Visa on Arrival at Phuket Airport
Visa on arrival now applies to three nationalities — Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia — at ฿2,000 for a 15-day stay. Everyone else arrives another way: 60 countries get a 30-day visa exemption, Mauritius and Seychelles get 15 days, and a separate set of bilateral treaties covers Russia, China, South Korea and others at their own lengths. The 60-day exemption that ran from July 2024 was revoked on 15 September 2026. India moved the other way and no longer needs visa on arrival at all.
Visa on arrival and visa exemption by passport
Four routes, and your passport belongs to exactly one of them. The rules published in the Royal Gazette on 31 August 2026 took effect fifteen days later.
| Route | Permitted stay | Who it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Visa on arrival, ฿2,000 | 15 days | Azerbaijan, Belarus and Serbia. The scheme covered 31 nationalities before the reform |
| 30-day visa exemption | 30 days | 60 countries and territories, including the whole EU, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, India and the Gulf states |
| 15-day visa exemption | 15 days | Only Mauritius and Seychelles |
| Bilateral treaty | 90 days | South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru |
| Bilateral treaty | 30 days | Russia, China, Hong Kong, Macao, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia and Timor-Leste |
| Bilateral treaty | 14 days | Cambodia and Myanmar |
There are three treaty rows because each group of countries has its own length under its own agreement. Those agreements were never part of the scheme that was revoked, which is why these countries do not appear in the new ministry lists at all — and that absence does not mean they need a visa.
Thailand visa rules from 15 September 2026
Thailand ran a 60-day visa exemption for 93 countries from July 2024. Four Ministry of Interior announcements published on 31 August 2026 revoked it and replaced it with one route per nationality — the “one country, one privilege” principle.
If you were admitted on or before 14 September 2026, the stamp in your passport stands: the permitted stay you were given does not shrink retroactively. From 15 September, new arrivals get whatever their nationality now qualifies for.
Half the travel internet reported this as “China and Russia lost visa-free entry to Thailand”. That is wrong. Those nationalities were never in the scheme that was revoked — they enter under bilateral treaties, which the announcements left alone. Their absence from the new lists means nothing.
Visa on arrival counter at Phuket airport
It sits before the main immigration hall, and it has its own queue — which on a busy night is the slowest part of arriving at HKT. You fill in a form, hand over a passport photo, pay ฿2,000 and wait for the sticker before you can join passport control at all.
Bring the fee in cash in reasonable notes, a photo, a confirmed onward ticket within 15 days and your hotel booking. Officers do ask for the onward ticket, and a screenshot of a flight you have not paid for is not one.
Fast track does not change this counter. Our agent meets you after it and takes you to the priority lane for the stamp — nobody can walk you past a visa desk, and any service claiming otherwise is describing something that does not exist.
Visa exemption mistakes after 15 September 2026
Every one of these turns up in our chat, usually from the airport.
- Thinking a visa exemption is a visa. It is not, and it cannot be extended the way a tourist visa can. If you need more than 30 days, apply for a visa before you fly.
- Counting on 60 days. That measure is gone. Anyone planning a two-month stay on an exemption after 15 September 2026 is planning an overstay, and the fine is per day.
- Assuming visa on arrival is still an option. Twenty-eight nationalities lost it in September 2026. If your passport is not Azerbaijani, Belarusian or Serbian, there is no counter waiting for you — you either qualify for an exemption or you needed a visa before boarding.
Fast track and visa on arrival at Phuket airport
We do not process visas, we do not fill in the arrival card for a fee and we do not sell anything at the visa counter. What we do is meet you the moment the state part is over and make the rest short.
We do answer questions about all of this in the chat for free, before you buy anything, including “do I even need you”. Occasionally the honest answer is no — a midday arrival in low season with hand luggage does not need fast track.
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