How to Extend Your Thailand Tourist Visa

Are you planning a trip to Thailand and want to spend more than 30 days there? Or have you arrived in Thailand and realised the country is so much bigger than you thought, and 30 days isn’t enough time? Maybe you’re doing some travel planning and confused about the visa process. This guide will answer all tourist visa-related questions and walk you through the process of extending your visa so you can spend 60 days in Thailand! I’ve been to Thailand four times and done both a visa run and an extended visa because 30 days just aren’t enough for this beautiful country.

Do you need a tourist visa for Thailand?

Some countries do need a visa in advance or a visa on arrival to enter Thailand. Make sure you research your country of origin and the specific visa requirements for Thailand if you’re unsure. That being said, more than 64 countries have signed a bilateral agreement with Thailand for what is called a visa exemption. What that means is that passport holders from these countries can enter Thailand for the purpose of tourism for a period of 30 days without paying any fees or needing any visa. Here is a list of all countries that are eligible for a visa exemption:

If you happen to be from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru or South Korea, you also get a Visa Exemption but for 90 days. If you have a passport from one of these lucky countries, you probably won’t need to worry about extending your Visa in Thailand.

What is the process for getting a visa exemption?

For most people, a Visa Exemption for Thailand is as easy as booking a flight to Thailand and presenting your eligible passport at immigration. From there, you will get a stamp and be welcomed into Thailand! However, there are criteria and certain documents that the immigration officer may ask you to produce upon your arrival in Thailand. If you cannot produce these, you may be denied entry and sent back to whatever country you flew in from.

These official requirements are as follows:

• Be travelling for the purpose of tourism only
• Be from a country on the visa exemption list
• Have a passport not expiring within the next six months
• Can provide an address in Thailand on entry that can be verified. This is usually your hotel/ hostel address, where you will stay the first nights or nights in Thailand.
• Proof of onward travel showing you are exiting Thailand within 30 days.
• Proof of funds of at least 10,000 THB Thai Baht ($283 USD) per person

While these are the official entry requirements, immigration officers have discretionary powers over whether they actually ask for proof from travellers or not. I’ve been to Thailand 4 times, via both land borders and airports and have never been asked for any of this documentation. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge my own privilege in being white and travelling on an Australian passport. Basically, even if you are from a country eligible for a Visa Exemption, you may be denied entry to Thailand if you can’t provide the documentation they requested. The majority of the criteria should be easy to supply. However, the one stumper is proof of onward travel.

Proof of onward travel

Proof of onward travel is usually a plane ticket, but some countries accept bus, train and ferry tickets proving you are leaving the country. It is basically proof that you plan on leaving and that you will not illegally immigrate to Thailand. However, many people depart Thailand overland and can’t/ haven’t purchased a bus ticket that far in advance. Also, if you are planning on staying 60 days (by getting a visa extension), you won’t have booked your flight out yet, most likely.

So what do you do for proof of onward travel? I’ve heard of people being asked, telling the immigration officer that they are crossing the border into Laos and cannot book the slow boat ticket in advance. Sometimes, even being able to extrapolate on how you plan on leaving may be enough to show your intention of not staying long-term in Thailand. You can also sometimes show them a flight home from a different country, for example, Vietnam and say you are travelling overland from Thailand to Vietnam, then flying home. It is really dependent on the discretion of the immigration officer, and whether they believe you, so it can be a risk.

You could book a cheap Air Asia flight to Malaysia that you have no intention of catching and take the price of the ticket as a money loss. You could also book a Flexi ticket that is fully refundable if you cancel a certain amount of time in advance.

My recommendation for proof of onward travel

The other thing you could do is purchase a proof of onward travel ticket. There are a number of websites offering onward tickets. Basically, what these companies do is purchase a 48-hour refundable ticket on your behalf and then cancel it right within the 48-hour window. This means for whatever 48-hour window you need it for; you will have a confirmed plane ticket, which you can use as proof of onward travel. The great part is you don’t have to pay the full amount for the ticket; you pay $12 USD for the proof of onward travel ticket.

