Short answer. From 15 September 2026 most tourists enter Thailand visa-free for 30 days per entry, not 60. The change was published in the Royal Gazette on 31 August 2026 and cuts the exemption list from 93 to 60 countries and territories; a second, shorter 15-day tier covers some nationalities that fell off the main list. Countries with their own bilateral agreement are unaffected: Russia, China and Kazakhstan keep 30 days, South Korea keeps 90. Every arrival still needs the free Thailand Digital Arrival Card, completed online within three days before landing. A 30-day stay can be extended once, by up to 30 days, at the Phuket immigration office for a fee. Anyone planning more than two months needs a visa arranged before flying. All of this was checked on 4 September 2026; entry rules change, and the Thai e-Visa site is the final word.
What changed on 15 September 2026
Thailand had run one of the most generous visa-exemption schemes in the region since mid-2024: 60 days on arrival for 93 nationalities, extendable to 90. That scheme was rolled back by two Royal Gazette notices dated 31 August 2026. From 15 September 2026:
- the visa-free stay for the main list is 30 days per entry;
- the main list is 60 countries and territories, down from 93;
- a 15-day tier applies to a smaller group of nationalities that lost their place on the 60-country list;
- visa-exempt entries by land border are limited to two per calendar year, with an exception for Malaysian, Bruneian, Indonesian and Singaporean citizens;
- the planned Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for visa-exempt visitors was still not live on the check date.
The stated reasons were the same ones that had been building for a year: long-stayers working illegally on a tourist stamp, visa-run tourism, and the volume of 60-day arrivals who never left after 60 days. The practical effect for a holidaymaker is small. The practical effect for anyone who used the 60-day stamp as a de facto long-stay permit is large, and the second half of this guide is for them.
Two rules of thumb survive every change. First, the stamp you receive on arrival is the stay you get: a traveller who lands on 14 September with 60 days keeps those 60 days. Second, the immigration officer at the desk decides; a printed return ticket and a hotel booking for the first nights have never hurt anyone.
By country: what applies to you
The table covers the ten nationalities for which this site keeps a country hub. “Bilateral” means a separate agreement between Thailand and that country that the Gazette notices do not touch; the Thai authorities confirmed in September 2026 that such agreements continue to apply. Days are per entry.
| Passport | Basis | Days per entry | Notes (checked 4 September 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | 60-country exemption list | 30 | Was 60 days from mid-2024. One extension of up to 30 days. Phuket from India |
| Russia | Bilateral agreement | 30 | Not on the Gazette list; the bilateral 30-day agreement applies. Cumulative stays near 90 days in 180 draw questions. Phuket from Russia |
| China | Bilateral agreement (since 1 March 2024) | 30 | Cumulative cap of 90 days in any 180-day period. TDAC has a Chinese interface. Phuket from China |
| Australia | 60-country exemption list | 30 | Was 60. Retirement, DTV and tourist visas for longer stays. Phuket from Australia |
| United Kingdom | 60-country exemption list | 30 | Was 60. FCDO advice mirrors the change. Phuket from the UK |
| Germany | 60-country exemption list | 30 | Was 60. Auswärtiges Amt advice updated. Phuket from Germany |
| Malaysia | 60-country exemption list | 30 | Exempt from the two-land-entries-per-year cap. Phuket from Malaysia |
| South Korea | Bilateral agreement | 90 | The longest visa-free stay of any nationality here. Proof of funds and onward travel may be requested. Phuket from South Korea |
| France | 60-country exemption list | 30 | Was 60. TDAC has a French interface. Phuket from France |
| Kazakhstan | Bilateral agreement | 30 | Not on the Gazette list; the bilateral 30-day agreement applies. Phuket from Kazakhstan |
A nationality not in the table is either on the 60-country list (30 days), on the 15-day tier, or needs a visa or a visa on arrival. The Thai e-Visa site publishes the current lists; embassies publish them too, often a few days later.
Why these ten: they are the markets the island actually receives. In 2025 the three largest foreign markets by hotel guest arrivals were Russia (17.3%), China (12.8%), India (10.2%), and the ten together account for most of the 10.75 M foreign visitors that the Ministry of Tourism and Sports recorded for Phuket that year. The full breakdown by nationality is on the statistics hub.
The Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC)
Since 1 May 2025 every foreign traveller entering Thailand — by air, land or sea — must complete the Thailand Digital Arrival Card online before arrival. It replaced the paper TM6 form that used to be handed out on the plane.
What to know, as of September 2026:
- When: within the three days before arrival (arrival day counts). A card filled in a week early is rejected by the system.
- Where: the official portal of the Immigration Bureau, or the official app. It is free. Sites that charge a fee for “processing” the card are resellers at best.
- What it asks: passport details, flight number, the address of the first night’s accommodation in Thailand, and a short health declaration. A family or group can be entered in one session.
- What you get: a confirmation with a QR code by email. Immigration officers at Phuket airport scan it or look it up by passport number; a screenshot is enough, but a printout does no harm if your phone battery has other plans.
- What it is not: a visa, a permit, or an extension. It does not change how many days you may stay. Visa-exempt travellers, visa holders and long-term residents all need it.
