A single entry tourist visa grants visitors a 60-days visit to Thailand. However, those who are interested in staying longer may be surprised to learn just how much of their monthly budget should be set aside to cover the long-term cost of a Thai tourist visa.
UPDATE: As of 1 April 2019, the cost of a Tourist Visa has increased in several countries. The new prices are reflected in this post.
How much should I budget for a Thai Tourist Visa?
There are two types of Thai tourist visas. One is for general tourism purposes (dubbed ‘TR’) and the other is for medical tourism purposes (‘MT’).
The traditional ‘TR’ tourist visa offers both single and multiple entry visas while the medical tourist visa offers one entry. How much you should budget for depends on how long you plan to stay in Thailand. It also depends on how many times you extend each entry on your visa.
Cost of a Single Entry Thai Tourist Visa
| Australia | Canada | UK | USA |
| 55 AUD | 50 CAD | 30 GBP | 40 USD |
A single entry Thai tourist visa allows a visit of up to 60 days in Thailand. However, it is possible to extend your 60-day stay by an additional 30 days if you apply for an extension at an immigration office inside of Thailand. There is an office in every province and an extension costs 1,900 THB cash. We’ve written about our experience of extending our tourist visas at the immigration office in Chiang Mai to give you an idea of the waiting process and the application requirements.
Since we were moving to Thailand, we needed more than a single entry tourist visa,. We both applied for triple entry Thai tourist visas at the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington, DC. These visas cost us 120 USD each. However, double and triple entry tourist visas have been discontinued.
Cost of a Multiple Entry Thai Tourist Visa
| Australia | Canada | UK | USA |
| 275 AUD | 250 CAD | 150 GBP | 200 USD |
Things have changed a bit with the introduction of the new Multiple Entry Tourist Visa. It’s nicknamed the METV. You can expect to spend 200 USD on the METV or the equivalent in another currency.
To stay the full nine months, it only requires one extension for 1,900 THB (roughly equal to 53 USD). the total cost is roughly 253 USD with the current exchange rate.
The hidden cost of a Thai Tourist Visa
The obvious cost of a Thai tourist visa for a maximum visit of nine months in Thailand is roughly 253 USD. This consists of:
- Obtaining a multiple entry tourist visa (METV) from a Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate-General in your home country
- Extending the final 60-day entry stamp by an extra 30 days at any Immigration Office in Thailand
However, to properly keep up a METV, you must leave Thailand every 60 days (or every 90 days if you get each extension extended by an extra 30 days). The most cost effective way is to take a day trip to one of Thailand’s neighboring countries and then come right back to Thailand. This is the infamous border run.
These costs also do not account for the extra expenses related to accommodation and transportation while making a border or visa run. These are highly dependent on each individual’s location in Thailand and his/her personal preferences in comfort level and spending amount.
Be careful which country you choose to do a border run because some countries need a visa to enter:
- Malaysia offers a visa exempt stamp free of charge to 168 countries
- Cambodia and Laos charge 25 USD and 35 USD, respectively (for Americans) for a single entry tourist visa
- Land crossings to Myanmar (Mae Sai and Ranong borders) charge a 500 THB ‘service fee’ to stamp you out of Thailand and then back in. Air crossings require that visitors get a Burmese Tourist Visa that costs 50 USD.
Multiple border runs are no longer an option
Foreigners of these countries do not need a visa to enter Thailand for short-term visits. Instead, they are eligible to receive a visa exempt stamp upon entry to Thailand. This is good for 30 or 90 days depending on their nationality. Years ago, long-term stayers would go on back-to-back ‘border runs’. They’d re-enter Thailand and have a string of visa-exempt stamps in their passport. This method allowed them to stay in Thailand for long periods of time without getting a real visa.
As of January 2017, Thailand has refused entry to visitors who have more than two visa-exempt stamps in a one-year period.
This new policy does not affect visitors who have a Multiple Entry Tourist or Non Immigrant Visas. They will be allowed to continue to conduct border runs to activate their next visa entry.
| NOTE: The above costs are estimates based on conversion rates, which are subject to change. |
DUE TO THE OVERWHELMING NUMBER OF REQUESTS FOR HELP REGARDING INDIVIDUAL VISA SCENARIOS, WE ARE NO LONGER APPROVING COMMENTS ON THIS POST.
HOWEVER, YOU MAY BE ABLE TO FIND YOUR ANSWER IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. IF YOU WOULD LIKE PERSONALIZED ASSISTANCE, BOOK A COACHING SESSION WITH US.
