On 19 May 2026, Thailand's Cabinet approved the removal of the 60-day visa-exemption framework (the "P.60" scheme), reverting visa-free entry to 30 days for most eligible nationalities, with a smaller group of countries dropping to 15 days. The decision was endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, and is expected to take legal effect 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette. As of late June 2026, no Royal Gazette publication date has been announced, and current 60-day rules remain in force until then. Long-stay visa categories — the Thailand Privilege Visa, LTR, DTV, retirement, work, student, and marriage visas — are unaffected.
Quick facts
- What: Thailand's Cabinet approved replacing the 60-day P.60 visa-exemption framework with a tiered 30-day / 15-day structure.
- When decided: 19 May 2026, at the Cabinet meeting led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.
- When it takes effect: 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette. No publication date announced as of 22 June 2026.
- Who is affected: Approximately 54 nationalities move from 60-day to 30-day visa-free entry; approximately 3 move to 15-day.
- Who is NOT affected: Holders of the Thailand Privilege Visa, LTR, DTV, O-A retirement, Non-Immigrant B (work), Non-Immigrant ED (student), Non-Immigrant O (marriage), and pre-issued Tourist Visa (TR via e-visa).
- Stated rationale: National security, visa-exemption abuse, tourism revenue and diplomatic reciprocity, and the successful expansion of Thailand's official e-visa system.
- What replaces 60-day stays: For tourists, the pre-issued Tourist Visa (60-day, via the official Thai e-visa portal). For long-stay residents, one of the dedicated long-stay categories listed above.
What the Cabinet decided
The Cabinet of the Royal Thai Government approved the revision at its meeting on Tuesday, 19 May 2026, following a joint review led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports. The decision sunsets the so-called P.60 scheme — the 60-day visa exemption introduced in July 2024, which extended the previous 30-day visa-free stay to 60 days for a long list of eligible nationalities — and replaces it with a tighter, tiered framework.
Per the Cabinet press materials and Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) summaries, the new framework provides:
- 30-day visa-free stay for nationals of approximately 54 countries and territories
- 15-day visa-free stay for nationals of approximately three countries or territories
The exact, definitive country list — including which nationalities move from 60 days to 30 days, which move to 15 days, and which (if any) lose visa-exemption eligibility entirely — will appear in the Royal Gazette text. Different secondary sources have cited slightly different country counts (some have referenced a broader "93 countries previously on the exemption list" from earlier policy iterations); travellers should treat the Royal Gazette as the authoritative reference rather than press summaries.
When do the new visa-free rules take effect?
Thailand's standard legislative practice on immigration-related orders is that a Cabinet-approved measure takes legal effect 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette. The Royal Gazette publication date has not been announced as of late June 2026, leaving a short window of regulatory uncertainty for travellers booking right now.
Until the new rules formally take effect, all current 60-day visa-exemption privileges remain in force. The transition is timed by date of arrival in Thailand:
- Arrivals before the effective date receive the existing 60-day stamp
- Arrivals on or after the effective date receive the new 30-day stamp (or 15-day, depending on nationality)
Immigration officers and airline check-in staff apply the rule current on the date of the physical entry, not the date the ticket was booked or the flight checked in. If you are planning travel around the transition window, monitor the Royal Gazette or the website of the Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate in your country of residence for the publication date.
Why is Thailand cutting visa-free stay to 30 days?
The Thai government framed the revision around four considerations, in roughly this order in the Cabinet press materials:
- National security. The 60-day window, in conjunction with the standard 30-day in-country extension, allowed eligible foreigners to remain in Thailand for up to 90 days per entry without any pre-screening by Thai authorities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Bureau cited a need to recalibrate this exposure.
- Visa-exemption abuse. A pattern of back-to-back visa-exemption entries — sometimes via border bounces or air-arrival hops — had effectively converted the visa-exemption into a de facto long-stay vehicle for some foreigners, contrary to the framework's design as a short-tourism facility.
- Tourism revenue and reciprocity. Cabinet press materials referenced "tourism revenue" and "diplomatic reciprocity" — the latter likely referencing the fact that many countries on Thailand's 60-day exemption list do not extend reciprocal 60-day visa-free entry to Thai nationals.
- Expansion of Thailand's e-visa system. The Ministry cited the successful rollout of the official Thai e-visa portal as a rationale for tightening exemption durations: travellers who genuinely need 30 to 60 days now have a digital, pre-approved path to a proper Tourist Visa (TR), reducing the need to rely on the exemption framework for longer stays.
The Ministry of Tourism and Sports separately framed the measure as supporting "safer tourism" — the working assumption being that pre-screened entries (via e-visa or proper visa application) reduce the operational load on Immigration officers at the airport and surface a small but non-trivial number of inadmissible applicants before they board.
