Thailand's 60-Day Visa Exemption Cut: Gazetted, In Force September 15, 2026

Update, September 13, 2026: this is no longer pending, and it is now days away. The Ministry of Interior announcement setting the 30-day visa exemption was published in the Royal Gazette on August 31, 2026 (vol. 143, special part 207 ง, p. 31), made with Cabinet approval of July 14, 2026, and the same issue revoked the 60-day announcement of July 15, 2024. By its own closing article the new announcement takes effect fifteen days after publication, which is September 15, 2026. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Department of Consular Affairs, has confirmed the same date (Government Public Relations Department). Anyone already inside Thailand, or who enters before September 15, is expected to keep the stay granted on the terms that applied at entry; that grandfathering is stated in the government announcements of the change rather than in the gazetted text, so confirm it with immigration if a specific stay depends on it.

Two things in the gazetted text matter more to a business traveller than the headline day count, and neither appeared in the Cabinet summaries this article worked from in July:

• The exemption is now tourism only. The revoked 2024 announcement covered temporary entry "for tourism, work, or short-term business contact" (เพื่อการท่องเที่ยว ทำงานหรือการติดต่อธุรกิจระยะสั้น). The replacement covers temporary entry "for tourism" (เพื่อการท่องเที่ยว) and carries no equivalent wording for work or short-term business. The day count is the visible change; the narrowing of the stated purpose is the one that affects why a business visitor may rely on it.
• The two-entry land border cap now sits in the announcement itself. Clause 3 limits visa-exempt entry through a land border checkpoint to no more than two times per calendar year, excepting Malaysian nationals and any nationality the Minister designates. It had previously been applied as immigration practice rather than published in this announcement.

A separate announcement in the same issue sets a 15-day exemption for Seychelles and Mauritius on a reciprocity basis, and a third resets the Visa on Arrival list. Anyone with a near-term trip should confirm the purpose and length of their permitted stay with a Thai embassy, consulate, or immigration office rather than rely on the day count alone. The analysis below is left as it stood on July 31, 2026, when the change had been approved but not yet gazetted. For the current position see our DTV page.

The article as published on August 1, 2026

Everything from here down is the original analysis, kept for the record and unchanged. It describes the position before the August 31, 2026 Royal Gazette publication, and its "as of July 31, 2026" statements should be read against that date, not as the current position. The current position is in the update above.

Few pending Thai regulatory changes have generated as much anxious speculation among foreign residents and remote workers as the planned reduction of the 60-day visa exemption. As of today, July 31, 2026, it is important to be precise about where this actually stands: Thailand's Cabinet has approved the change, then revised its own approval once already, and the new rules still have not taken legal effect. Anyone reading a headline that says Thailand "ends" or "cuts" the 60-day exemption should understand that these headlines describe a Cabinet decision, not a change that currently applies at any Thai border checkpoint.

The First Approval: May 19, 2026

On May 19, 2026, one week after Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul publicly signaled a review of visa-free entry policy following a security incident in Pattaya, the Cabinet approved a plan to revoke the 60-day visa exemption scheme in place since July 2024 for 93 countries and territories. The original May approval structure created two tiers: a 30-day exemption for nationals of 54 countries and territories, and a 15-day exemption for nationals of three countries and territories (Maldives, Mauritius, and Seychelles). The plan also cut the separate Visa on Arrival program from 31 eligible countries down to just four: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Serbia, and India.

Under Thai administrative procedure, a Cabinet resolution of this kind does not become enforceable law on its own. It requires the responsible ministry, in this case the Ministry of Interior, to publish the specific implementing announcements in the Royal Gazette, and the new rules take effect 15 days after that publication. As of the most recent checks through late June 2026, no such publication had occurred, and the existing 60-day rules remained in force at every checkpoint.

The Second Approval: July 14, 2026

Rather than proceeding straight to Royal Gazette publication of the May 19 framework, the Cabinet revisited the plan on July 14, 2026 and approved a revised version of the same restructuring. The revised framework widens the pool of countries eligible for the 30-day tier from 54 to 59, and narrows the 15-day tier from three countries to two, dropping the Maldives from that list and leaving only Mauritius and Seychelles. Part of that widening came from Visa on Arrival: India moved out of the Visa on Arrival list and into the 30-day exemption tier, leaving Visa on Arrival at three countries (Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Serbia), down from the four the May version had set. In total, the July 14 revision affects 65 countries and territories.

This second Cabinet action matters for two reasons beyond the specific country-list adjustments. First, it confirms that as of mid-July 2026, the Thai government was still actively refining this policy rather than treating the May 19 approval as final and simply waiting on paperwork. Second, and more importantly for anyone tracking this for planning purposes, it reset the clock: the 15-day-after-publication countdown can only begin once the Ministry of Interior actually publishes the finalized July 16 framework in the Royal Gazette, and as of July 31, 2026, that publication still has not happened.

Status as it stood on July 31, 2026

The 60-day visa exemption remains fully in force today. No Royal Gazette publication date has been confirmed for the revised framework, and until that publication occurs, followed by the 15-day grace period, the existing rules govern every entry at Thai airports, land borders, and seaports. Foreign visitors already in Thailand, or who enter before the new rules eventually take effect, are expected to be permitted to complete their existing permitted stay under the terms that applied when they entered, based on the grandfather-clause language accompanying both the May and July Cabinet decisions.

This is squarely the kind of regulatory fact that changes between the time an article is written and the time it is read, and DeeMED will update this page again once Royal Gazette publication actually occurs. Anyone relying on this information for a specific, near-term travel or business decision should verify current status directly with a Thai embassy, consulate, or immigration office before assuming either the old or the new rules apply to their situation.

Why This Matters for Business Visitors and Remote Workers Specifically

The 60-day exemption, paired with the standard 30-day extension available at an immigration office, has functioned as a lower-friction alternative to a formal visa category for foreign business visitors making repeated short trips and for remote workers testing whether a longer-term move to Thailand makes sense. A cut to 30 or 15 days meaningfully shortens that runway, particularly for the smaller group of nationalities moving to the 15-day tier, and pushes more of that population toward formal visa categories, DTV, Non-B, or LTR, sooner than the current rules require.

For a foreign professional or investor currently structuring travel or a relocation timeline around the 60-day exemption, the practical step today is not to react to the pending change as though it is already in force, since it is not, but to build a contingency plan that does not depend on 60 days of visa-free runway continuing indefinitely. Anyone whose business model in Thailand depends on repeated exemption-based entries, rather than a proper visa category, should treat this pending change as a strong signal to move toward a formal Non-B, DTV, or LTR arrangement regardless of exactly when the Gazette publication eventually lands.

DeeMED's Visa & Immigration services monitor Royal Gazette publications affecting visa exemption and other immigration rules, and help business visitors and remote workers transition to a formal visa category well ahead of any transition deadline rather than after one is already in force.