The visa, counted back from your event.

The official channels come first

If you need a Thai visa, there is exactly one official place to apply online: thaievisa.go.th, run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If the address does not end in .go.th, it is a commercial site, however official it looks. The fee depends on the visa type and the embassy or consulate handling your application, and it is not refunded if the application is refused. Approval arrives by email as a document you print and carry; there is no sticker in your passport.

The other official form is the Thailand Digital Arrival Card, filed at tdac.immigration.go.th. It is free, and it is not a visa; a section below explains the difference, because confusing the two is the easiest mistake on this page.

What changed on 15 September 2026

Until 14 September 2026, passport holders from 93 countries and territories entered Thailand without a visa for up to 60 days, for tourism or short business trips. Four Ministry of Interior announcements published in the Royal Gazette on 31 August 2026 replaced that scheme from 15 September 2026. The exemption is now 30 days, covers 60 countries and territories, and is for tourism only. Visa on arrival shrank from 31 nationalities to three. Anyone who entered before 15 September 2026 keeps the stay that was stamped in their passport on arrival; the new numbers govern entries from that date on.

Which group is your passport in?

Thirty days without a visa. The 60-country exemption list covers most of this site's readers: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, every European Union state, Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates among them. The full list is on the official portal, so check your exact nationality there before you rely on any summary, including this one. Conditions to know: the stay is for tourism; entries through land borders under the exemption are generally limited to twice per calendar year; and officers can ask for proof of onward travel and of money for the trip, so carry both. The stay can be extended once, by up to 30 days, at a local immigration office, at the officer's discretion.

A bilateral agreement instead. Some countries keep their own arrangements, which the September change did not touch: 90 days for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and South Korea; 30 days for China, Hong Kong, Macau, Russia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mongolia, Timor-Leste and Vietnam; 14 days for a small number of neighbouring countries. If your passport is one of these, your agreement's number is the one that applies to you.

Fifteen days without a visa. Mauritius and Seychelles sit in a small category of their own, with the same twice-a-year land-border limit.

Visa on arrival, for three nationalities only. Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia. The visa is issued at designated immigration checkpoints, allows a stay of up to 15 days, and costs 2,000 baht. Everyone who used to rely on visa on arrival and is not on the new exemption list now needs a visa arranged before travel, including nationalities who flew in casually on it for years.

A visa before you fly. Everyone else applies on the official portal above, in the category that matches the trip, or through a Thai embassy where the portal does not cover applicants of your nationality in your country. The same route is the answer if your passport is exempt but your trip runs longer than your exemption: a tourist visa arranged in advance, not an overstay and not a border run.

Count back from the event

Count from your arrival date, usually the day before the event. The lines below mix two kinds of date: the Thai embassies' own published advice, and our working rules built on top of it. They are for travellers who need a visa; if you are exempt and your trip fits inside your exemption, only the last line applies to you.

Three months before arrival: the outer edge of the window. Embassy guidance is to apply no more than three months before the travel date, so a much earlier application is not ahead of the game, it is outside the window the embassies work to.

Six weeks before arrival: our apply-by line for an e-Visa. It leaves room for the processing window below and for the embassy to write back asking for another document, which restarts part of the wait.

One month before arrival: the official line. Thai embassies advise applying at least one month before the intended travel date.

Fifteen business days: the processing window the embassies say to expect for updates, once every required document is uploaded. The clock runs from a complete application, not from the day you opened the form.

Within three days before arrival: file the TDAC. Everyone files it, visa or no visa.

Three dates on this calendar, worked through

Chiang Rai ASEAN Flower Festival 2026, Chiang Rai, Fri 18 Dec 2026. Arriving Thu 17 Dec 2026: apply by Thu 05 Nov 2026 on our line, Tue 17 Nov 2026 at the embassies' one-month line, and the TDAC window opens Mon 14 Dec 2026. If your passport is on the 30-day exemption list and the trip fits inside 30 days, none of the application dates applies to you: the TDAC is your only form.

