What is happening to the rules right now, which two documents are compulsory, where the real limit sits, and when you do not need to travel at all. No invented figures — sources under every block.
Facts checked 19 August 2026 · sources under each block
Six pages here are written in English: the tour catalogue, our two documents, and three guides to visas, borders and customs — what a visitor needs first. The wider island guide, the blog and the news are in Russian, and we keep adding to the English side.
We are not naming a date on purpose: a promised date that slips is worse than an honest “in progress”. Links marked RU lead to Russian pages.
A visa run means leaving Thailand and coming back in, to get a fresh visa-exempt stamp. From Phuket, Malaysia is the closest border.
What matters today: the rules for visa-exempt entry to Thailand are changing, and the change has not taken effect yet. On 19 May 2026 the Thai cabinet approved cutting visa-exempt stays from 60 to 30 days; on 16 July 2026 the details were approved. But the measures only take effect 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette, and until then the previous terms apply. Check the status before you fly — in a situation like this, that is the only honest advice anyone can give.
Sources: TAT Newsroom (Tourism Authority of Thailand), 16.07.2026 · Al Jazeera, 19.05.2026
Entry rules change faster than web pages do. Before you travel, open Thailand's official immigration portal and your own embassy's site. If any article — this one included — disagrees with the official source, the official source is right.
How long you get, and whether you need a visa at all, depends on the passport you hold. Thailand's visa exemption covers many but not all nationalities, and Malaysia's rules are its own. The figures on this page describe the mechanism, not your personal entitlement — check both against your own citizenship before booking anything.
Since 1 May 2025 every foreign national entering Thailand by air, land or sea has to complete the Thailand Digital Arrival Card. It replaced the paper TM6 form.
Source: Tourism Authority of Thailand, TDAC guidance
In June 2026 Thailand's Immigration Bureau introduced the THIM app (Thailand Immigration Management). It is often written up as «replacing the TDAC». It does not: THIM does not abolish the TDAC. The TDAC remains the compulsory arrival card, and THIM is the platform it now sits inside, alongside a traveller profile and digital ID. From August 2026 THIM is being made mandatory at checkpoints, while the TDAC web portal stays available. The sensible tactic: complete the TDAC either way — through the site or through the app.
Sources: TAT Newsroom, June 2026 · ThaiEmbassy.com — THIM pilot launch
Malaysia has its own electronic arrival card, the MDAC. It is completed on the official Malaysian immigration portal imigresen-online.imi.gov.my, and three days before entry is the recommended window. Whether you also need a Malaysian visa depends on your nationality — many passports get visa-free entry for up to 30 days, but check your own before you go.
Source: Malaysia Digital Arrival Card — overview of the requirement · the official MDAC portal
Your passport has to be valid for at least six months from the date of entry. This one is hard and it is checked at the border.
If you enter Thailand overland, through a land border, on visa exemption, you are allowed no more than two such entries per calendar year. The counter resets on 1 January. On the third attempt the officer at the border will simply not let you through.
The restriction has been in force since December 2016 and is still applied. It does not apply to citizens of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore. For entry by air there is no such limit.
Source: ThaiLawOnline — border run limits · Thaiger, 2026 guide to visa exemption
A visa run is not a way to live in Thailand permanently, and the authorities know it. Repeated visa runs and working on a tourist status are exactly what was named as the reason for the 2026 rule review. The stamp at the border is given by an officer, and the officer may refuse: a tourist has no guaranteed right of entry. If this is not your first time, be ready for questions and for a refusal.
Sometimes there is no need to travel at all. A visa-exempt stay can be extended once, by 30 days, at immigration. The application is made before your current permitted stay runs out, at the local immigration office. The standard extension fee is 1,900 baht. It is granted once per entry and remains at the officer's discretion.
Phuket immigration office: 482 Phuket Rd., Talad Yai, Mueang, Phuket 83000. Open 08:30 to 16:30, closed for lunch 12:00–13:00; paperwork involving a fee is usually no longer accepted after 15:30.
Sources: Phuket Immigration (official site) · Travelfish — extending a visa on Phuket
We do not sell visa runs and we do not process visas — that is not our job, and saying otherwise would be dishonest. What we actually help with:
We are a tour company — not a visa agency and not lawyers. We do not process visas and we cannot represent you at immigration. What we do: explain, drive you there, and stay reachable. We answer 24/7 — that has been the rule since 2013. Anything urgent goes out on three channels at once and keeps repeating every five minutes until a person has it in hand, whatever the hour.