Which Thai visa categories are NOT affected?
This revision applies only to the visa-exemption framework — the no-pre-application, stamp-on-arrival route. Every other Thai visa category remains unaffected by the 19 May 2026 Cabinet decision:
| Visa Category | Status After May 2026 Revision |
|---|---|
| Thailand Privilege Visa (Bronze, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Reserve) | Unaffected — multi-entry, 5 to 20 year duration depending on tier |
| Long-Term Resident (LTR) Visa | Unaffected — 10 years (5+5) |
| Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) | Unaffected — 5-year multi-entry, 180-day stay per entry |
| Non-Immigrant O-A (Retirement) | Unaffected — annually renewable, age 50+ with income/savings test |
| Non-Immigrant B (Work) | Unaffected — tied to a Thai employer's work permit sponsorship |
| Non-Immigrant ED (Student) | Unaffected by this revision (but see our 2026 student visa enforcement guide) |
| Non-Immigrant O (Marriage / Family) | Unaffected |
| Tourist Visa (TR) via e-visa portal | Unaffected — pre-issued 60-day stay, online application |
Holders of any of these visa types enter Thailand on their issued visa, not under the exemption framework, and are not subject to the 30-day or 15-day stay cap.
Who is affected by Thailand's 30-day visa-free change?
1. Holiday tourists
The majority of inbound visitors arrive for stays of one to three weeks — a city break in Bangkok, a beach trip to Phuket, a circuit through Chiang Mai. For these travellers, 30 days is sufficient and the change is functionally invisible. No action needed.
2. Long-stay travellers using back-to-back visa exemptions
The change matters most for foreigners who have been treating the 60-day exemption as a de facto long-stay vehicle — leaving Thailand briefly every ~90 days (after a 30-day extension) and re-entering to reset the clock. Under the new framework, that cycle compresses to a maximum of 30 days per entry (or 30 + a possible extension, depending on whether the extension provision is retained or revised in the Royal Gazette text). Immigration officers have signalled that repeated visa-exemption resets attract scrutiny, and the shorter cycle increases both the operational friction and the audit risk for this pattern.
3. Remote workers and digital nomads
Foreigners who relied on 60-day visa-exemption + 30-day extension to stretch a "working remotely from Thailand" stay to 90 days now have a cleaner legal path: the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV), introduced in July 2024 specifically for this cohort. The DTV is a 5-year multi-entry visa allowing 180-day stays per entry, with a 500,000 baht savings threshold or proof of remote employment. For sustained Thailand-based remote work, the DTV is the correct tool — and was always intended to be — but the May 2026 visa-exemption tightening makes the case noticeably sharper. See our Thailand Privilege vs DTV comparison and digital-nomad analysis for the trade-offs between the two paths.
4. Foreigners considering longer or open-ended residency
For applicants who want long-term legal residency in Thailand without the constraints of an income test (LTR), an age floor (retirement), an employer (work visa), or an enrollment commitment (student), the Thailand Privilege Visa is one of the mainstream options. It is a one-time membership covering 5 to 20 years of multi-entry status — pricing starts at ฿650,000 for the 5-year Bronze tier and scales to ฿5,000,000 for the 20-year Reserve. It is paid only after the application is approved by Thai authorities; if the background check (conducted by five Thai government agencies) does not clear, the fee is never collected. See our memberships comparison, tier pricing, and complete 2026 guide for the full breakdown.
The Privilege Visa is one option among several. The DTV, LTR, retirement visa, work visa, and marriage visa each fit different situations — our Privilege vs retirement vs LTR comparison walks through the trade-offs. Match the visa to the actual lifestyle, rather than choosing the cheapest entry pathway and hoping enforcement stays light.
What to Watch for in the Royal Gazette Publication
When the Royal Gazette text is published, several details that the Cabinet press materials did not fully address will become clear. Worth watching for:
- The definitive list of 54 (30-day) and three (15-day) countries. Some nationalities currently on the 60-day list may quietly fall off the exemption entirely.
- Whether the in-country 30-day extension survives. The 1,900-baht extension at Thai Immigration has been part of the framework for years; whether it remains, narrows, or sunsets alongside the P.60 scheme is one of the cleanest signals of how strict the broader visa policy posture will become.
- The treatment of visa-on-arrival (VOA) nationalities. A separate set of countries (China, India, several others) enter under VOA rather than visa-exemption. Whether the May 2026 revision extends to VOA, or leaves it unchanged, will affect a large share of inbound travellers.
- Effective date and transition handling. Most Cabinet orders take effect 15 days after Gazette publication; some include longer transitional windows or grandfathering. Either is possible here.
