@Stuart *********

the 90-days reporting duty becomes void when you leave Thailand. The 90-days clock starts at day number 1 on the day you re-enter

@Ben ******

you are allowed 180 days within a one-year period if you have entered on the 6-months multi re-entry Tourist Visa. Any further stay permits over these 180 days are upon the discretion of the officer at the border. normally, if you do a last entry before the visa validity expires, you will receive a last 60-days admitted stay, which carries you to almost 8 months of stay

@Ben ******

sadly, not true any more. You are allowed a maximum of two EXTENSIONS on top of visa exempt entries, within a one-year period. The first extension will be for 30 days, however the second extension will be for 7 days. . . . that makes a total of 157 days maximum admitted stay on visa exempt entries within a one-year period

@Alexander ******

There are no new "visa rules" or a new law.

There is no limit of two visa-exemptions within a calendar year, and not there is no limit within a one-year period as well.

It’s only that some scaremongerers do not understand what is actually going on.

What has changed, mandated from above, is the strict scrutinizing of your number of visa-exempt entries and the thorough check on "visa runners" (actually they meant to say "back-to-back border runners").The new approach taken by border officials is intended to ensure that the option to do a "visa run" is not abused.

Now as far as regarding extensions on visa-exempt entries, it does appear that the Immigration offices are indeed only issuing 7-day extensions if you already got one previous 30-days extension on any visa exempt entry

It is totally up to the discretion of the immigration officer you are in front of when you apply for the extension and they will tell you if you can get the 30-days extension, or if you're only going to get the 7-days extension.

The thing is right now it's totally subjective and up to the officer you are standing in front of when you go to stamp into the country for them to decide if you're a "real tourist" or if they think you're abusing the visa exempt entry program.

Some people with a 30-days extension already on a previous visa exempt entry reported getting another 30-days extension without any issue, however some have reported they only got a 7-days extension issued. So, your experience might vary.

60 + 30 + 60 + 7 = a maximum of 157 days per year... and it seems this is regardless of whether you arrived by air or across a land border (some say that for a land border visa-exempt entry, you cannot get any extension at all)

Visa-exempt entries themselves are not limited, even though some believe that unlimited visa-free entries are possible by air. This is simply not true.

Visa-exempt entries are not limited to two entries to two entries per “rolling 1-year” period

This is a misconception, and some agents and lawyers spread this information to make profit from panicked people.

Agents are warning that you should not believe FAKE NEWS telling you that visa-exempt entries are limited to two per calendar year.

The old rule that visa-exempt entries were limited to two across a land border got discontinued on July 15th, 2024. On the paper, visa-exempt entries by air or across land and sea were “unlimited” after this date.

However, this wording “unlimited” did never describe the real stance of Immigration – THEY decide when your “personal limit” is up, not any text printed on the websites of any Thai embassies.

Under certain circumstances, but always at the individual discretion of the border official, multiple visa-exempt entries are possible, like four, five or even more times, if you don’t abuse the system.

In this case, however, the entry history in your passport and on the immigration central computer must prove that your stays were short-term holidays (like only 2-4 weeks) and the total annual stay is not exceeding 157 days (some will say not exceed 180 days, some will say 150 days – it’s unclear)

There should be several weeks (or months) abroad between each visa-exempt stay.

Your best proof of not abusing the system is when you can show that you returned to your home country between each visa-exempt stay, or stayed abroad for a long time. And that you show an onward travel proof

(ATTENTION: an “onwardticket” can be scolded upon by Immigration and you can be accused of showing a faked ticket, denied entry and being forced to buy a ticket back to your origin)

The intended aim of the new approach was to prohibit "visa runs," where you only entered briefly a neighboring country and then immediately re-entered.

You must be able to prove the planned short stay at the immigration counter—for example, with proof of onward travel or a return journey, such as a flight ticket.

It seems that a border official would consider you being a "genuine" tourist based on such short holiday trips within a one year period.

In this case, they expect to see on their central computer that you never extended the 60-days visa-exempt stay permit – i.e. maximized – any of these short trips.

The 7-day extension is a REAL extension. It's not the same as the stamp "application for extension denied, you have 7 days to leave the Kingdom", even if to some people it looks like a “grace period”.

I have already seen the stamp of a 7-days extension, it takes up half of a passport page. The original “you have 7 days to leave” stamp is smaller, takes something like a quarter up to one-third of the page

What has become crystal-clear is that "per year" is defined as "per one-year period”.

Some people still claim Immigration meant “calendar year” but to me this doesn’t make any sense. Some people still use a completely rubbish sheet of paper posted outside of Ko Samui Immigration to uphold this claim. This is nonsense. . . . . And what the Thai Embassy in Oslo writes on their website is the same rubbish. It is definitely NOT true. . . . . . . One should be very careful what an embassy claims to know about Immigration rules in Thailand. An embassy is subsidy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but Immigration is subsidy of Ministry of Interior. They do not communicate with each other, and they follow different rules. NEVER trust what an embassy claims to know about rules that refer to the Immigration.

and what will you have to show if you don't know yet where you will sleep, because you intend to do a walk-in among the many guesthouses near the Loy Kroh ?

