Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Thailand News and Discussion Forum | ASEANNOW

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Thailand to Shorten Visa-Free Stays for Tourists

Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports announced plans to shorten the duration of visa-free stays for foreign visitors. The move, revealed by Tourism Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul, aligns with current traveler behavior, as most tourists visit for an average of only nine days. The proposal aims to streamline the stay period to better reflect typical visit lengths without impacting the tourism market.

Get today's headlines by email subscribe-orange.png

Currently, travelers from 93 countries can enter Thailand without a visa for up to 60 days. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will draft detailed plans, tailoring new stay durations by country. This adjustment is also part of efforts to control illegal activities conducted under the guise of tourism. Notably, Norwegian visitors, who stay the longest at an average of 21 days, would still have adequate time with a proposed 30-day period.

The Tourism Minister assured that this change would not negatively affect Thailand's appeal to international tourists. In addition, the government is proceeding with plans to introduce a 300 baht entry fee for tourists, with funds directed to the country's tourism promotion initiatives. This fee primarily targets air travelers, reinforcing Thailand's commitment to enhancing its tourism infrastructure.

Looking ahead, the reduced visa-free stay policy and entry fee are set to be discussed further by the Cabinet. The government remains optimistic about maintaining tourism growth, anticipating the new policies to be well-received by both the industry and visitors.

Join the discussion? Create account. orange.png

Already a member? haveyr-say.png

image.png  Adapted by ASEAN Now · Khaosod · 11 May 2026

User Feedback

Recommended Comments

Sir Dude Gold Member

Sir Dude

Advanced Member

Just the next flip-flop so nobody can plan anything. This is why Thailand is a bad place to invest, start businesses, plan for anything, and is generally behind on so many fronts... because nothing lasts more than a year, and laws are just in and then out, before it's changed by some moron politician or government in some nationalistic, protectionist, and knee-jerk nonsense. The goal posts are constantly moving and that's rubbish on so many fronts... grow up Thailand. Why would you invest in an environment like that on anything? No reason at all.

Rockyroad Platinum Member

Rockyroad

Advanced Member

So when will it come into affect? They talked for 5 months about this.

klaikangwon Senior Member

klaikangwon

Member

There is real issue with "low quality foreigner", but $50 visa fee hardly tall wall. More likely criminal will take time to pay this small fee, with criminal earnings, whereas "real" tourist will not want take time to handle papers, go to embassy, et cetera. In other word main barrier is time not money, and it working families that have no time, not scammer for whom just "business cost".

ikke1959 Diamond Member

ikke1959

Advanced Member

Good more than enough and not allowed to enter before 90 days out of the country.....

VocalNeal Star Member

VocalNeal

Advanced Member
36 minutes ago, Sir Dude said:

This is why Thailand is a bad place to invest, start businesses,

I started a business. An easy process.

It sustained me for almost 15 years.

redwood1 Ruby Member

redwood1

Advanced Member

I wonder how long the Israelis , Nigerians and Uzbekistan girls will get..

Sigmund Gold Member

Sigmund

Advanced Member

Shorten the visa free, but increase the stay of NON-O visa for retirees. Giving the retiree only 3 months is not enough and Thailand is loosing big money. Because the retirees who are home owners are amongst the biggest spenders. Giving them only 3 months is a big loss for Thailand. Make it 4 months for this visa.

Yagoda Star Member

Yagoda

Advanced Member
7 minutes ago, redwood1 said:

I wonder how long the Israelis , Nigerians and Uzbekistan girls will get..

I wonder how long the Russians and Indians get, That affects my life more than a few Nigerians trying to sell me weed or Israelis whos very presence scare the jewphobics into Social media frenzies.

Nick Carter icp Star Member

Nick Carter icp

Advanced Member
6 minutes ago, Sigmund said:

Shorten the visa free, but increase the stay of NON-O visa for retirees. Giving the retiree only 3 months is not enough and Thailand is loosing big money. Because the retirees who are home owners are amongst the biggest spenders. Giving them only 3 months is a big loss for Thailand. Make it 4 months for this visa.

