Is there a recent change to the Multi-Entry Tourist Visa for Thailand?

*** The Multi Entry Tourist Visa is valid for 6 months, to be used for an unlimited number of entries during this period. The 6-month validity begins on the day the visa is issued.

Each time you enter the country you receive a 60-day residence permit (AE for short), which can be extended by another 30 days at immigration for 1900 THB.

Before the 60 days or 90 days expire, you have to leave the country and activate a new 60-day residence permit when you re-enter the country.

Please do not confuse this: the duration of the stay permit is not the same as the duration of the visa validity.

If you leave and re-enter as close as possible before your visa expires, you will receive a 60-day AE stamp for the last time. This brings the total possible stay to almost 8 months.

You can theoretically get another 30-days extension on immigration, which brings the total stay to almost 9 months

You can only apply for and receive the 6-month multi-entry tourist visa in your country of residence

A 60-day single entry tourist visa, however, can be obtained at any Thai diplomatic mission around the world

If you apply for a visa in your country using the e-visa system, don't be surprised if the day of departure is getting closer and you haven't yet been issued a visa.

The embassy and consulates usually try to issue the visa as close as possible to your departure date so that you don’t lose any more days than needed, of the 6-month visa validity

The only thing that has changed since before covid is you can now only get the multi-entry tourist visa, METV, in your home passport country, unless you have written residency in a foreign country you are in. That is the only change that has happened.

@Debbie *******

Everything is the same and you’ll need to apply at your permanent residence.

Your friend maybe thinking of a relic of a visa issued years and years ago called the double entry tourist visa. Can’t recall when they stopped those but it’s many years now.

No change, I got one last month. In Australia the cost was $300 AUD.

Entirely rubbish. A multiple entry qualifies for exactly that: multiple entries.

If they would want to limit this to only two, they wouldn't go with just a silent change in the conditions of an existing visa which would unalign with its name. They would then abandon the multiple entry visa, and replace it by a new type with another name, in this hypothetical case probably yielding "dual entry tourist visa". There is no such news from any source; the multiple entry tourist visa stands as it is.

There is an additional charge for multiple entry visa. I requested it when I applied for my visa.

No change your friend 100% wrong

There's no change. A multiple entry tourist visa is valid for entering Thailand an unlimited number of times until the expiration date on the visa.

There's no visa that is only valid for leaving and re-entering one additional time.

Your friend might be thinking of a single re-entry permit which has nothing to do with a multiple entry visa.