If you use a legitimate website, you get a real ticket for 48 hours that has a legit PNR (Passenger Name Record). That means that if an airline types the PNR into the Airline Reservation System, they will see a real confirmed ticket. There are a number of websites that offer this service. Personally, I’ve used Best Onward Ticket multiple times without any issues.

Extending your visa exemption

Once you have arrived in Thailand and have your Visa Exemption, you can stay in Thailand for only 30 days. For many backpackers, this isn’t enough time to really enjoy both the north and south of Thailand. While some people may opt to do a visa run (see the section below for more info), many people go through the visa extension process. This will give you another 30 days on top of your original 30 days, meaning you can stay in Thailand for 60 days total. You can extend your Thailand visa exemption anytime within the initial 30-day visa-free period. The Thailand visa extension is one of the simplest visa extensions in South East Asia, so there is no need to go through an agency! Here’s my step-by-step guide:

Step One: Find an Immigration Office

Ensure you are somewhere where you can easily get to an immigration office. There are immigration offices in the following places: Phuket Town, Krabi Town, Koh Tao, Surat Thani Town, Koh Phangan, Koh Samui, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Kanchanaburi, Ayutthaya and Pai. The bigger offices of Phuket, Krabi, Chiang Mai, Bangkok and Surat Thani tend to be busier, so expect longer wait times. I would strongly recommend extending your Thailand visa on one of the islands (I did mine on Koh Tao, and it was a breeze!). The other important thing to check is the opening and closing times and make sure you are allowing enough time in case of delays. There are also certain days of the week and public holidays when they may be closed. Be sure to check in advance!

Step Two: Get your paperwork in order

In order to get your visa extension, you need to bring the following with you:

• Your Passport
• Your accommodation full name, address and contact number. The immigration staff may call the hostel to confirm you are staying with them
• A scanned hardcopy of your passport page (the page with the picture)
• A scanned hardcopy of your Thai Visa Exemption Stamp (the one you received when you first arrived)
• 1 Passport Photo (4x6cm) with your shoulders covered
• 1900 THB Thai Baht ($53 USD) in cash
• A pen- (bring with you to sign the forms at the immigration office)

Before you leave for the immigration office, let your hostel know what you are doing and confirm their contact number. Assuming you already have enough cash with you, the only other thing you have to do is stop at a photo shop. Your hostel should be able to help you find one, or you can google “photo shop Koh Tao” to find your nearest. There will generally be a shop close-ish to the immigration office as this is a service many people need. Photo shops will take and print passport-sized photos of you and scan your passport page and visa stamp page. Just make sure you tell them it is for a visa extension, and they’ll know exactly what to do. This costs around 95 THB Thai Baht ($2.70 USD) total for photos and scans.

Step Three: Fill out forms at the immigration office

Before you head to the immigration office, make sure you are dressed appropriately. Many offices will not even let you enter if you don’t have your knees, shoulders and torso fully covered! At the immigration office, you will first need to collect some forms to fill out. Everyone has to fill out the standard TM 7 Form (Extension of Visa Request form), but some offices also make you fill out a TM 6 or TM 30 form as well. This is probably the hardest part of the whole extension process, as the layout of these forms and the translation can be confusing!

Make sure you read all the sections thoroughly. They do have some pens at the office, but it is much quicker and easier if you bring your own. Sometimes, they ask for the date but only want the actual day, then ask for the month and the year in a separate section. If you fill this out incorrectly, they will make you white it out or start again. Hot tip: if you’re confused about what information the form is asking for, try using the Google Translate camera to hover over the Thai translation. This was honestly such a lifesaver as some of the translations on the form are clunkily translated from Thai. After you’ve filled out the forms, you’ll be given a glue stick to glue your passport photo to the top of the form.