Hello, Thank you for the great information. I am currently in Bangkok and would like to stay for a couple of months longer. I came in with an exempt stamp for 30 days. My question is if it’s possible for me to leave Thailand every 30 days without getting an actual Visa? Thanks. Cat
Nope. We mentioned in the post that as of January 2017 you can only receive a 30-day exempt stamp two times per year. After that you must apply for a visa. However, you can apply for a 30-day extension for both exempt stamps for 1900 THB at your nearest Immigration Office in Bangkok. Hope this helps.
Thanks for this site! I hope I’m not overlooking the answer, but I’m planning to apply for a tourist visa, probably a multiple entry, and wondering if I purchase the onward travel ticket to depart before the end of the first 60 days. How does the option to extend for another 30 factor into that? I haven’t dealt with visas before and I a bit unclear on the order of things… seems you need an onward flight confirmation prior to the visa app, which seems potentially problematic?
My goal is this: stay in Thailand for at least 2 months, leave for a neighboring country, then return (with the option to stay as long as possible). Thank you!!
If you know for sure you will be doing the 30 day extension, then book your onward plane ticket on or before the 90th day mark. Have fun in Thailand!
This article seems to indicate that they are now clamping down/preventing tourists from staying over 90 days:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Heavy-new-penalties-await-visa-overstays-30239870.html
Am I reading this right or is it still possible to obtain 90 day visa + extensions. Finding all of this very confusing.
Ah yes, we’ve read that. To clarify, the Thai government is cracking down on foreigners who posses an expired visa or expired visa-exempt stamp…those who enter the country with the intention of staying longer than their documents allow them. Then yes, if the illegal aliens are found, they are faced with a stiff penalty. As long as you are entering the country legally (with a proper visa and not staying longer than it is good for) you are safe. If you go through the process of getting a visa and the extensions, you are here legally and there is nothing to worry about. Just make sure you leave Thailand when your visa expires. You can always come back on a new visa, too. Good luck!
Hey guys. I’m sorry, I’m confused. “If you get a double or triple entry tourist visa, you can stay up 180 or 270 days, respectively, in Thailand without having to do a visa run”.
Ok, so I ask for a double entry Visa if I want to stay 6 months, right?
But then I don’t understand the ‘Visa Extensions” after 60 days. Or are you saying that the Visa in effect just gives me 60 days but ENTITLES me to renew twice?
Sure sounds complicated!!
We’re actually off to the Thai consulate here in Prague tomorrow morning and just ran across your post. Much appreciate if you can advise if I am understanding this correctly.
Frank (bbqboy)
Yup! Because a visa run is when you leave Thailand and go apply for a new visa (which is what you are doing this morning!… getting a visa!) A border run is when you leave Thailand and come right back in because you have (typically a double or triple entry tourist visa with) at least one or two visa entries left.
If you want to stay six months, yes, get a double entry tourist visa.
You activate your first entry when you come to Thailand which gives you 60 days (2 months). You don’t HAVE to apply for an extension, but doing so gives you another relatively hassle free stay of 30 days. You get this extension at any local immigration office. After (60+30 days)= 90 days, THEN you have to leave Thailand via airplane and then come right back in to activate your second entry of your double entry tourist visa. We recommend taking a cheap Air Asia flight down to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, stay for a weekend, and then come back to Thailand. But you aren’t doing a visa run in Kuala Lumpur because you already have a visa in your passport (that second entry of your tourist visa.)
Thanks so much guys for clarifying! Appreciate the help.
Frank (bbqboy)
Hi Guys,
excellent resource. We are a family of 6 ( all kids under 9 and a baby to boot!).. l am coming to the end of my work contract and want to take 6 months + off before getting back tot the coal face (litteral).. We have been to CM as tourists before and would love to see more.. so it seems the triple entry visa is the way to go..
Although that means all the expenses *6.. yikes..
Do you know if residences (eg Noble House or others) would allow a family into their famiy rooms .. i know that sounds like a dumb question but we had problems last time we were in CM getting all of us in 1 room.. they all wanted to book us 2 or more rooms..
With our kids being so little.. they dont have a problem with 3 to a bed… any ideas
thanks
Harry
First off, congratulations for choosing to bring your family to Thailand in between your contracts. It’s going to be an amazing experience!
We’re trying to think of hotels that would be appropriate for a family with children. Of all the places we’ve looked at (mostly serviced apartments when we ourselves were trying to find a place to live) all had one bed to a studio/hotel room and no option for two beds.