@Bob *********

is what I am recommending as well

@Farang ********

as a real husband with a Thai wife, put 400,000 THB in your Thai bank account and enter on a 90-days Non-Imm-O Family visa next time. And apply for the one-year extension of the stay permit. Buy a multi re-entry permit for the one-year stay permit. Problem solved

@Farang ********

you shouldn't have mentioned your wife. Without a Thai wife, you are a "real tourist" 🤣😃🤣

Every entry is at the discretion of the Immigration officer you will stand in front of. Nobody in a Facebook group can foresee the decision of the border official.

If you want to spend 4, 5 or 6 months of holiday in Thailand get the appropriate multi entry 6-months Tourist Visa in your home country

If you want to enter on consecutive 90-days Non-Imm Visa-types, and a few months in between, it is unclear if and at which point the Immigration officer will disregard them as the first step towards a 1-year extension of the stay permit – something this visa-type is intended for.

Repeated 90-days Non-Imm-O visa entries will reveal that you are misusing them for 90-days holidays, and at some point you will get pulled aside and warned and can possibly denied entry

With other words – I don’t know for sure, there has never been any clarity about it

There are no new "visa rules" or a new law.

There is no limit of two visa-exemptions within a calendar year, and not within a one-year period as well.

What has changed, mandated from above, is the strict scrutinizing of your number of visa-exempt entries and the thorough check on "visa runners" (actually they meant to say "back-to-back border runners").The new approach taken by border officials is intended to ensure that the option to do a "visa run" is not abused.

Now as far as regarding extensions on visa-exempt entries, it does appear that the Immigration offices are indeed only issuing 7-day extensions if you already got one previous 30-day extension on any visa exempt entry

It is totally up to the discretion of the immigration officer you are in front of when you apply for the extension and they will tell you if you can get the 30-days extension, or if you're only going to get the 7-days extension.

The thing is right now it's totally subjective and up to the officer you are standing in front of when you go to stamp into the country for them to decide if you're a "real tourist" or if they think you're abusing the visa exempt entry program.

There's just no real concrete clear directive as far as what's what.

Some people with a 30-days extension already on a previous visa exempt entry reported getting another 30-days extension without any issue, however some have reported they only got a 7-days extension issued. So your experience might vary.

60 + 30 + 60 + 7 = a maximum of 157 days per year... and it seems this is regardless of whether you arrived by air or across a land border (some say that for a land border visa-exempt entry, you cannot get any extension at all)

Visa-exempt entries themselves are not limited, even though some believe that unlimited visa-free entries are possible by air. This is simply not true.

Visa-exempt entries are not limited to two entries to two entries per “rolling 1-year” period

This is a misconception, and some agents and lawers spread this information to make profit from panicked people.

Agents are warning that you should not believe FAKE NEWS telling you that visa-exempt entries are limited to two per calendar year.

The old rule that visa-exempt entries were limited to two across land borders, got discontinued on July 15th, 2024. On the paper, visa-exempt entries by air or across land and sea were “unlimited” after this date.

However this word “unlimited” did not describe the real stance of Immigration – THEY decide when your “personal limit” is up, not any text printed on the websites of Thai embassies.

Under certain circumstances, but always at the individual discretion of the border official, multiple visa-exempt entries are possible, like four, five or even more times, if you don’t abuse the system.

In this case, however, the entry history in your passport and on the immigration central computer must prove that your stays were short-term holidays (like only 2-4 weeks) and the total annual stay is not exceeding 157 days (some will say not exceed 180 days, some will say 150 days – it’s unclear)

And there should be several weeks (or months) abroad between each visa-exempt stay.

Your best proof of not abusing the system is when you can show that you returned to your home country between each visa-exempt stay, or stayed abroad for a long time. And that you show an onward travel proof

(ATTENTION: an “onwardticket” can be scolded upon by Immigration and you can be accused of showing a faked ticket, denied entry and being forced to buy a ticket back to your origin)

The intended aim of the new approach was to prohibit "visa runs," where you only entered briefly a neighboring country and then immediately re-entered.

You must be able to prove the planned short stay at the immigration counter—for example, with proof of onward travel or a return journey, such as a flight ticket.

It seems that a border official would consider you being a "genuine" tourist based on such short holiday trips within a year.

In this case, they expect to see on their central computer that you never extended the 60-days visa-exempt stay permit – i.e. maximized – any of these short trips.

The 7-day extension is a REAL extension. It's not the same as the stamp "application for extension denied, you have 7 days to leave the Kingdom", even if to some people it looks like a “grace period”. I have already seen the stamp of a 7-days extension, it takes up half of a passport page. The original “you have 7 days to leave” stamp is smaller, takes something like a quarter up to one-third of the page

What has become crystal clear, is that "per year" can be defined as "per one-year period.

Some people still say they meant “calendar year” but to me this doesn’t make any sense, and we have received several confirmations that nothing “resets in a new calendar year”. The count will be for a full one-year period, period.

Those who want to be on the safe side should obtain a single-entry tourist visa in advance for stays of up to 60 days, with the option to extend for 30 more days.

Someone entering on a 6-months multi-entry tourist visa (two extensions possible) and a half-year interval outside of Thailand between each METV, is good to go for a maximum of consecutive “touristic” 180 days stay per 1-year period