Passport expiry.

[AYJAYDEE]

You will need to make sure it is valid for 6 months on entry, you will be leaving before it expires so you will have no problems.

but his visa may require he leave once and re-enter. thats where problems can arise.

[nongsangcity]

I was with my friend last year at Manchester airport we were flying Emirates when we got to the check in counter the young man said theres your passport back to my friend you carnt get on the flight as you only have 5 months left on it....we were with our thai wives as well, so I said we are only going for 3 weeks is there any chance he is travelling with his wife etc...NO he will not be allowed on the plane end of story if you friends gets refused entry into Thailand the airline will be fined for allowing him on to the flight......As luck had it on the next check in counter there was a much older man checking people in and he could here was being said...fair play to the older guy he asked my friend was he married to his girl, which he was ( there was a bit of confusion as his wife hadn't changed her name to her married name in her passport) any way the older man said how long are you going for my friend said 3 weeks..ok he said I will make a few phone calls...5 mins later the guy was back and he said its ok you can fly today I have cleared it with Thailand ??????? but when you come home get a new passport........

[ubonjoe]

Perhaps he checked the IATA database and discovered the other staff member was wrong. If he is a from the UK his passport only has to be valid for the length of allowed stay.

[lopburi3]

But this is a relatively recent change so a year ago it likely was listed on internet as 6 months required (although in practice less was normally allowed by immigration for western travelers). But as pointed out less than six months can be a real issue so best to always replace passport when getting near to that point.

[Maestro]

You will need to make sure it is valid for 6 months on entry, you will be leaving before it expires so you will have no problems.

but his visa may require he leave once and re-enter. thats where problems can arise.

The OP is "travelling to Thailand in the first week in March 2014 and staying until at least the 18th April 2014". This is a stay of more than 30 days and not more than 49 days. For this he needs a single-entry tourist visa, as already stated in this post and the the OP never said he would not get one, and on arrival in Thailand he will receive permission to stay for 60 days. He will not have to leave and re-enter Thailand and he never said that he intended to do so.

[Maestro]

they did not consider it invalid as they would not cancel my exit stamp and allow me to continue on what was left of my first sixty days as if I had never left the country until I could convince the khmers to cancel my entrance and my exit stamps. the guy at the thai border and the senior officer at the immigration office in our provincial capital both stated very clearly that they require 6 months left in my passport to be able to enter thailand. they may have been acting outside the rules as laid down by the immigration police but that didnt change the fact that they acted at their own discretion.

It would be nice to have a copy of "the rules as laid down by the immigration police" but as has already been said they have apparently not been made public. My search for them has turned up nothing. Therefore, whether the Thai immigration officers who refused to give you permission to stay for 30 days based on your valid tourist visa on entry at a land border with Cambodia because your passport was valid for less than six months "acted at their own discretion" really depends on what the current rules about passport validity say.

The only information we have on this subject is the IATA database, which for Canadian nationals and for the presumed but as yet unknown nationality of the OP says that they "must hold passports and/or passport replacing documents valid for the period of intended stay." It is obvious that this information got into the IATA database because of information supplied by a Thai government agency, but we have no way of knowing whether it is up-to-date. For example, the database still includes the rule regarding the limitation of visa-exempt stay to 90 days within a period of six months, a rule which Thailand introduced in 2006 and subsequently abolished in 2008.

If we had reports from more members for whom the IATA database says that their passports need to be valid only for the period of intended stay and who entered Thailand with a passport validity of less than six months we might be able to deduce a pattern that would indicate whether or not the rule has changed, but I guess we do not get many of these reports because members do not usually let the passport validity drop below six months.

[Maestro]

A page on the website of the UK government says that "Your passport should be valid for a minimum period of 6 months from the date of entry into Thailand":

Here again, we have no way of knowing whether this information is up-to-date.

[Maestro]

The Candian government's travel advisory for for Thailand says that "Canadians must present a passport to visit Thailand, which must be valid for at least six months beyond the date of expected departure from that country and must be in good condition."

AYJAYDEE, do you have a way of obtaining from your government a copy of the source document on which the above information in the travel advisory is based?

[ubonjoe]

I can recall several posts in other topics of people traveling without 6 months validity that had no problem by both air and land.

I can't imagine the IATA database being wrong about passport validity. The added note about the 90 days in 180 days is not the same.

Also they do show 6 months needed for some countries. An example is for those countries eligible for VOA's and Vietnam on the visa exempt list.

[dsj]

You should get a new passport and apply for a single entry tourist visa just prior to your departure. If you come without a visa, with either the old passport or a new one, and are planning to get a 30 day "visa exempt" entry, you still could have problems as the Airline might not let you board your flight without a ticket out of Thailand during the 30 days.

If you are able to board the flight with the old passport you might not be able to do a border run since some neighboring countries do not allow entrance without 6 months left on your passport even though Thailand "officially" does except in some cases as reported above. And you must enter another country to come back in and get another visa exempt entry.

Why play the odds, get a new passport and tourist visa unless you are a gambler and what to gamble away your vacation time!

As Wayned says get a new passport, otherwise you may also have to apply for a new one if planning on staying here and that would leave you with out a passport for 2 weeks or so. Providing you have to return your old one to get a new one as Canadians do.

I have a Canadian passport and Canadians don't have to return their old passports the just cut the corner off of it (unless it is something new), they only have to return it if it is damaged

[Nemesis7]

If thailand is your only destination and you are returning back to your home country, there shouldnt be any problem.

[ubonjoe]

If thailand is your only destination and you are returning back to your home country, there shouldnt be any problem.

It certainly could be a problem if you were denied boarding a flight or denied entry by Thai immigration because your passport validity did not meet the requirements based upon your nationality.

[lopburi3]

One troll post removed.

[AYJAYDEE]

The Candian government's travel advisory for for Thailand says that "Canadians must present a passport to visit Thailand, which must be valid for at least six months beyond the date of expected departure from that country and must be in good condition."

gc.ca passport validity Thailand 20131113.png

AYJAYDEE, do you have a way of obtaining from your government a copy of the source document on which the above information in the travel advisory is based?

if that advisory is true, that explains why they refused me re-entry. and it appears I was lucky to be allowed to board my flight and to enter thailand in the first place. as to where they got that information, I don't know.

[iamariva1957]

In the US you can still get a passport in one day if you make an appointment like I said and have a ticket that shows your departure date coming up soon.

[ubonjoe]

In the US you can still get a passport in one day if you make an appointment like I said and have a ticket that shows your departure date coming up soon.

Wrong again.

From department of state website passport processing time webpage.

EXPEDITED SERVICE

As of ( Thursday November 14, 2013  ), we are processing requests for expedited service in an average of 2 weeks door-to-door, when overnight delivery is requested and paid for both ways (to and from the passport agency)

Link: http://travel.state.gov/passport/processing/processing_1740.html