Sources
This article draws on the May 2026 Cabinet press summary, Tourism Authority of Thailand newsroom statements, and reporting from major Thai and visa-policy publications. Where secondary sources cite different country counts, this article reflects the most widely-reported figures (54 + 3); the Royal Gazette publication is the authoritative reference. Prepared 22 June 2026 — will be updated when the Royal Gazette text is published.
- Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Newsroom — "Thai Cabinet approves revision of 60-day visa exemption scheme pending Royal Gazette publication"
- Bangkok Post — "Thailand ends 60-day visa-free stay"
- Siam Legal — "Thailand Approves End of 60-Day Visa-Free Stay"
- Visas Update — "Thailand Cuts Visa-Free Stay from 60 to 30 Days for Tourists from 93 Countries"
- Thai Visa Services — "Thailand 30-Day Visa-Free 2026: Full Country List & Dates"
- Thailand NOW — "Thailand reverts back to 30-day visa-free scheme for safer tourism"
How Daimaru Trading Helps
Daimaru Trading Co., Ltd. has been an authorized General Sales & Services Agent (GSSA) for Thailand Privilege Card Co., Ltd. since 2015, under licence number SA15/029. We have personally guided more than 1,000 members through application, approval, and visa affixation. If you are considering the Thailand Privilege Visa as your long-stay vehicle — or want a candid second opinion on whether one of the other long-stay categories (DTV, LTR, retirement) suits your situation better — our advisors respond within one business day. Payment is required only after Thai authorities approve the application.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Thailand's 30-day visa-free rule take effect?
The Cabinet approved the change on 19 May 2026. It takes legal effect 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette. As of late June 2026, the Royal Gazette publication date has not been announced. Current 60-day rules remain in force until publication. Travellers planning entry around the transition should check the Royal Gazette or the nearest Royal Thai Embassy/Consulate before flying.
Which countries are affected by the change?
Cabinet press materials indicate approximately 54 countries and territories will receive a 30-day visa exemption and three will receive a 15-day exemption. The definitive country list will appear in the Royal Gazette text. Different secondary sources have cited slightly different counts; treat the Royal Gazette as authoritative.
Does the change affect Thailand Privilege Visa holders?
No. Thailand Privilege is a long-stay multi-entry visa (5 to 20 years depending on tier) and is not part of the visa-exemption framework. The 19 May 2026 Cabinet decision exclusively revises visa-exemption (no-pre-application) entry rules and does not change any rules applying to Thailand Privilege, the LTR, DTV, retirement visa, work visa, student visa, or marriage-based visa.
If I arrive in Thailand before the rule changes, will I still get 60 days?
Yes. All current 60-day visa-exemption rules remain in force until the new framework formally takes effect 15 days after Royal Gazette publication. Stay length is determined by the date of physical arrival at Thai Immigration, not the booking or check-in date.
Can I still extend a 30-day visa exemption at Thai Immigration?
Visa-exemption extensions at Thai Immigration (typically 30 additional days for a 1,900 baht fee, subject to officer discretion) have been part of the framework for years but were not directly addressed in the Cabinet press materials. Whether the extension provision remains, narrows, or is removed will be clarified in or alongside the Royal Gazette publication. Travellers who require more than 30 days should plan around the assumption that the extension may be tightened — i.e., apply for a Tourist Visa (TR) via the Thai e-visa portal in advance, or use a long-stay visa category.
What is the difference between Thailand's visa exemption and the e-visa?
Visa exemption is the no-pre-application route: eligible nationalities arrive at Thai Immigration and receive a stay stamp without applying beforehand. The stay length was 60 days under the P.60 scheme and reverts to 30 days under the May 2026 revision. The Thai e-visa is a pre-issued electronic Tourist Visa (TR) obtained online through the official Thai e-visa portal before travel; it carries a longer permitted stay (60 days, with an extension option) and a small application fee. The Thai government cites the e-visa expansion as one rationale for tightening visa-exemption durations.
Thailand's May 2026 Cabinet decision sunsets the 60-day visa-exemption (P.60) framework and reverts most eligible nationalities to a 30-day visa-free stay, with a smaller group at 15 days. The change takes effect 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette; until then, current 60-day rules apply. Long-stay visa categories — Thailand Privilege, LTR, DTV, retirement, work, student, and marriage visas — are unaffected. The change matters most for holiday tourists (functionally invisible), foreigners using back-to-back visa exemptions as a de facto long-stay tool (cycle now tighter), and remote workers (the DTV is the intended path). Foreigners considering open-ended legal residency without an income or age test can compare the Thailand Privilege Visa with the LTR, retirement, and DTV options before committing.
If you'd like a candid read on whether Thailand Privilege fits your situation, or whether one of the other long-stay categories is a better match, contact our team. No sales pressure, no obligation, no upfront payment.