60 Day Tourist VISA

[Jiker69]

How many times in a year can the Tourist VISA be applied for?

Thank You

[Faz]

There is no official limit.

[BlueSphinx]

As @Faz correctly wrote: there is indeed no official limit.  But that does not mean that you will be allowed to stay indefinitely in Thailand on Tourist Visa. 

When your 60-day Tourist Visa is on the brink of expiry, you can extend it one time for an additional 30 days at any Thai Immigration Office.  But once border restrictions have ceased, resulting in Thai Immigration not issuing their current 60-day covid-extensions any more (which currently do allow you to stay longer) you would need to exit the country or apply for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa.  And when applying for such Non Imm O Visa you need to be over 50 years of age (for the retirement option) or being married to a Thai national or with Thai dependent children (for the marriage option).

So when under 50 years of age and not married to a Thai national, you do not have any option in that case but exit Thailand.  Of course you can do a simple border-hop and on re-entry you will be stamped in again for 30 days (which once again can be extended for an additional 30 days at any Thai Immigration office).  Or you could apply for a 60-day Tourist Visa at the Thai Embassy/Consulate of the neighboring country where you did the border hop (e.g. the Thai Consulate in Savannakhet is just over the border from Mukdahan) and that would once again provide you with the possibility to stay again 60 + 30 days. 

But Thai border immigration will not allow you to stay indefinitely on VisaExempt or Tourist Visa in the Kingdom.  Although there is no 'official' limit for doing so, border immigration will make use of 'excuses' for denying you entry when the border Immigration official that needs to stamp you in, applies the 'unofficial' rule that you should not stay longer than 180 days per calendar year on VisaExempt or Tourist Visa in the Kingdom. 

[Changnam43]

48 minutes ago, BlueSphinx said:

As @Faz correctly wrote: there is indeed no official limit.  But that does not mean that you will be allowed to stay indefinitely in Thailand on Tourist Visa. 

When your 60-day Tourist Visa is on the brink of expiry, you can extend it one time for an additional 30 days at any Thai Immigration Office.  But once border restrictions have ceased, resulting in Thai Immigration not issuing their current 60-day covid-extensions any more (which currently do allow you to stay longer) you would need to exit the country or apply for a 90-day Non Imm O Visa.  And when applying for such Non Imm O Visa you need to be over 50 years of age (for the retirement option) or being married to a Thai national or with Thai dependent children (for the marriage option).

So when under 50 years of age and not married to a Thai national, you do not have any option in that case but exit Thailand.  Of course you can do a simple border-hop and on re-entry you will be stamped in again for 30 days (which once again can be extended for an additional 30 days at any Thai Immigration office).  Or you could apply for a 60-day Tourist Visa at the Thai Embassy/Consulate of the neighboring country where you did the border hop (e.g. the Thai Consulate in Savannakhet is just over the border from Mukdahan) and that would once again provide you with the possibility to stay again 60 + 30 days. 

But Thai border immigration will not allow you to stay indefinitely on VisaExempt or Tourist Visa in the Kingdom.  Although there is no 'official' limit for doing so, border immigration will make use of 'excuses' for denying you entry when the border Immigration official that needs to stamp you in, applies the 'unofficial' rule that you should not stay longer than 180 days per calendar year on VisaExempt or Tourist Visa in the Kingdom. 

You mention doing a border hop and re-entering without a visa for 30 days.

If I remember rightly in pre-covid times you only got 30 days if you entered by air.  Entry without a visa at a land border was for 15 days.

I may be wrong on this point as I have never actually entered without a visa at a land border.

[BlueSphinx]

2 minutes ago, Changnam43 said:

You mention doing a border hop and re-entering without a visa for 30 days.

If I remember rightly in pre-covid times you only got 30 days if you entered by air.  Entry without a visa at a land border was for 15 days.

I may be wrong on this point as I have never actually entered without a visa at a land border.

Depends on your nationality.  Most citizens of Western countries do receive a 30-day permission to stay from a VisaExempt entry. 

[Changnam43]

1 minute ago, BlueSphinx said:

Depends on your nationality.  Most citizens of Western countries do receive a 30-day permission to stay from a VisaExempt entry. 

OK.  Thank you for clarifying.

[Jiker69]

1 hour ago, BlueSphinx said:

Although there is no 'official' limit for doing so, border immigration will make use of 'excuses' for denying you entry when the border Immigration official that needs to stamp you in, applies the 'unofficial' rule that you should not stay longer than 180 days per calendar year on VisaExempt or Tourist Visa in the Kingdom. 

180 out 360 is not too bad. I meet all the requirements of the Retirement VISA with the exception of Medical Insurance. I have a pre existing condition. If the medical problem came back I would fly to America to have it fixed but convincing an Insurance Company in Thailand I would do that is impossible. 

[Fluke]

Prior to Covid , each Thai Embassy had different rules and regulations about issuing tourist visas which were sometimes adhered to and at other times were not . 

  Rules and regulations which constantly changed at short notice .

Savanakhet Consulate previously issued unlimited tourist visas , that changed to only issuing one tourist visa from their Consulate and also requiring a Thai bank account with at least 20 000 Baht in it .

   Although you could then to to Vientiane Embassy to get a tourist Visa , you could easily get one tourist visa from there , sometimes you got questioned when applying for a second one and verbally got told not to come back again and apply for a third one . 

   If you did go back and apply for a third tourist visa , they would likely issue that visa and put a red stamp in your passport stating that no more tourist visas would be issued from Vientiane and some other Embassys would then reject a tourist visa application if you applied from a different Embassy .

    Without a red stamp in your passport , you could go to Hong Kong or Vietnam and apply for a tourist visa there .

   Prior to Covid, they were clamping down on people living in Thailand on tourist visas and is was becoming impossible to do so .

   You could fly back in without a visa and get 30 days visa exempt, which could be extended for 30 days , which would require a return flight to say Vietnam , a Vietnamese visa and 1900 Baht for the 30 day extension , 10 000 odd Baht for a 60 day stay in Thailand .

   Land border visa exempt 30 day  "visas" were restricted to two per calendar year , and that was strictly enforced .

   Prior to Covid , they were make it it extremely difficult to stay in Thailand long term on tourist visas , nigh on impossible 

[BlueSphinx]

8 minutes ago, Jiker69 said:

180 out 360 is not too bad. I meet all the requirements of the Retirement VISA with the exception of Medical Insurance. I have a pre existing condition. If the medical problem came back I would fly to America to have it fixed but convincing an Insurance Company in Thailand I would do that is impossible. 

To correctly assess your situation and provide relevant advice on your situation, I needs some more info:

1 - Your age and nationality, and whether you are married to a Thai national or have Thai dependant children;

2 - Whether you are currently already in Thailand, and if so your current Visa situation;

3 - Whether you regularly visit your home-country (e.g. once/twice every 1 or 2 years).

[Faz]

1 hour ago, Jiker69 said:

180 out 360 is not too bad. I meet all the requirements of the Retirement VISA with the exception of Medical Insurance. I have a pre existing condition. If the medical problem came back I would fly to America to have it fixed but convincing an Insurance Company in Thailand I would do that is impossible. 

If you obtain a Non Imm O Visa to enter Thailand, there is no Health Insurance requirement when applying for a 1 year extension of stay based on retirement (a permit, not a Visa).

There is however a requirement to provide a Health Insurance policy for 400K THB inpatient, 40K THB outpatient for the Non O Visa application, which only needs to cover the 90 days you'd be granted on entry. 

There is also the Medical Insurance $50,000 USD required for all foreigners to enter Thailand.