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How does the 180-day visa stay work in Thailand, and what is the difference between extension and renewal?

Jun 18, 2025
10 months ago
Richard ******
ORIGINAL POSTER
My first successful 180 day Visa renewal just completed. All I needed was Passport, copy of DTV and new arrival card (TM6) ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘ŠFYI I also had copies of TM30, copy of lease, proof of funds in the bank and also proof of income over the last 3 months but was not asked for them. Winning!
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TLDR : Answer Summary
The post describes the author's recent experience obtaining a 180-day visa stay in Thailand by exiting and re-entering the country. Though the author refers to the process as a "visa renewal," many comments clarify that this is actually a border bounce, not a true renewal or extension of the visa. Extensions require applying at an immigration office within Thailand, whereas border bounces simply grant new entry stamps upon re-entry.
DTV VISA RESOURCES / SERVICES
Sd ****
Ah so you just exited the country and came back? It's not an extension. I just did the same last week too, like most of the dtv holders
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Tod *********
๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐ฐ๐š๐ง๐ง๐š ๐ž๐๐ข๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ๐ญ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ž๐š๐๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐Ÿ™

๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐ข๐๐ง'๐ญ "๐ซ๐ž๐ง๐ž๐ฐ" ๐š๐ง๐ฒ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐  ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐ ๐š ๐Ÿ“ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ ๐ƒ๐“๐• ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ฎ๐ง๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ–๐ŸŽ ๐๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ

๐€๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ฐ๐š๐ฌ ๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ/๐›๐š๐œ๐ค ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐š ๐๐„๐– ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ–๐ŸŽ ๐๐š๐ฒ ๐„๐๐“๐‘๐˜ ๐’๐“๐€๐Œ๐

๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐ข๐๐ง'๐ญ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐š๐ง๐ฒ ๐ž๐ฑ๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง <- ๐š๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐ž ๐ข๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ข๐ ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ข๐œ๐ž,

๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ "๐›๐จ๐ซ๐๐ž๐ซ ๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐œ๐ž๐" <- ๐ž๐ฑ๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐/๐ซ๐ž-๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐š ๐๐„๐– ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ–๐ŸŽ ๐๐š๐ฒ ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ฆ๐ฉ
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David ********
Thanks for the report, thousands of foreigners have done the same, fly out and then come back
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Nick ************
The DTV is falling apart.
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Sd ****
@Nick ***********
explain maybe?
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Jeremy *********
@Nick ***********
sure sure ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚
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Jeremy *********
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Dnatjugweme ************
There is no renewal... You exited the Kingdom of Thailand, then re-entered and got a new permission to stay for 180 days. An extension of your permission to stay is when you apply at the immigration office inside Thailand to get another 180 days without leaving the country.
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Anonymous ******************
Do you mean Extension it's not a renewal ..?

But just read you left to Vietnam...?!?

So resets itself anyway
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Richard ******
ORIGINAL POSTER
Thatโ€™s exactly what I did get Anonymous participant 699
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Anonymous ******************
@Richard *****
so not an extension then...
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Anonymous ******************
Anonymous participant 226 you essentially did a border bounce
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Richard ******
ORIGINAL POSTER
Correct Anonymous participant 226 Apparently an extension means prolonging the current validity of your existing visa before it expires. So maybe both 90 & 180 days are extensions. Who really knows!
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Biff *******
@Richard *****
an extension of your current stay involves going to an immigration office inside Thailand and providing the documentation they need. Every office has slightly different requirements so you should go there before you need to to find out what they are.

A 90 day report is a requirement to report the fact to the immigration office you registered your TM30 with that you have stayed in the country for 90 consecutive days. The window for reporting is two weeks before and one week after the due date. The due date is 89 days after your last entry to the country.

What you did is neither an extension, a renewal, or a 90 day report. You have a DTV which is a multiple entry visa. Every time you enter the country during the validity of your visa, you get stamped in for 180 days. That's what you just did.

You left and came back. That's all.

You can't prolong the current validity of your visa. You can get an extension of your current permission to stay (you didn't do that) or you can, with a multiple entry visa, leave and re-enter to get another permission to stay. You did that.

Your next 90 day report is due 89 days after the date of your latest entry.
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Biff *******
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Anonymous ******************
Anonymous participant 699 was just going to ask the same, if you had an overnight stay in Vietnam why didn't you get 180 stamp on arrival back?
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Richard ******
ORIGINAL POSTER
My understanding is a renewal is at the 180 day limit and an extension is at 90 days at immigration. I may very well be wrong and happy to be corrected or informed otherwise Anonymous participant 699
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Dnatjugweme ************
@Richard *****
The 90-day thing is just a notification of your address(TM.47), it has no influence whatsoever on your permission to stay, and you still need to do it every 90 days, unless you exit Thailand before.

There is no renewal... You exited the Kingdom of Thailand, then re-entered and got a new permission to stay for 180 days. An extension of your permission to stay is when you apply at the immigration office inside Thailand to get another 180 days without leaving the country.
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Tod *********
@Dnatjugweme ***********
(y) (y) well said,
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Richard ******
ORIGINAL POSTER
This sounds like a whole lot of common sense from all of the comments on my post
@Dnatjugweme ***********
thank you! As you would know as a โ€œrising contributorโ€ this visa has created a lot of myths and mystery in the 338 days it has been available. Again appreciate your insights & feedback!
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Richard ******
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Anonymous ******************
Superb chief

Well play...

๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿ™๐Ÿฝ
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Anonymous ******************
Which embassy please?
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Anonymous ******************
Anonymous participant 226 sorry i was just about to edit asking which immigration office** ๐Ÿ˜…
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Anonymous ******************
Anonymous participant 226 it's done at immigration not an embassy๐Ÿค”๐Ÿซก๐Ÿ™ˆ
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Richard ******
ORIGINAL POSTER
I did not need an embassy it was a 180 renewal done following an overnight stay in Vietnam after my first 180 days in Thailand ๐Ÿ™ Anonymous participant 226
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Richard ******
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