Thailand Tightens Visa Extensions and Mandates Digital Arrival Card

Thailand is implementing significant revisions to its tourist visa extension framework, effective November 13, 2025, with the stated goal of mitigating scams and preventing unauthorized long-term stays within the Kingdom. These new regulations establish stricter limits on how long visitors can legitimately extend their presence, moving away from previously more flexible options that were subject to exploitation. The policy shift is strategically aimed at strengthening national border surveillance and dismantling illicit operational networks that have established themselves in the country, a concern authorities have linked to neighboring states such as Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.

Under the revised stipulations, foreign nationals seeking to extend their tourist status face a firm maximum of two extensions: an initial 30-day period, followed by a final, shorter extension of only seven days. This structural adjustment reduces the maximum potential stay for visitors from 93 visa-exempt countries from a prior 120 days down to 97 days under the new extension parameters. Furthermore, the practice of frequent border runs—leaving and immediately re-entering Thailand to reset visa validity—is being heavily restricted, with visa-exempt travelers now limited to two such land border entries per calendar year. Since the start of 2025, Thai officials have already denied entry to approximately 2,900 individuals identified as abusing visa privileges.

To modernize entry procedures and enhance security screening, Thailand formally introduced the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) on May 1, 2025, which replaces the legacy paper TM6 document and is mandatory for most arrivals. All non-Thai travelers arriving by air, land, or sea must complete this TDAC within 72 hours prior to arrival, with exemptions noted for those in direct transit or holding a Border Pass. This digital initiative is intended to streamline processing, with officials targeting screening times of no more than 45 seconds per person. Concurrently, the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system, initially planned for a December 2024 pilot, is now slated for full integration and launch in June 2025, though recent updates suggest the TDAC program has largely superseded the ETA proposal as of July 2025.

These comprehensive updates reflect a concerted commitment from the administration, directed by figures including Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Immigration Bureau Chief Police Lieutenant General Panumas Boonyalak, to safeguard the nation's tourism economy by attracting quality visitors and ensuring strict compliance with immigration statutes. Authorities maintain that these rigorous enforcement measures are specifically aimed at dismantling criminal enterprises and those misusing tourist visas for illegal employment, assuring that legitimate tourists with standard itineraries will not face significant disruption.