What visa options are available for a 90-day stay in Thailand, and is an appointment necessary for medical reasons with a Non-O visa?

Henry Durrant Here you get 1-2 good answers and 8-20 not so good. If you read many threads here you start to see what's correct (although it's changing). By her questions I guess she is not much for reading previous posts or googling. She mixes up just wanting to stay for 90 days (as a tourist?) with the 90 day given for Non O. In the end you need to contact the local embassy anyway. Or read what is said on their site.

Carol Samuel - as a tourist your least complicated pathway is Single Entry TR (tourist visa) which grants a 60 day Permit to stay, which can be extended by another 30 days once in Thailand.

You return flight needs to be within 60 days though, and if you extend you’ll need to amend the return flight date.

The TR has a 90 day period when it can be used for entry, so you shouldn’t apply for this until around 6 weeks prior to your planned arrival date.

sometimes folks get confused between the 90 day validity window, and the 60 days Permit to stay.

Carol Samuel so if you're over 50 get a Non-O visa to get your 90 days on entry without any further issues

Carol Samuel actually you should have an onward ticket for 60 days as that is the amount of days allowed under a tourist visa. You can extend it at a local immigration office for 30 days for ฿1,900 but the immigration officer allowing you entry along with your airline may require an onward ticket for the length of the visa you are entering on.

Carol Samuel the embassy website tells you what visas are available. Don't use AI or chatgpt.

Carol Samuel stop reading the nonsense then. A Tourist Visa is 60 days applied from your own country before you leave. This can be extended by 30 days at immigration for 1900 baht. That's it, don't read anything else.

Carol Samuel it hasn’t changed yet. We are over here now. It hasn’t been published in the Royal Gazette yet. When it is there is a 15 day grace period before it commences. From what we’re hearing over here no one knows when it will come out in the Royal Gazette.

Carol Samuel when you see the Google AI summary. Look at where it is getting its info from. Often it will be news stories or a non-official opinion website. Just because it is what AI has come up with does not make it more true than the sources it is using. In the case of the new rules. These have passed through parliament and reported in the news. But the official date of implementation is 15 days after it has been published in the government/royal gazette.

Carol Samuel No change yet it is still 60 days. Don't trust what you read via Ai. It will change about 15 days after it is published in the Royal Gazette and it has not been published as of now.

@Carol *******

that's the problem with AI as far as visa issues are concerned, it often gets it wrong. As of yet there's been no change

Carol Samuel If it had been changed, you’d have been told!

Carol Samuel NO IT HAS NOT!

Carol Samuel just set an entry/exit pattern of an actual tourist. Enter Thailand visa exempt, and toward the end take your vacation to Vietnam for a month, then return to Thailand again visa exempt, and if needed, at that point extend it, not on your original entry. Then if you want to extend it out more, with a very nice two week excursion, go into Laos, and start with the two day slow boat down the Mekong River to LuangPraBong in the middle of Laos. VangVien in Laos is also real nice. Then back into Thailand, and all these entries, and exits, without taking the 30 extension in Thailand, until your very last entry, and before you fly home. If you do this type of traveling here then to immigration you look like a tourist basing out of Thailand, with Bangkok being the best to base out of. This shows immigration you aren't trying to live here long term on tourist entries, taking the 30 day extension each time. I know people that have been doing this basing out of Bangkok, for over two years now, and all on visa exempt entries.

Carol Samuel as stated above your forward ticket needs to be within 60 days (not 90), so maybe get a ticket thats easy to change later after you have arrived or one that doesnt cost much.