THAILAND
Entry Requirements
& Visa Extension
For stays of up to thirty days, most foreign passport holders
automatically get a free non-extendable transit visa when passing
through immigration at Don Muang Airport, at the Malaysian border
or at the Laos border, but may have to show proof of onward travel
arrangements.
These transit visas are absolutely non-extendable, so you might
want to apply for a sixty-day tourist visa instead, obtainable
in advance from Thai embassies . In the UK, sixty-day visas take
two working days to process if you go in person (Mon-Fri 9.30am-12.30pm),
or ten days if you apply by post, and cost £8. In the US,
it costs $15 and takes 24 hours in person, or five days by post.
In Canada it costs CAN$16.50 and is processed in three working
days to a week; in Australia it costs A$18 and takes three to
five days. New Zealanders (and nationals of South Korea, Sweden,
Denmark, Norway and Finland) with a valid onward ticket get a
free ninety-day visa.
All sixty-day tourist visas can be extended in Thailand for a
further thirty days, at the discretion of officials; visa extensions
cost B500 and are issued over the counter at immigration offices
( kaan khao muang) in nearly every provincial capital - most offices
ask for one or two extra photos as well, plus two photocopies
of the first four pages and latest Thai visa page of your passport.
If you use up the three-month quota, the quickest and cheapest
way of extending your stay for a further sixty days is to head
down to Malaysia and apply for another tourist visa at the embassy
in Kuala Lumpur.
Immigration offices also issue re-entry permits (B500) if you
want to leave the country and come back again within sixty days.
If you overstay your visa limits, expect to be fined B100 per
extra day when you depart Don Muang Airport, though an overstay
of a month or more could land you in trouble with immigration
officials.
Airport departure tax
Airport departure tax on international flights is B500, on domestic
flights B30
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