Step Four: The wait-time at Immigration

When you’ve completed all of the visa extension forms, you’ll need to head to the first desk and drop off your passport, forms and photocopies of your passport page and visa stamp from your passport. The immigration officer will give you a bit of paper with a number, and you’ll need to sit and wait.

After a few minutes, your number will be called, and you’ll have to attend the second desk. Here, they will take a photo of you and ask for your 1900 THB Thai Baht (Visa Extension Fee) in cash. Once you have paid, you’ll be told to sit down and wait for your name to be called.

After another 5-10 minutes, your name will be called to the third counter. Here, your passport will be returned with a stamp showing you have extended your visa for another 30 days. The visa expiry date on this stamp is the day you need to leave Thailand. Unfortunately, you cannot extend your Thailand visa again past this date. If you wish to stay in Thailand longer than 60 days, you must do a visa run.

Visa Run vs. Visa Extension

You may have read that whole description of the process above and thought it sounded too complex or expensive. Surely there’s got to be an easier process? There is kind of, but it really depends on what you classify as “easier”. You could do a visa run to receive another 30 days in Thailand. A Visa Run is essentially leaving the country (usually to a neighbouring country) for a day or two and then returning and getting another 30 Day Visa Exemption on arrival.

So which is better, a visa run or a visa extension?

• Time. All up, I only spent 1 hour total getting my visa extended. This included going to the photo shop on the way, travel time to and from the immigration office and the actual process and wait time in the office. So, in my opinion, it is much quicker to do a visa extension over a visa run! However, some people have to wait all day at the immigration office at busier offices and times of the day.
• Cost. The cost of the visa extension and the photos is 1995 THB Thai Baht ($56.50 USD). While this may seem like a big chunk of money, considering the initial visa exemption is free, doing a visa run can be much more costly. Depending on where you are in Thailand, you have to pay for a bus/plane fare return out of Thailand. This in itself is usually close to the Visa Extension Fee Amount. You must also consider any visa-on-arrival fees for the country you are doing a visa run to. In my opinion, a visa extension is way cheaper, and there’s no chance of added costs.
• Easiness/ least stressful. The visa extension process can be a little frustrating and tedious, I’ll admit it. You do have to have a lot of things printed beforehand, and then the forms being confusing and having to go to multiple counters for different things makes it harder. If you can’t be bothered with the admin, doing a visa run may be a lot easier and less stressful for you.

Planning your route around the visa

The other alternative to doing a visa run or extending the visa would be travelling in a loop and heading back to Thailand at the end of your trip. Many people do this to avoid extending their visa or doing a visa run! For example, let’s say you start in Bangkok. You could do a month in the north of Thailand, then head to Laos. From Laos, you can get across to Hanoi in Vietnam, travel north to south of Vietnam, and then cross into Cambodia. From Cambodia, you can easily re-enter Thailand (and get another free 30 Day Visa Exemption) and then travel the south of Thailand. This is a super popular backpacking route if you don’t want to extend your visa.

5 tips for extending your visa exemption

If you haven’t read the above points, here are the top five things I wish I knew about extending my visa from 30 to 60 days in Thailand:

• Ensure you visit a smaller immigration office to avoid queues and longer wait times! Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi and Surat Thani are all known for long wait times. These offices service large areas meaning you are more likely to have to wait for a day in the office.
• Wear conservative clothing to the immigration office, or you will be denied entry! Shoulders and knees should be covered, with no see-through or low-cut tops allowed.
• Bring your own pen to the immigration office to get the forms filled out quicker.
• Ensure you read the forms thoroughly and try not to make any errors. The translation on the form can be a bit confusing, and they will make you start again if you make too many mistakes.
• Consider changing your travel route to avoid having to extend your visa. Instead of doing 60 days at one time in Thailand, could you spend 30 days, then travel around another country, and then loop back for another 30 days in Thailand? This would mean you don’t have to pay any visa fees and avoid the visa extension process altogether!

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