No visa grants you entry in to Thailand. That is up to the immigration officer that gives you permission to enter. What it grants you is the right to stay for x number of days if allowed in to the country.

Where a visa may help is that the IO recognises the fact that you have a valid visa to enter and would probably be more likely to grant you permission to enter based on that.

No visa (or exempt) entry is a given. It’s up to them. If they feel you are doing something to abuse the system then they can deny you entry. Very very rarely would happen for an actual visa but it has and could.

@Greg ********

Sheesh. Why would you comment when it’s obvious you don’t have a clue how a re-entry permit works.

The whole point of a re-entry permit is to allow your existing stamp to stay “alive” when you re-enter.

There are numerous visa types that people classify as a “retirement” visa.

The Non OA (or Ox) or LTR visas are indeed multiple entry visas and you can come and go as you like until their validity expires.

A Non O visa is not multiple entry (Yes I’m aware that some could still potentially be on a multiple entry one from some specific embassies prior to the switch to the evisa system).

Because you specifically mention an agent i suspect that you’re actually referring to an extension of stay based of an initial visa. Extensions are not multiple entry. You buy a re-entry permit to allow your existing stamp to remain “alive”.

If your agent doesn’t know this then you really need to find a new agent.

I mean you can get more than one, but only one at a time.

@Bryn *******

Sure. Only downside is the stamp takes about page of your passport each time.

@Graham ******

You get them at your local immigration office or you can get them at the airport on your way out of Thailand. The airport will charge a small administrative fee if you don’t have the copies, form and photo.

Cost is 1,000 baht for a single entry or 3,800 for multiple entries. At the airport they may only sell single entry.

If you have a DTV visa whether a physical label in your passport or a PDF file sent visa the evisa system and you get a new passport then you just show both passports to enter. Show your visa either in the old passport or the PDF that references your old passport and you’ll get a stamp in your new passport to reflect the 180 days allowed.

If you get a new passport prior to applying for the visa then your old passport is irrelevant and not needed.

If you’re already in Thailand then you need to apply for a Non O visa from your local immigration office. You will need to have a Thai bank account and transfer 800,000 baht from abroad.

It’s speculation as to whether it will change. It may. It may not.

If it does there would be no exemption for people that have already paid for a ticket.

@Endre *******

I’m not a lawyer, nor an expert in Thai laws, but I’m not sure a listing in the royal gazette would be needed. The requirement for incoming foreigners to write a TM6 (actually previously everyone including Thai nationals) already existed. The TDAC is just a replacement for the previous TM6 arrival/departure card. It’s an electronic version rather than paper.

A few years ago they stopped needing air travellers of all nationalities to need to fill one out and more recently for most border points. However my guess is that law still exists but just wasn’t enforced.

Depending on the actual wording of that law the difference of filing an electronic version (called TDAC) rather than a paper TM6 may not need an amendment.