Passport Validity Requirements

[lazygourmet]

I am off to Europe until end of September.

My passport is valid until January 29, 2024.

My retirement extension ends at the same date and I have re-entry permit.

Will I be able to re-enter Thailand with less than six months passport validity?

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by lazygourmet

[Crossy]

Yup, you will have no problem. Thailand's requirement is for the PP to be valid for the length of your stay.

 

Watch for restrictions on any transit countries if you are not flying direct.

 

[SeaBee]

No. The 6-month validity is strictly enforced everywhere, including by the airlines. You will simply not be able to board your flight.

(1st hand experience)

[OJAS]

No problems with re-entering Thailand with your existing passport at the end of September. However, assuming that you'll be staying in your home country, I would strongly advise you to take the opportunity of renewing your existing passport while you are there since this will probably prove a lot more straightforward than doing it from Thailand. That is most definitely the case IMHO if you're a Brit!

 

Then, upon your return to Thailand, you would need to show both cancelled previous and new passports to the immigration officer at BKK Arrivals, and they should stamp your new passport with a permission to stay date expiring on 29 January 2024.  There would also be no need for you to obtain a letter from your home country embassy in Bangkok, as part of the subsequent process of transferring existing stamps from old to new passports at your local immigration office.

 

[KannikaP]

Crossy and Sea Bee at odds with each other. Who to believe?

 

[SeaBee]

1 minute ago, Crossy said:

Yup, you will have no problem. Thailand's requirement is for the PP to be valid for the length of your stay.

 

Watch for restrictions on any transit countries if you are not flying direct.

 

Why do you give so wrong an advice? Thailand's requirements for entry DOES include at least 6 months of validity in your passport. And that rule is strictly enforced.

/baffled

[SeaBee]

2 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Crossy and Sea Bee at odds with each other. Who to believe?

 

Neither, just verify. Call a couple airlines and they will all confirm they don't even let you board a flight with less than 6 months validity left.

Edited May 12, 2023 by SeaBee

[SeaBee]

10 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Yup, you will have no problem. Thailand's requirement is for the PP to be valid for the length of your stay.

 

Watch for restrictions on any transit countries if you are not flying direct.

 

"Passport validity

Your passport must have at least 6 months’ validity remaining from your date of entry into Thailand."

 

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/thailand/entry-requirements

 

^^

[lazygourmet]

1 minute ago, OJAS said:

No problems with re-entering Thailand with your existing passport at the end of September. However, assuming that you'll be staying in your home country, I would strongly advise you to take the opportunity of renewing your existing passport while you are there since this will probably prove a lot more straightforward than doing it from Thailand. That is most definitely the case IMHO if you're a Brit!

 

Then, upon your return to Thailand, you would need to show both cancelled previous and new passports to the immigration officer at BKK Arrivals, and they should stamp your new passport with a permission to stay date expiring on 29 January 2024.  There would also be no need for you to obtain a letter from your home country embassy in Bangkok, as part of the subsequent process of transferring existing stamps from old to new passports at your local immigration office.

 

I am Belgian but I have no plan at all to visit Belgium if I do not need to renew it.

My legal address is in Thailand and I am registered at my embassy in Bangkok.

More convenient for me to wait for a new passport while in Thailand.

[Crossy]

7 minutes ago, SeaBee said:

Why do you give so wrong an advice? Thailand's requirements for entry DOES include at least 6 months of validity in your passport. And that rule is strictly enforced.

/baffled

 

If anyone can actually make the revised IATA travel site (which will be the airline's source of data) work with our OP's details I will stand corrected.

 

Once upon a time it simply stated the requirement which was validity for duration of stay.

[OJAS]

3 minutes ago, SeaBee said:

No. The 6-month validity is strictly enforced everywhere, including by the airlines. You will simply not be able to board your flight.

(1st hand experience)

The 6-month validity rule does, indeed, apply in the case of tourists planning to stay in Thailand visa-exempt for up to 30 days. However the OP is intending to re-enter Thailand on the basis of a non-immigrant extension of stay for retirement as supported by a re-entry permit, so this requirement would not apply in his case.