I don't suppose perchance that you are a home owning retiree are you ?

impulse Star Member

impulse

Advanced Member

I started a business. An easy process.

It sustained me for almost 15 years.

Which means you started it over 15 years ago, when things were very different. Back when foreigners could stay pretty much forever on back to back visa runs to a land border, and get an ED visa to learn Thai for years and years.

VocalNeal Star Member

VocalNeal

Advanced Member
1 minute ago, impulse said:

Which means you started it over 15 years ago, when things were very different.

Don't know I had a business visa from the start back then. 5 employees I think was the minimum from memory.

blaze master Diamond Member

blaze master

Advanced Member
9 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

I wonder how long the Russians and Indians get, That affects my life more than a few Nigerians trying to sell me weed or Israelis whos very presence scare the jewphobics into Social media frenzies.

This made me giggle....walking along sukhumvit....hey man wanna buy some weed...as I open the door to a dispensary.

Yagoda Star Member

Yagoda

Advanced Member
6 minutes ago, Nick Carter icp said:

don't suppose perchance that you are a home owning retiree are you ?

3 minutes ago, impulse said:

Which means you started it over 15 years ago, when things were very different. Back when foreigners could e stay pretty much forever on back to back visa runs to a land border, and get an ED visa to learn Thai for years and years.

My problem with sinking any money in Thailand is the way the rules change yearly. Otherwise I would be a homeowner, albiet one without a lot of appreciation on an investment, since Thailand is not a place to "invest"

Fat is a type of crazy Platinum Member

Fat is a type of crazy

Advanced Member

I like the 2 months. Handy. Perfect for what I want. Hope they let Australians be.

Yagoda Star Member

Yagoda

Advanced Member
19 minutes ago, blaze master said:

This made me giggle....walking along sukhumvit....hey man wanna buy some weed...as I open the door to a dispensary.

Every once in a while I get ornery and yell at them.

OldHand2541 Explorer Member

OldHand2541

Member
1 hour ago, ikke1959 said:

Good more than enough and not allowed to enter before 90 days out of the country.....

So offshore workers (oil rigs) etc, who often work 2-4 weeks on/off rotation, should not be allowed in the next 3 months?

Many of these are serious big spenders.

Also retirees, who want to visit 4-6 times per year, they too should be kept out?

Think again.

CygnusX1 Silver Member

CygnusX1

Advanced Member

“Notably, Norwegian visitors, who stay the longest at an average of 21 days, would still have adequate time with a proposed 30-day period.”

This displays a sad ignorance of the term “average”.

ikke1959 Diamond Member

ikke1959

Advanced Member
1 hour ago, OldHand2541 said:

So offshore workers (oil rigs) etc, who often work 2-4 weeks on/off rotation, should not be allowed in the next 3 months?

Many of these are serious big spenders.

Also retirees, who want to visit 4-6 times per year, they too should be kept out?

Think again.

Ever heard of a long term visa with multiple re entries??? apparently not.....This is about tourists and the abuse of the visa system

Sigmund Gold Member

Sigmund

Advanced Member
4 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

I don't suppose perchance that you are a home owning retiree are you ?

my dear fellow, feel free to suppose all that comes to your mind...but you will never really know for real..! 😂..

captain_shane Advanced Member

captain_shane

Member
12 hours ago, impulse said:

Which means you started it over 15 years ago, when things were very different. Back when foreigners could stay pretty much forever on back to back visa runs to a land border, and get an ED visa to learn Thai for years and years.

Ding ding ding. The elderly on this forum all want to lower visa free, and generally make it much more difficult for people to stay here, yet most of them were here when it was dead simple and anyone could stay forever. Hell, you could hand someone your passport and they would do the visa run for you back then. Boomers sure love pulling up ladders behind them no matter what it is.