Would you consider a two-bedroom serviced apartment? For 22,000 baht (about $660) a month, there’s a beautiful family suite offered at The Bliss. The pictures on the site don’t do it justice, but we loved it when we viewed it. Plus it has a kitchen and two bathrooms and gives you more room with your children. It’s certainly an option!
I’m confused about the May, 2014 update above – what specifically is a “Visa Exempt Stamp Entry”? Is that the triple re-entry visa you obtained? My wife and I are looking to spend about 4 months in Thailand this late summer / fall. Our plan, and please correct me if I’m mistaken, is to obtain a double (or triple) re-entry / 60 day Visa here in the states, fly to Thailand and spend about 50 or so days there, apply for a 30 day extension in Thailand at that time, close to the 90 day mark we’ll make a “visa run”, come back and spend the last 30 days in Thailand to get to our 4 month mark, and then come home. Is this still possible under the new laws you’ve mentioned?
Also – one additional question – how do we go about the “onward travel” requirements. Does Thailand require those? If so – would we just keep pushing out our “onward travel” ticket every time we extend our Visa? If so – do we push it out before or after we’ve been issued the Visa extension.
Lots to take in and figure out haha. Thanks for all of the incredible and education content on your blog – I love it! Super helpful.
Levi
Levi, your plan to get the double or triple entry visa and then do a 30 day extension before your 60 days are up sounds great. Exiting the country and returning to activate your second entry is also correct. Since you’ll have a tourist visa, you won’t have anything to worry about the new laws. The crackdown is for people who never get a visa and simply go back and forth between Thailand’s border and get visa exemption stamps.
To clarify the visa exempt stamp, this is an ink stamp (visa exempt = no visa) and not a visa stickered into your passport. Thailand offers this to short term visitors (30 days or less). Visitors are allowed into Thailand on a visa exemption stamp, which is good for 30 days. For anyone who wants to stay in Thailand longer, they must apply for a visa (tourist, business, education, retirement, etc) before entering Thailand.
One of the requirements of obtaining a tourist visa is to show proof of onward travel. Since you will be returning home after four months of travel in Thailand, that ticket home is all you need. Make sure to print out a copy of your flight itinerary and bring it with you to the Thai Embassy or Consulate when you apply for your visa. You won’t need need proof of onward travel when you extend your visa at an immigration office or when you re-enter Thailand on your second entry.
You two sound like you’ve got everything you need. Have a great trip!
Hi guys! Thanks for the great info and updating the bottom speaking about the current visa situation in thailand right now! Big help! My husband and I are moving to phuket at the beginning of September. We will be entering on a tourist visa and are planning to make the runs to ranong while were here. My question is that on the site for applying for the visa it says you need to provide a copy of a round trip ticket or iternieries. Ovbiously we will only have a one way ticket. How did you or how do others get around this?
You have to show proof of onward travel, which doesn’t mean you have to show a round trip ticket with you and your husband going back to the US. Instead, you just need to show that you are leaving Thailand to any other country.
When we applied for our first triple-entry tourist visa, we provided a copy of our flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as our proof of exiting Thailand. This coincided with our first border run (activating our second 60-day entry into Thailand). We returned to Thailand three or four days later. Air Asia (airline) offers incredible fight deals from Kuala Lumpur to many major cities in SE Asia, including Bangkok. Sometimes the fare is as low as $20-$30 one way! We recommend booking one of these flights as your proof of onward travel. Choosing Malaysia is also great because you do not have to pay for a visa if you plan to stay for 90 days or less. Of course, do a second transaction for your flight back into Thailand. Hope this helps!
Hi Angela and Chris,
Congratulations on a great blog, very informative and easy to read! Found it very helpful in terms of budgeting. My husband and I are going to Thailand this month with a similar plan but looking at Koh Samui, we expect to pay more than in Chiang Mai of course but good to see it can be done on what we were hoping.
Just one thing with the visa information for Australia – triple entry tourist visas aren’t available to Aussies , double entry is the maximum but we already get a 30 day visa exemption so that is probably why.
Cheers
Gale
Thanks for reading! We haven’t had the opportunity to stay long term down south, but knowing what things generally cost (and using Chiang Mai as reference) is a good tactic. We hope you love Koh Samui!
We checked on the visa thing and read that a triple e-entry can be obtained from the Thai Consulate in Brisbane. Of course, the only way to know for sure is to call. Worth checking out!
We live in Perth (Western Australia) so maybe it’s different but when I rang the consulate and then actually applied for the visas in Perth just the other day we were told the double entry is the longest tourist visa available to us. Thanks for the tip, I will call the Brisbane consulate and see what they say.