[KhaoYai]

18 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Yup, you will have no problem. Thailand's requirement is for the PP to be valid for the length of your stay.

 

Watch for restrictions on any transit countries if you are not flying direct.

 

I don't think that's correct but I don't have time to find the link at the moment.  I renewed my passport early recently because when I checked, Thailand requires 6 months.

 

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/thailand/entry-requirements

 

EDIT - Found the link

Edited May 12, 2023 by KhaoYai

[SeaBee]

Just now, OJAS said:

The 6-month validity rule does, indeed, apply in the case of tourists planning to stay in Thailand visa-exempt for up to 30 days. However the OP is intending to re-enter Thailand on the basis of a non-immigrant extension of stay for retirement as supported by a re-entry permit, so this requirement would not apply in his case.

You're talking about something you don't know anything about. The requirement does apply in all cases. I personally learned that the hard way, trying to re-enter TH on a non-B with 5.5 months left on passport... I couldn't board my flight in KL and was only able to enter at land border after several hours of negotiation and a *big* fee.

[OJAS]

9 minutes ago, SeaBee said:

Why do you give so wrong an advice? Thailand's requirements for entry DOES include at least 6 months of validity in your passport. And that rule is strictly enforced.

/baffled

 

7 minutes ago, SeaBee said:

Neither, just verify. Call a couple airlines and they will all confirm they don't even let you board a flight with less than 6 months validity left.

You're the one giving duff advice on here! The OP won't be denied permission to re-enter Thailand when checking in for his return flight on the strength of the re-entry permit stamped in his passport.

 

[scottiejohn]

12 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Crossy and Sea Bee at odds with each other. Who to believe?

 

Silly question!

I think I will follow the well known expert rather than the amateur wanabe expert"

[Crossy]

People.

 

Rather than slinging the mud, why not try to access the IATA site which is the definitive source.

 

I failed to make it work with our OP's data but I'm on a slightly flaky connection at present.

 

[Crossy]

4 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

Silly question!

I think I will follow the well known expert rather than the amateur wanabe expert"

 

Sadly, our real expert has left us ????

 

I'm no immigration guru, just reiterating what was the case in the past. I'm very happy to be proven wrong either by a Thai immigration site or IATA.

 

Note that non-Thai embassy sites are notorious for their less-than-accurate data ???? 

 

To be absolutely safe our OP should really renew his PP either before leaving or whilst out of the country.

[lazygourmet]

2 minutes ago, Crossy said:

People.

 

Rather than slinging the mud, why not try to access the IATA site which is the definitive source.

 

I failed to make it work with our OP's data but I'm on a slightly flaky connection at present.

 

Thanks Crossy.

I can also double check with immigration at Suvarnabhumi before leaving.

You can close this topic if needed.

[Crossy]

@BritTim Can you help here please?

 

[Sophon]

The OP doesn't specify which country he is from, but the rules are the same for most of the countries that qualify for visa exempt entry so I have used the UK as an example. As Crossy mentioned your passport is only required to be valid for the length of your stay.

 

From IATA via KLM:

 

And as for the poster claiming that the rules are different when arriving visa exempt, they are not:

[DrJack54]

10 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Sadly, our real expert has left us

Indeed. 

There are several threads in the past regarding this question.

 

In fact our great man ubonjoe has stated often that (for OP example) he would be able to enter Thailand and be stamped in to his reentry permit. 

Thailand does not have the 6 month requirement.

 

Some neighbouring countries do have that requirement.

 

Any  issue is with the airline.

 

 

[Dan O]

1 hour ago, SeaBee said:

No. The 6-month validity is strictly enforced everywhere, including by the airlines. You will simply not be able to board your flight.