Rockyroad Platinum Member

Rockyroad

Advanced Member
2 minutes ago, captain_shane said:

Ding ding ding. The elderly on this forum all want to lower visa free, and generally make it much more difficult for people to stay here, yet most of them were here when it was dead simple and anyone could stay forever. Hell, you could hand someone your passport and they would do the visa run for you back then. Boomers sure love pulling up ladders behind them no matter what it is.

This is true. Boomers ruined the west like that. Nice pensions, unaffordable housing for young people. Claimed they worked hard yet got handed easy jobs and cheap houses.

sungod Ruby Member

sungod

Advanced Member
13 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

Just the next flip-flop so nobody can plan anything. This is why Thailand is a bad place to invest, start businesses, plan for anything, and is generally behind on so many fronts... because nothing lasts more than a year, and laws are just in and then out, before it's changed by some moron politician or government in some nationalistic, protectionist, and knee-jerk nonsense. The goal posts are constantly moving and that's rubbish on so many fronts... grow up Thailand. Why would you invest in an environment like that on anything? No reason at all.

If you were investing you’d get a business visa as you wouldn’t be a tourist.

Fat is a type of crazy Platinum Member

Fat is a type of crazy

Advanced Member
13 minutes ago, Rockyroad said:

This is true. Boomers ruined the west like that. Nice pensions, unaffordable housing for young people. Claimed they worked hard yet got handed easy jobs and cheap houses.

Blame the government policies not the boomers and generation x-ers who dealt with the cards they were handed.

For Australians it's not hard to get the 2 months but a bit of a pain so why not make it that we don't have to go to the effort for no particular reason.

captain_shane Advanced Member

captain_shane

Member
3 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

Blame the government policies not the boomers and generation x-ers who dealt with the cards they were handed.

Never want to take responsibility for anything do you? Boomers love to blame the governments they elected.

jacko45k Star Member

jacko45k

Advanced Member
27 minutes ago, captain_shane said:

Ding ding ding. The elderly on this forum all want to lower visa free,

We elders are not in control here......Thais are making this proposal. Likely based on the behaviour of the younger generations.

captain_shane Advanced Member

captain_shane

Member
2 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

We elders are not in control here......Thais are making this proposal. Likely based on the behaviour of the younger generations.

Who do you think runs thailand? The young people? Holy crap, your generation will never take responsibility for anything EVER.

jacko45k Star Member

jacko45k

Advanced Member
Just now, captain_shane said:

Who do you think runs thailand? The young people? Holy crap, your generation will never take responsibility for anything EVER.

Thais, not the old guys on this forum.

If anythingm I see the young, with their sense of entitlement and lack of responsibility for their actions, creating discontent.

captain_shane Advanced Member

captain_shane

Member
Just now, jacko45k said:

Thais, not the old guys on this forum.

If anythingm I see the young, with their sense of entitlement and lack of responsibility for their actions, creating discontent.

We're on a foreigner's forum, we're talking about the opinions of foreigners. Try to keep up old man.

jacko45k Star Member

jacko45k

Advanced Member
Just now, captain_shane said:

We're on a foreigner's forum, we're talking about the opinions of foreigners. Try to keep up old man.

And an inability to grasp things.... you asked me who do I think runs Thailand!

Waste of time even trying to talk to todays kids, attention span of a goldfish., similar education levels.

Effective altruism Silver Member

Effective altruism

Advanced Member
27 minutes ago, Rockyroad said:

This is true. Boomers ruined the west like that. Nice pensions, unaffordable housing for young people. Claimed they worked hard yet got handed easy jobs and cheap houses.

As a tail-end baby boomer, I can confidently say that your post is completely misguided. I have no responsibility for the high housing prices. I didn't constrain supply while the government added a million immigrants per year to the population. I didn't keep interest rates low to artificially inflate the housing market. Good jobs were hard to come by when I graduated from high school and college, and pensions were becoming rare as I entered the job market. You certainly earned all your downvotes.

Create an account or sign in to comment

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.