Airlines in the region have started checking for the TDAC confirmation at check-in, particularly on flights from India and China. It is not universal, but arriving at the desk without it now costs time at the departure airport, not only at Phuket.
The planned Electronic Travel Authorisation — a pre-screening step for visa-exempt travellers that has been announced several times — had not launched on the check date. When it does, it will sit between the TDAC and the immigration desk; this guide will be updated.
At Phuket airport
Phuket International Airport handled 17.47 M passengers in 2025, 10.84 M of them international — 101.6% of the 2019 figure — so the immigration hall is busy, and busiest in the winter peak (the record month in the series is January 2025 (2.00 M)). Queues of 45 minutes at the international arrivals desks are normal between November and February; automated e-gates exist for Thai passports only.
The desk needs: the passport (six months’ validity remaining), the TDAC confirmation, and, if asked, evidence of onward travel within the permitted stay and of funds (the long-standing guideline is 20,000 THB per person, 10,000 for a family member, rarely checked but legally required). The stamp shows the date until which you may stay; read it before you leave the desk, because a stamp that says 30 days when you expected 60 is easier to query at the counter than a week later in town.
From the hall, the transfer options and what they cost are in the airport transfer guide.
Staying more than 30 days
The single extension
Visa-exempt travellers may apply once for an extension of stay of up to 30 days at an immigration office. For Phuket that is the Phuket Immigration Office on Phuket Road in Phuket Town, with a service point in Patong for the west coast.
- Fee: 1,900 THB (September 2026), cash, non-refundable if refused.
- Bring: passport, the TM7 application form (available at the office), one passport photo, a copy of the passport photo page and the entry stamp, and the address where you are staying (a hotel confirmation or a rental contract). Officers may ask to see the TDAC confirmation.
- Timing: apply in the last week of the permitted stay, not on the last day; the office is closed on Thai public holidays, and a stamp that expires on a holiday does not extend itself.
- The extension is at the officer’s discretion. It is normally granted to tourists with a fixed address and a departure plan; it is not a right.
The extension takes the stay to a maximum of 60 days on one entry for exempt nationalities. There is no second extension under the exemption. Leaving and re-entering (“a border run”) restarts the count in theory, but the two-land-entries-per-year rule and the cumulative-stay scrutiny at airports make that a poor plan for anyone intending to spend a season on the island.
Tourist visa
A tourist visa issued through the Thai e-Visa system before travel gives 60 days per entry, extendable once by 30 days at immigration for the same 1,900 THB fee — 90 days in total. It is the straightforward answer for a ten-week winter. Applications are online, take a few working days, and require a return ticket, accommodation for the first nights, and a recent bank statement. Multiple-entry tourist visas (six months’ validity, 60 days per entry) are available at a higher fee and with a higher funds requirement.
Destination Thailand Visa (DTV)
Introduced in 2024, the DTV is the visa the 60-day exemption was quietly replacing for a while. As of September 2026:
- Who: remote workers and freelancers employed outside Thailand, participants in “Thai soft power” activities (Muay Thai camps, Thai cooking schools, medical treatment, seminars), and their spouses and children under 20.
- Stay: 180 days per entry, with one extension of a further 180 days at immigration; the visa itself is multiple-entry and valid for five years.
- Money: at least 500,000 THB (or the equivalent) in a bank account, held for at least three months at most embassies; a fee of 10,000 THB.
- Paperwork: since 31 August 2026 applicants must show proof of their permanent residence abroad (not merely a hotel booking where they are applying from), plus an employment contract or client contracts for remote workers, or an enrolment letter for the soft-power activities.
- Work: it does not permit working for a Thai employer.
For a family that comes every winter, or a remote worker who wants six months without a border run, the DTV has become the default. Applications are made from outside Thailand through the e-Visa system.
Retirement visas
Two routes exist for the over-fifties, both dated September 2026: the Non-Immigrant O-A visa applied for in the home country (funds of 800,000 THB or a monthly income of 65,000 THB, a police certificate, a medical certificate and health insurance), and the Non-Immigrant O visa converted and extended inside Thailand (800,000 THB in a Thai bank account, seasoned for two months before the first extension). Both give one-year stays renewed annually, both come with 90-day address reporting to immigration (the TM47 report, online or in person), and both forbid work. Many of the retirees on the south and west coasts described in the area guide live on one of these.
Long-Term Resident (LTR) visa
The ten-year LTR visa, run by the Board of Investment, targets wealthy pensioners (a passive income of 80,000 USD a year, or 40,000 USD with a 250,000 USD investment in Thailand), “wealthy global citizens”, remote professionals working for large foreign companies, and highly skilled specialists. The fee is 50,000 THB, the address report is once a year instead of every 90 days, and a digital work permit is possible for the professional categories. It is the right tool for a small number of readers and the wrong one for most; the point of naming it is that a ten-year status exists for people who qualify, and it is not the retirement visa.