Thanks.
Hm, we wonder if that has anything to do with Australia not being among the G7 countries. But this is good information to know in case anyone else asks us. Thanks for the update, Gale.
I pay 25,900 baht per year all up or $809USD at todays rate. This is for an education visa through Walen and includes 180 hours of Thai classes each year. I’ve done this for 5 years straight. It’s the least stressful option.
Nice, that sounds like a solid option for us. Thanks for the heads up.
Hi guys, another option would be an Education Visa for one year. I’m planning to be in TH pretty soon and I will try to get this visa. I will just enroll in some course, maybe learning Thai, and then I’m good for the whole year :). Do you know anything about these courses, are they expensive?
Take care :)
Education visas are another alternative for staying long term. What’s great about them is that you can apply for a year extension which completely eliminates border/visa runs. This is an excellent choice for those who would love to study abroad and plan on staying in the same city for awhile.
Payap University goes for around 60,000 baht ($2000) per semester as a full time student, which is considered 9 or more credits. CMU goes for about $1000 a year with a minimum of 6 hours per week.
2k$ a semester is a lot! I will be looking for something much cheaper…Maybe there is a possibility to be some kind of student at a Buddhist temple – learning about Buddhism and meditation? :)
Edited: $1000 for CMU ($2000 for standard undergrad, $1000 for their special Thai language course). We actually met a guy during a visa run who was studying Buddhism. It can be done!
Thanks for this helpful visa info! I’m curious, what do you guys do after your 270 days are up? Do you have to go back to the US to get another triple entry visa? My fiancé and I are heading to Chiang Mai in June, and while we’re not sure how long we will stay, it would be great to know what our options are :)
No problem! We came over on a triple entry tourist visas, but after Angela got a job we made a visa run to Vientiane, Laos and got one year Non-Immigrant B and O visas.
Once your original Thai tourist visa is up, you will need to do a visa run and apply for a new visa at a Royal Thai Embassy or Royal Thai Consulate. It is common to do a visa run to Thailand’s neighboring countries, but often they only offer a single entry (60 days). We’ve heard you can get a triple entry Thai tourist visa from Singapore. You can try to schedule a trip back to the States at the end of you 270 days, or look into a country you’ve always wanted to visit and see if they offer a triple entry Thai tourist visa. Either way, you have to make a trip out of Thailand to do so.
Had no idea there was such a thing as a triple entry Thai visa! That’s great to know, though I suspect you can only apply for one in your home country. Still, if we know that we’ll be heading back to Thailand for an extended period of time, this is a great option to have.
They were easy to pick up back in the states, but we think because of the serial border runners they try to make the process a little more difficult in Thailand’ s bordering countries. Each embassy or consulate has their own rules which constantly change to keep people on their toes. Best to get things taken care of back home :)
Hi Guys,
Looking to come there next January. Work outdoors in Minnesota/North Dakota and get the winters off. Would like to come from about Jan 5-mid or late March maybe even into April depending on the weather back in Minn. Is 60 days the magic number? Like to do this every year if it works out :-) For long term vacation, better to rent a room for 60-90 days or inexpensive hotel? I get paid (salaried, no OT during the crazy busy season) so money not a big issue, but I’m not rich by any means either. Just want to relax and sight see for 2-3 months Any suggestions about other locales would be appreciated. Love your blog.
Hi Keith, you will be happy to know that Thailand has serviced apartments. They act as both short and long-term rentals and are usually pretty affordable. Another option is to find a hotel that you like and see if they offer a discounted monthly rate. You’d be amazed at the deals you can find, and being that everything is so cheap it allows you to be really flexible. We are very glad that you find our blog useful. Thanks for commenting!
This is great! I will be there in November but traveling to other SEA countries so the visa runs will probably work better for me :)
Yea, definitely that route to go if you’re bouncing around the region! Cant wait to hear about your experience.
Great Article. Our first visa run is next month to Malaysia. This for the help. You two are a godsend!
Have fun in Malaysia, guys! We’re glad you find our articles helpful :)
Your info is helpful. No wonder people are confused about the visa process. A question for you: I plan on getting a retirement visa, which I believe allows me to avoid border runs. Would you recommend getting it before I go or convert a tourist visa once there? Thanks guys, see ya soon.
Thanks, Roger! Definitely get your retirement visa before you make the move. It is pretty difficult to transfer a tourist visa into any other type of visa without having to leave the country to do a standard visa run. Save yourself the headache :)