How long can I stay in Thailand without a visa?

The Bounded TeamVisas · ThailandOctober 2026

Short answer: 30 days per visit, for tourism, if you hold one of the 60 visa-exempt passports (including the EU, UK, US, Canada, Australia, and India) — the rule since 15 September 2026, when the old 60-day exemption was revoked. An extension of up to 30 days is possible at an immigration office, at the officer's discretion (7 days at most for some nationalities, including India). Anyone admitted on or before 14 September 2026 keeps the 60 days stamped at entry.

It depends on when you enter

Thailand has just changed its rules. The Cabinet approved a cut to the visa exemption on 19 May 2026, the Ministry of Interior announcements were published in the Royal Gazette on 31 August 2026, and they took effect on 15 September 2026. Your entry date decides which regime applies:

Admitted on or before 14 September 2026: 60 days visa-free (the scheme that ran since July 2024, covering 93 nationalities). Your stamped date stands even if it runs past the changeover.
Admitted from 15 September 2026: 30 days visa-free, for tourism only, for 60 nationalities; 15 days for Mauritius and Seychelles; visa on arrival only for Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Serbia.

The number that matters is the date stamped in your passport at entry. Immigration counts your permitted stay from the day you arrive; you must leave or extend on or before that date.

Who gets the 30 days

The final list covers 60 countries and territories — all 27 EU member states, the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Singapore, and Malaysia among them. If your passport was on the old 60-day list, check it is on the new one: about a third of the previous 93 dropped off. Thailand now grants one scheme per country, so countries with a bilateral visa-exemption agreement use that instead — 90 days for South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru; 30 days for China, Russia, Hong Kong, Macao, Laos, Vietnam, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Timor-Leste; 14 days for Cambodia and Myanmar (Myanmar at international airports only) — while the rest now need a visa in advance.

Staying longer than 30 days

1Extend in-country: an extension of up to 30 days (form TM.7, 1,900 THB) at a Thai Immigration office, applied for before your stamped date. It is granted at the officer's discretion, and nationals of Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Nepal, Togo, Nigeria, and Uganda get no more than 7 days; if 30 days are approved, a visa-exempt visit reaches about 60 days.
2Get a tourist visa (TR) before you fly: 60 days at entry, extendable by 30, for a 90-day stay.
3For longer, look at the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) for remote workers and long-stay visitors, or a non-immigrant category that fits your purpose.

Leaving and coming straight back does not stretch the allowance indefinitely. The new announcements set no annual limit on visa-exempt entries by air, but every entry is still at the immigration officer's discretion. At land borders the new rules set an explicit cap: two visa-exempt entries per calendar year (Malaysians, Bruneians, Indonesians, and Singaporeans are exempt from that cap).

Counting the days

Thailand publishes no day-counting rule, so take the cautious reading and count your entry day as day one: a 30-day stay from a 1 October arrival then ends on 30 October, not 31. The date the officer stamps or records is what binds you. An extension runs from the end of your current permitted stay, not from the day you apply — so applying early costs you nothing. Overstays are fined 500 THB a day (up to 20,000 THB); overstaying more than 90 days brings a re-entry ban of at least a year even if you surrender, and being arrested for an overstay brings a ban of at least five years, so treat the stamped date as hard. If you move between several countries in a year, Thailand's days also feed a separate question — its 180-day tax residency test — which counts every day in the country across the calendar year regardless of visa status.

If you entered before the change

Anyone admitted on or before 14 September 2026 may stay until the last day on their 60-day stamp; the change does not shorten a stay already granted. Every entry from 15 September 2026 gets 30. Your entry date decides, not your booking date. The full Thailand visa exemption guide tracks the change, the eligible-country list, and what changed for visa on arrival.

The full ruleThailand — Visa Exemption: 30 Days (60 Nationalities), 15 Days (Mauritius, Seychelles)

Sources

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For information only. This page is a plain-English summary of publicly available rules, not tax, legal, or immigration advice. Rules change and depend on your personal circumstances — always confirm with the official source above and a qualified professional before acting.