What the exemption cut means for a seasonal stay
The old pattern — arrive on a 60-day stamp, extend to 90, fly to Kuala Lumpur for a weekend, repeat — no longer fits inside the rules. A winter of three months now means a tourist visa (60 + 30) or a DTV; a winter of four to six months means the DTV or a retirement visa. None of these are difficult, all of them take a few weeks to arrange, and the villa market does not wait: December and January villas in the north-west are booked months ahead, as the monthly villa guide explains. Arrange the visa first, then the house.
Overstays, reporting and the things people get wrong
Overstay is counted from the day after the stamp expires. The fine is 500 THB per day up to a cap of 20,000 THB, paid at the airport on departure; an overstay of more than 90 days brings an entry ban of one year, longer for longer overstays, and being caught in the country while overstaying — rather than volunteering it at departure — is treated far more harshly. As of September 2026 there is no grace period.
Cumulative stay is a separate concern. Immigration officers can, and at Phuket do, question a visa-exempt traveller who has spent something close to 90 days in Thailand in the past 180, or who has a long string of exempt entries. The bilateral agreement for Chinese citizens makes the 90-in-180 cap explicit; for other nationalities it is discretion, and discretion at Phuket airport in peak season is short.
90-day reporting applies to anyone on a long-stay visa or extension, not to tourists on an exempt stay of 30 days or a tourist visa of 60. The report is made online, by post or at the immigration office within the window of 15 days before to 7 days after the due date; missing it costs 2,000 THB and a note on the file.
Passport validity: six months from the date of entry. Airlines enforce this at check-in more strictly than immigration does on arrival.
Children: the same rules as adults, on their own passports. A child on a parent’s passport is a thing of the past for most nationalities and is not accepted.
Dual nationals: enter and leave on the same passport. Switching passports mid-stay to reset a count creates an unexplained gap in one of them and a conversation at the desk.
“Visa on arrival” is a different category (about 30 nationalities, 15 days, a fee, a queue) and is not what the 60-country list gives; if a website tells a British or Indian traveller to expect a visa on arrival, it is describing the wrong list.
A note on prices and the calendar
Visa rules and prices move independently, but the calendar links them. The visa-free 30 days are shortest exactly where they matter least: the island’s high season runs November to April, when a four-star hotel night island-wide is measured at $62 (median, $41–134 from the 25th to the 75th percentile, n = 210, revision September 2026) and most holidays are two weeks or less. The people the change reaches are those who stay for the season — and for them the cost question is monthly, not nightly: a three-bedroom villa is $3,975 a month island-wide in the same revision, and the cost-of-living guide adds up the rest of a month. The exchange rate used throughout the index is 32.98 THB per USD (ECB, 3 September 2026).
Everything in this guide was checked on 4 September 2026 against the Royal Gazette notices as reported by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the official TDAC and e-Visa portals, and the travel-advice pages of four governments. The country hubs under /from carry the same facts per nationality and are re-verified on the first of each month.
FAQ
How many days can I stay in Phuket without a visa from 15 September 2026?
30 days per entry for the 60 countries and territories on the list published in the Royal Gazette on 31 August 2026 — down from the 60 days that applied from mid-2024. Nationalities with a separate bilateral agreement keep that agreement: 30 days for Russia, China and Kazakhstan, 90 days for South Korea. Checked 4 September 2026.
I arrive before 15 September 2026 — do I keep 60 days?
Yes. The stay you are stamped in with on arrival is the stay you keep. A traveller who lands on 14 September with a 60-day stamp is not cut to 30 days on the 15th; the new rule applies to entries from 15 September onwards.
Is the Thailand Digital Arrival Card mandatory?
Yes, for every foreign traveller arriving by air, land or sea since 1 May 2025. It is completed online within three days before arrival, it is free, and immigration expects the QR code on your phone or a printout. It replaced the paper TM6 card; it is not a visa and does not change how long you may stay.
Can I extend a 30-day visa-free stay in Phuket?
A single extension of up to 30 days can be requested at the Phuket immigration office for a fee (1,900 THB as of September 2026), at the officer’s discretion. Apply before the stamp expires, bring the passport, a TM7 form, a photo and proof of where you are staying. A second extension under the exemption is not normally granted.
What happens if I overstay?
A fine of 500 THB per day, capped at 20,000 THB, paid at the airport on departure; overstays of more than 90 days bring an entry ban of one year or more. Rules as of September 2026. Immigration also watches cumulative stays: someone who has spent close to 90 days in Thailand within the past 180 can be questioned at the border even without an overstay.
Which visa do I need for a stay longer than a month?
A tourist visa (60 days, extendable by 30) through the Thai e-Visa system, the Destination Thailand Visa for remote workers and long-term visitors (180 days per entry, five-year validity, 500,000 THB in funds, 10,000 THB fee), a retirement visa for the over-fifties (800,000 THB in a Thai bank or a qualifying pension), or the ten-year Long-Term Resident visa for wealthy pensioners and remote professionals. All are applied for before travelling, as of September 2026.
Does the exemption cut change the cost of a trip to Phuket?
Not directly — hotel and villa prices are set by the market, and the index shows the current medians: a four-star hotel night island-wide is $62 and a three-bedroom villa month is $3,975 in the September 2026 revision. What changes is planning: a stay of more than 30 days now needs an extension or a visa arranged in advance.