(1st hand experience)

Not true. It may have happened to you but the the circumstances may have been different. Airlines follow IATA notices issued by countries they fly to. Thailand recommends a minium of 6 months but it's a recommendation for general entry. Since he has a valid permission to stay stamp and reentry permit he is fine.  If it were me I would renewmy passport and carry both on return. Then if he wants to renew at the end of his current permit he's good to go. Only caveat is the transit countries on his return trip. 

[JackGats]

Even if you read here and there that Thailand does not strictly enforce the 6-month rule, what about the airline? Airlines often prefer to err on the side of caution. 

[Dan O]

25 minutes ago, JackGats said:

Even if you read here and there that Thailand does not strictly enforce the 6-month rule, what about the airline? Airlines often prefer to err on the side of caution. 

No they follow IATA guidelines which pop up on their screen not every airline is a member but all the major international ones are 

[BritTim]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

@BritTim Can you help here please?

Your understanding is correct. The Immigration rule (unlike for almost every other country) is that your passport only needs to be valid for the duration of your intended visit to Thailand. You can probably only take advantage of that fact if your flight to Thailand is direct from your home country (no transfers). Also, while the IATA guidelines do make this rule clear, some airlines might still insist of a 6-month validity (or the signing of an indemnity form). They worry about issues like the aircraft being forced to make an unscheduled stop in another country.

 

To summarise, it is prudent never to travel without a passport that has at least a six-month remaining validity. If you fail to follow this advice, and you have a direct flight booked to Thailand, the airline supervisor will usually allow to check in for your flight. However, there would be a risk of a denied check in, notwithstanding Thailand's immigration rules.

[jimn]

Passport validity and expiry date is very important to be aware of, especially with an extension of stay. For example. My passport expires April 24 2025. My extension is renewed every May 24, currently valid until 2024. I realised the other day that I although my passport is valid until May 24 2025, that I will need a new passport before I apply for my next extension, otherwise I will only get an extension until the passport expiry date. This is no good for me as I always stay in Thailand until end of May for my yearly trip home.

I therefore will be getting a new passport on my return to the Uk in 2 weeks even though I will still have roughly 22 months remaining on it. I do not want to renew it via VFS whilst in Thailand.

[sandyf]

On 5/12/2023 at 12:33 PM, Crossy said:

 

Sadly, our real expert has left us ????

 

I'm no immigration guru, just reiterating what was the case in the past. I'm very happy to be proven wrong either by a Thai immigration site or IATA.

 

Note that non-Thai embassy sites are notorious for their less-than-accurate data ???? 

 

To be absolutely safe our OP should really renew his PP either before leaving or whilst out of the country.

At the end of the day with airlines it is dependent on the staff. I was refused boarding with 5 months left, I called the manager and asked if there was any way around the problem. She said all she could do was contact Thai immigration who agree to boarding on sight of a return ticket.

It is quite possible they would do the same with a re-entry permit.

I think there is little dispute that the six month rule does not apply at land borders. It would appear to be an airline issue with variable enforcement.

[lazygourmet]

A bit of update...

I asked immigration at Suvarnabhumi airport before flying out last weekend.

They said that I will not have any trouble to re-enter Thailand with my actual passport as soon as I am coming back before my extension expires.

They said, as well, that some airlines might be reluctant to let me board the plane ;  but if that happens, I just need to sign a form stipulating that if I am denied to enter Thailand I will have to pay for costs of repatriation.

Edited May 31, 2023 by lazygourmet

[OJAS]

40 minutes ago, lazygourmet said:

but if that happens, I just need to sign a form stipulating that if I am denied to enter Thailand I will have to pay for costs of repatriation.

Definitely check this specifically and in advance with the airline you'll be flying back to Thailand with, if I were you.

 

[BritTim]

2 hours ago, lazygourmet said:

but if that happens, I just need to sign a form stipulating that if I am denied to enter Thailand I will have to pay for costs of repatriation.

It is not 100% that the airline will allow you to sign a indemnity form as an alternative to having an onward flight ticket. That is up to the airline supervisor who needs to decide if it will be easy to enforce the terms of the indemnity agreement should the worst happen.