum balance of 800,000 baht in their Thai bank account over the previous 3 months and/or can prove they have a pension or regular income of at least 65,000 baht/month (including a required letter from their embassy about this pension), and wishing to retire in Thailand. If you are relying on the 800,000 baht then you must show it came into Thailand from a foreign country. Sometimes, a combination of the two (bank and pension) is allowed. A medical certificate is no longer required.

Type ED: Education visa. This has become very popular, starting in 2008. Many Thai language schools offer this to their students, so that you can get a long-term ED visa just by enrolling in (and paying the fees for) a Thai language school. It's a good idea to learn Thai anyway; so many expats simply get their visa this way, too. Some advertise costs of about 35,000 baht/year whereby you never need to leave Thailand once you arrive, just keep on extending the ED visa at immigration.

There is no longer any "investment visa" as of October 2006.

For a non-immigrant visa, if you start with a single entry visa (see all the multiple entry option) you start with a 90-day non-immigrant visa and can extend to a year by submitting an application to the Immigration Department near the time your visa will expire, if you qualify. You will normally get a 30 day extension while the application is being considered and processed (assuming it is complete and you meet the requirements), and it may require multiple trips to the immigration department for additional 30 day extensions -- if the one year application has not been approved before your visa expires, then you must make sure to go back and ask the clerk to stamp your passport with another visa extension before your visa expires, which is extended one month at a time so may require more trips. This situation has improved over time so that most people don't need additional 30-day stamps. In fact, many retirement visas have been processed on the same day.

There are a few immigration department branches around Thailand, but most people must go to the branch in Bangkok on soi Suanplu. Which branch you must go to depends upon where in Thailand you live.

The main benefit of a tourist visa over a visa-on-arrival is that you can stay in Thailand up to 90 day without exiting, instead of 15 days (if enter by land) or 30 days (by air). A visa on arrival or transit visa is issued upon arrival in Thailand for those who arrive without a visa, and by the official rules it requires a ticket for continuing your travels back out of Thailand. (That said, I could note that many people told me they were never asked to show their ticket. However, you should have that ticket in case you are asked for it.) Normally, a visa is valid for one entry and one exit. If you plan to exit and re-enter Thailand within the period of your visa, for example, if you will go do business in India and then return to Thailand, then you may want to apply for a "re-entry permit" along with your visa, so that you don't have to go back to a Thai consulate in India for another visa (requiring two trips, to drop off your passport and pick it up, and you don't have your passport ID on you during the interim). Instead, you go to an immigration department in Thailand, usually the one in Bangkok on soi Suanplu, and get the re-entry permit on the spot in one trip. (It's 500 baht per time, if I recall correctly.) This does not extend the expiration of your visa, but just lets you exit and return without needing a new visa.

Multiple Entry Visa

You can also apply for a "multiple entry" visa when you first apply for your visa in your home country, if you are applying for a nonimmigrant visa of any kind. This saves you the trips to the immigration department in Thailand if you are entering and exiting Thailand often on business. However, business people with a 1-year nonimmigrant B multiple entry visa still can't stay in Thailand longer than 90 days per visit unless they extend their visa based on a work permit. The purpose of the multiple entry business visa is to save business people and spouses the hassle of multiple embassy/consulate trips per year.

Many people with multiple entry visas need to stay in Thailand more than 3 months but for some reason or another cannot extend their visa beyond 3 months. They must exit within 90 days before their visa entry stamp expires, so after 3 months in Thailand without leaving, they must do a "visa run" to just quickly step over the border and back to get another 90 days -- at any of several border crossings where there are immigration officers stationed to stamp their passports.

For example, they may just take a bus (or taxi) to the border with Cambodia or Burma (only certain places where there are immigration officers), exit thru Thai immigration, enter thru Cambodian immigration, turn around and exit thru Cambodian immigration, then enter thru Thai immigration to get a fresh new 90 days, altogether taking less than an hour depending upon the queue, in some places less than half an hour.

Again, the multiple entry visa means you don't need to visit neither an embassy/consulate nor the immigration department for a year, but you still must exit the country at least every 90 days.

It is difficult to get multiple entry visas from Thai consulates in Asia, as well as nonimmigrant B visas. You can with all your paperwork in perfect status, but it is inspected much more closely. It is much easier to get these kinds of visas in your home country.

IMPORTANT: 90 day rule about reporting to Immigration:

If you extend your visa so that you can stay beyond 90 days, you still must report to immigration every 90 days or less to update them about your current address. If you don't, then you will be fined. You report to the immigration office within the jurisdiction of your registered address.