What should expats do if they receive their Thai visa after entering the country on a visa exempt entry?

We see a number of posts from people that have applied for a visa from an embassy in their home country but have not received it by the time their flight is booked for. (France and Germany are you listening?). Because they come from a country that allows a visa exempt entry they wing their way to Thailand and then get a free 30 day visa exempt entry stamp.

A few days later the visa they applied for appears in their email. Now they have a valid visa for X number of days and want to know what to do to get the X number of days they’ve been granted. They’re already in Thailand. So they head to an immigration office and say they want their visa activated to give them their X number of days.

It doesn’t work that way. The visa they have gives them the right to stay in Thailand for X number of days from entry. They have to leave Thailand and re-enter to activate the visa.

Depending on the visa they have and the number of days they are looking to stay in Thailand for it may be beneficial to extend the 30 days they got on entry at an immigration office and then leave and re-enter to activate the issued visa, or just leave within the 30 days and re-enter to activate it. There is nothing they can do within Thailand to “switch over” to that visa. They need to leave and then come back.

If you are issued an evisa from an eligible country print it out and hand it to the immigration officer when you enter Thailand. Although the fact that you have an evisa is visible to the officer on their immigration system they may miss that and not realise you have one and stamp you in visa exempt regardless that you have a valid visa.

And ALWAYS check the stamp the officer has given you at the entry desk. Humans make mistakes. I see numerous cases where people have come to immigration and said that they were stamped incorrectly on entry and are now on overstay. The onus is on you to check.