The old 60-day exemption allowed some business activity. The 30-day version replacing it does not, and the change lands on September 15.
Thailand is about to remove work from what a visa-exempt visitor is allowed to do. Under the framework taking effect on September 15, entering without a visa covers tourism and nothing else.
The distinction matters more than it sounds. The 60-day exemption being retired had space in it for business trips and short work activity, and plenty of visitors used that space.
Who this catches
Anyone arriving to work from September 15 needs a Non-Immigrant B visa obtained before travel.
That catches a wide group. Consultants flying in for a week, engineers sent to install equipment and speakers at a conference all sit inside it. So does anyone signing contracts on the ground.
Remote workers are in a stranger position. Nothing in the announcement addresses laptops and foreign employers directly. The exemption now says tourism, and that is what it will be read to mean.
The Destination Thailand Visa exists for that group and runs far longer than 30 days. It is the cleaner answer for anyone whose income arrives from abroad.
Immigration advisory firm Newland Chase says the status of Urgent Work Permit applications on the new 30-day exemption is unresolved. Clarification has to come from the Department of Employment, and it has not arrived.
There is a way around the uncertainty for anyone with work already booked. Entries made before September 15 keep the stay granted on arrival, and the current rules still apply to them. Travelling early is the safer option.
Before September 15, the safest approach is to treat any work-related trip, urgent or not, as needing a proper visa rather than the exemption.
Related news
- Thailand caps visa-exempt land border entries at two a year
- Thailand’s new visa rules: 15 days for two countries, VOA for three
- What changes for travellers to Thailand on September 15
- Thailand announces 30-day visa-free stay for 60 countries
- The visa run era is over: 2026 is the year Thailand stopped looking the other way
Sources
The story Thailand’s visa exemption no longer covers work. Here’s who needs a visa now as seen on Thaiger News.
