Thailand entry requirements checklist 2026

Yes. The Thailand Digital Arrival Card is a registration, not a permission — it applies to every foreign national regardless of visa, including DTV and long-stay holders, and to arrivals by land and sea as well as air. It is free at tdac.immigration.go.th, can be submitted up to 72 hours before you land, and covers one entry only, so a side trip to Vietnam and back needs a second one. Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Hat Yai have kiosks before immigration for anyone who arrives without it.

30 days for the 60 countries and territories on the published list (India and Maldives included), 15 days for Mauritius and Seychelles, and a 15-day visa on arrival for Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia. The one-time 30-day extension at an immigration office survives at ฿1,900, so the ceiling for a visa-free trip goes from 90 days to 60. Bilateral treaty countries — South Korea at 90 days, China at 30 and the rest — are unaffected, because those are separate instruments.

Rarely, and at the officer's discretion, but the power is real and was restated publicly on 6 July 2026: ฿10,000 per person or ฿20,000 per family for visa-exempt, transit and visa-on-arrival entries, ฿20,000 and ฿40,000 on a tourist visa. The DTV is a non-immigrant visa, so the ฿20,000 per person figure applies to it too. Children under 12 are exempt. It does not have to be cash — foreign currency or documents evidencing the equivalent count, so a bank app balance or a printed statement satisfies it. The requirement dates from 1980, which is why nobody remembers it until they are asked.

Yes, at either end. The Royal Thai Embassy's conditions for visa-exempt entry ask for a confirmed air, train, bus or boat ticket leaving Thailand within your permitted stay, so a bus ticket to Laos or Cambodia counts as much as a flight. Check-in is where most people meet the rule: international aviation rules make the airline remove a passenger the destination refuses, so agents check the ticket before you board. At the immigration desk it is discretionary and lands mostly on repeat visitors; the UK Foreign Office's page, updated 12 October 2026, says officers may ask frequent tourist entrants for onward travel, accommodation and funds. On r/ThailandTourism, a British traveller on their third visa-exempt entry of 2026 was refused at Phuket on 23 July for the missing ticket alone; the thread drew 233 comments, and up to 56 threads asked about onward tickets between mid-July and mid-October across r/Thailand, r/Bangkok and r/ThailandTourism. Keep the booking, in your name and dated inside your 30 days, on your phone.

The UK Foreign Office describes confiscation, fines it puts at typically ฿5,000–30,000, detention and court proceedings, with no exception for tourists or personal use — and adds the part travellers underestimate: you may be required to remain in Thailand until the case is finalised. Possession is the offence, not just importing, so buying one after you land is not a way round it. Individual tourists have reported larger one-off fines, including ฿40,000 in 2026; single cases are not a published schedule.

No. As of September 2026 no Thai entry rule requires it, and the UK Foreign Office's Thailand entry page lists passport validity and the arrival card but not insurance. Proposals to make cover compulsory for all visitors have surfaced repeatedly without a confirmed start date. The reason to buy it is the bill at a Bangkok private hospital, not the immigration counter.

Usually not, on timing alone. Any drone with a camera needs registration with both the NBTC and CAAT — a sub-250g Mini included — and since January 2025 neither can be started from abroad, because both need a Thai phone number and your arrival stamp. CAAT registration is reported to take up to 14 days and includes a written test; third-party liability cover of ฿1,000,000 is also part of it. The UK Foreign Office puts the penalty for missing NBTC registration at ฿100,000 or five years, or both.