Thailand Visa Rules, Taxes And Airport Changes

When the season changes in Thailand, the rules change in Thailand. These are the arrivals. Seems busy.

As you can see it’s kind of busy although we are in the low season. So a lot of changes happened in the previous weeks. Now surely a lot of you already know that the visa exemption or let’s say the free visa that you get once you arrive to Thailand, it was 60 days and it’s back to 30 days.

That’s something normal. I was talking about it that it will happen in the low season and it really did. But the surprise was that they reduced the list and of course the changes that also occurred on the visa on arrival, not only about visa exemption.

All right, 93 countries are affected from these new rules. And the first one is the visa exemption. As you know before, it was 60 days, now it’s back to 30 days, but that’s not the only thing.

Before, there were 57 countries getting 60 days 60 days visa exemption once they arrive to Thailand. Now, there are only 54 countries that they are going to get 30 days once they arrive to Thailand. So, these are the 54 countries, that are eligible to get 30 days visa exemption once they arrive to Thailand.

Thailand Visa On Arrival And Bilateral Agreements

But the real surprise is on visa on arrival. There were 31 countries are getting visa on arrival once they arrive to Thailand, of course. Now, there’s only four countries.

Imagine from 31 to four countries. And these lucky countries that are left on the visa on arrival list are Azerbaijan, Belarus, Serbia, and India. There’s also visa exemption for three countries, but not for 30 days, only for 15 days.

And these countries are Seychelles, Maldives, and Mauritius. So, these countries get 15 days visa on arrival, not 30 days. Now, of course, there’s also another list, which are the bilateral agreements between countries.

Some of them get 14 days, some of them get 30 days. Also, Cambodia and Myanmar are the two countries that get 14 days. This is bilateral agreements, but of course, only if they arrive by air.

By land, that’s not applied. And the 30 days for the countries, as you can see, China, Russia, Hong Kong, etc. These countries get 30 days bilateral agreement between Thailand and these countries.

Now, the luckiest countries list are these ones, which they get 90 days if they want to visit Thailand without any extension, not 60 days, 90 days. So, this is the luckiest list. Now, all the countries that are not included in this list, what they can do?

Of course, they can apply for a visa, tourist visa, in an embassy or a consulate in their country. And surely they are going to get 60 days, most of them. And once they arrive to Thailand and they want to stay more, they can extend it for 30 days.

So, no problem. We cannot take all these changes negatively because if you apply in any consulate or embassy in your country, definitely most of you can get 60 days. And as I said, once you are here and you want to extend it, you can extend it for extra 30 days, which costs you 1,900 Thai baht.

Now, for the countries that their visa exemption reduced from 60 days to 30 days and nagging, “What happened? ” No need to be negative, guys. You also, guys, can stay in Thailand more than 30 days.

Once you are here with your visa exemption, 30 days, after that you can apply for extension. As I said, 1,900 Thai baht. It’s a very easy process, by the way.

But if you want to stay more than 60 days, then you also can apply at your embassy or consulate in your country, get 60 days stamps, free stamp visa. And once you are in Thailand, after 60 days, you can apply for extension again for 1,900 Thai baht for another 1 month. But you should remember this.

If you have a lot of stamps of extensions on and off, border runs, and so on, definitely extending your visa is kind of complicated these days because things are getting tougher, stricter, beside all the changes of the visa rules in Thailand. So, that’s it. If you want to stay more, no need to be negative.

There are lots of ways, and they are easy. Of course, before it was easier, less headache, but nowadays things are changing, and we were expecting all these things through the previous months.

Thailand Visa Extensions And Financial Proof

Now, another thing I want to mention that a lot of you are asking and worrying about, of course, there’s nothing to worry about once you arrive to Thailand, is about the strict checks if you have sufficient funds once you arrive to Thailand. I have mentioned that a lot, 10,000 Thai baht for one person, and 20,000 Thai baht for family. But, it’s not necessarily they will ask you once you arrive to the immigration.

90% of the people they pass without any questions, but just in case they ask you about sufficient funds, you have to have a proof if you have cash or any other kind that can support your stay in Thailand. That’s it. Not necessarily 10, 000 Thai baht or Thai baht in any currencies or in any other proofs.

Thailand Tourist Taxes And TDAC

Now, let’s talk about taxes. Already starting from June, the airport taxes will be added to your ticket prices. That was confirmed.

Nowadays, they are thinking also to add extra tax, which is called tourist tax. Before they were thinking about 300 Thai baht. Nowadays, they are thinking that 300 Thai baht is not enough.

Maybe it could be more, and they have two options to add it. One of them, just like the airport tax into your ticket prices, you won’t even feel it. And the second one, maybe they put it on the TDAC, Thailand digital arrival card that you apply before you arrive to Thailand.

And it could be added 300 Thai baht once you are applying. All these things are ideas, but the sure thing that they are thinking to make it more than 300 Thai baht. So, things are getting expensive airport taxes, tourist taxes.

Uh I don’t know what to say, but all these things, obviously, once they start talking about them, sooner or later, it’s going to happen.

Suvarnabhumi Airport And Rainy Season Travel

Surely, along the way you can see Suvarnabhumi Airport is getting better day after day. Now, we have lots of free charging hubs almost everywhere. So, no worries if your batteries are down.

And, of course, besides all the renovations that are happening, and that’s why they are taking lots of extra taxes from you, as I talked about in today’s vlog. Once you are now at Suvarnabhumi Airport, you are going to see a lot of beautiful things that will help you to have a better time at the airport, and of course, make your travel experience smoother. Now, we are outside the airport.

I want to talk about little bit the weather. As you can see, today is, as usual, cloudy, it’s going to rain. Of course, you know that now we are officially in the rainy season, the low season.

So, if you are traveling to Thailand, definitely you have to take into consideration the situation of the weather. In the previous weeks, as you saw from my vlogs, we were in Phuket and Krabi. We were so lucky, the weather was good once we were there, but after that it was raining almost every day.

So, it’s all about luck if you are coming these days to Thailand from now till mid-October. Definitely September is the peak season. And after that things get better and better.

The weather was amazing once we were in Phuket and Krabi. We have enjoyed a lot of sunny days. But, sometimes things get crazy.

Thailand Health Screening For Congo And Uganda

All right, I want to mention another thing before we leave the airport. One of the changes is that Thailand is tightening screening measures for travelers arriving from Congo and Uganda. So, there will be tighter screening for these people coming from these countries and there will be 21 days monitoring their health conditions.

That’s another thing. And hopefully it will stay limited without affecting any other countries or the travel situation all in all.