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How many times can you enter Thailand on a visa exemption in one year?

Jun 17, 2024
2 years ago
Gerry *****
ORIGINAL POSTER
How many times can you fly into Thailand on Visa exempt? I’ve flown in twice this year total of 17 days and I’ll be flying in again next week for 2 weeks.

Cheers
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TLDR : Answer Summary
There is no legal limit to the number of times you can enter Thailand on a visa exemption by air; however, it's at the discretion of the immigration officer. The key consideration is your travel history in Thailand. For entries by land, there is a limit of two times per calendar year. Frequent entries may raise questions about whether you're living in Thailand rather than visiting as a tourist.
Hristo ***********
They could make a problem if they suspect you to live here permanently and possibly work here illigelly. As long as you just travel in and out for few days there wouldnt be any problem.
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Brian *********
Twice in a 6 month period
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Ian ********
Your fine you will have no problems with your history
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Graham ******
@Ian *******
Twice in a calendar year by land border is the only limit in Thai law
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Graham ******
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Oliver ********
I've noticed since many other countries stopped stamping passports, my passport has become dominated by Thailand stamps, which seems to trigger the border officers' suspicions - hence, if you come often but never stay for a long and spend most of your time elsewhere, it might be worth summarising your travel history on a separate piece of paper to make it easier for the border officers to understand
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Graham ******
@Oliver *******
Ask the Immigration Officer for a printout of the screen he will be looking at, it will all be there ;)
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Graham ******
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Oliver ********
no limit, but if your travel history suggests you may be living in Thailand, rather than being a genuine tourist, you will eventually be asked questions and then, depending on how satisfied they are with your answers, either told to get a visa or denied entry
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Tony ******
Once you spend over 180 days a year immigration will be asking why
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Tony *********
I come to Thailand on visa exempt every 10 weeks and stay for 4 weeks . I've done that since the scamdemic
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Martin *********
I have done three times in a calendar year, April, September and November twice, depends on who you are standing in front of at immigration, as a by the by I have heard that you should avoid the women IO's as they can be more officious, but I have no evidence.
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John *******
@Martin ********
I find the women .more leiniant, I asked a guy a Question, he went Berlistic. Told .me to go to another. Both, so went to a woman, no problem
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John *******
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Marc **********
What defines "extensive history"?
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Jiji ***********
@Marc *********
The immigration officer will, ultimately.

If you've been here 4 months, six months, or longer on nothing but visa-exempt entries, just going out then straight back in, however, then the likelihood of an immigration officer viewing your history as "extensive" goes up several notches.
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Marc **********
@Jiji **********
thanks. I heard it was quite subjective 😉
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Marc **********
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Stephan ***********
@Marc *********
At the end of the day everything is "up to the discretion" of the Immigration Officer. If he thinks you try to stay too long or even try to live in Thailand based on visa exempts he will tell you to get a proper visa.
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Stephan ***********
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Kevin ******
No limit if arriving by air. When my job relocated from Thailand to another country, I flew in visa exempt 6 or 7 times in one year. Never questioned.
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Gerry *****
ORIGINAL POSTER
Cheers
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Bart **************
No limit. Only by land there's a limit: two per calendar year.
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Jeremy *********
I was told twice by an officer leaving Thailand to Laos in may

On my return the third time since July last year and nowt

So it’s luck
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Graham ******
@Jeremy ********
It's twice by land per calendar year for Visa Exempt entries
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Jeremy *********
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Jeremy *********
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Brandon ************
There is no legal limit. It's at the discretion of the immigration officer. It's much more about how much time you've been in Thailand than about how many times you've entered. If you've only been in Thailand for 17 days total this year and don't have a previous extensive history in Thailand, you shouldn't have any issues entering again.
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Henrik *****
After some Thai Embassies, where down for upgrading (?) the previous 2 week-ends, the Copenhagen and London embassy websites, says 2 visa excempt / year ( not only by landborder ), interesting if that is a new policy, to be implemented.

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Brandon ************
@Henrik ****
the embassies do not get to unilaterally make policy. Immigration control entry not the MFA. London has had that on their site for over 6 months
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Graham ******
@Brandon ***********
They also had that Visa Exempt was now 60 days then saying a few days later it had reverted to 30 days 555
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Henrik *****
It was the newsmedia, that premature announced the intention of changing of the visa rules.

On top of that most readers of the media didn’t read what was written, but read what they wished for.

In most countrys laws have no effect until it has been decided in Parlament, and after corona everybody should know that nothing is decided until it has been announced in the Royal Gazette.

But newsmedia exist on being first with the news, and then they again and again bring news before the things really happends.
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Henrik *****
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Henrik *****
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Henrik *****
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Jan ******************
If that’s your only recent travel history, you should be fine with another entry on visa exemption.
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John **********
There's no definite limit by air, you can enter until the immigration officer says you can't. A lot will depend on your history in Thailand
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John **********
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