Prince Mahidol Award Conference 2027 (PMAC 2027), Bangkok, Thu 28 Jan 2027. Arriving Wed 27 Jan 2027: apply by Wed 16 Dec 2026 on our line, Mon 28 Dec 2026 at the embassies' one-month line, and the TDAC window opens Sun 24 Jan 2027. If your passport is on the 30-day exemption list and the trip fits inside 30 days, none of the application dates applies to you: the TDAC is your only form. Delegates run on the same clock; if the organiser is issuing invitation letters, ask for yours before the apply-by date.

Thailand International Boat Show 2027, Mai Khao, Thu 14 Jan 2027. Arriving Wed 13 Jan 2027: apply by Wed 02 Dec 2026 on our line, Mon 14 Dec 2026 at the embassies' one-month line, and the TDAC window opens Sun 10 Jan 2027. If your passport is on the 30-day exemption list and the trip fits inside 30 days, none of the application dates applies to you: the TDAC is your only form.

Applying on the official portal, step by step

1. Create an account on thaievisa.go.th. One account can carry applications for family or travelling companions, one application per person.

2. Fill in the application form, in the category that matches why you are coming, not the one that sounds easiest.

3. Upload the supporting documents the category asks for.

4. Pay the visa fee. The application is processed by the embassy or consulate responsible for the country you are in.

5. Wait for processing, and watch your email and the application dashboard: if the embassy needs another document, it asks through the system.

6. The e-Visa arrives by email. Print it and carry it with the passport it was issued against.

One warning the embassies repeat: once an application is submitted, its information cannot be changed. An error in a name or passport number means a new application and a second fee, so check every field character by character before you pay.

Conferences, speakers and performers

The September change quietly moved the business line: the old exemption also covered short business trips, and the new one is issued for tourism. Festival audiences, concertgoers and fans are tourists and sit squarely inside it. Attending a conference, expo or trade fair as a delegate is MICE travel, which the official portal lists under its tourist visa category: if your nationality needs a visa, that is the category to apply under. Speaking for a fee, performing for pay, staffing a stand as paid crew, or any other work is a different matter: that is employment, it runs on the work route arranged with the organiser's help, and neither the exemption nor a tourist visa covers it. If you are on the programme rather than in the audience, follow the organiser's visa instructions and start early.

The arrival card is not a visa

The Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) replaced the paper arrival card. Every foreign traveller files it, whatever their passport and however they enter, by air, land or sea, within the three days before arrival, at tdac.immigration.go.th. It costs nothing, and the form opens three days before you arrive, so there is nothing to file earlier. It is arrival information, the digital version of the card you used to complete on the plane, and it grants no right to enter and no days of stay: your right to enter comes from your exemption or your visa, and the officer at the desk still decides. Websites that charge a fee to file it for you are intermediaries selling a free form. File it yourself.

If the form defeats you: paid help, honestly labelled

The official form is unforgiving about documents, categories and detail, and some travellers would rather pay a service to check the application and submit it for them. eVisas is the service we link to. Be clear about what it is: a commercial company, not the Thai government. It charges its own service fee on top of the government fee, it cannot guarantee that a visa is granted, and it cannot shorten the embassy's clock. The official route above costs only the government fee and most applicants manage it unaided. Use the help if the form, the document rules or a refused application are costing you more than the fee would.

Get help with your Thailand visa applicationvia eVisas · affiliate link

The traps

Guides and videos quoting 60 days visa-free: true until 14 September 2026, wrong now. Assuming visa on arrival still exists for your passport: it covers three nationalities. Counting a 30-day exemption as a calendar month and overstaying by a day or two: the stamp counts days, and overstays are fined and recorded. Paying a website to file the free arrival card. Copycat application sites dressed in flags and crests: the official address ends in .go.th. Applying on the wrong clock: the embassy's month runs to your travel date, not to the event, so a visa started late for a festival can still miss the flight.

Then plan the trip

With the entry route settled, the rest of the trip is on this site: the getting there page for airports, trains and island ferries, the practical page for money, eSIMs and customs, and the events calendar for the date you counted back from.

Visa facts on this page were checked against thaievisa.go.th, the Tourism Authority of Thailand's announcement of the September 2026 changes, and Thai embassy guidance on 3 November 2026. Visa rules change; the portal is the final word.