Thailand visa extension, cancellation and re-entry permits
Most visa problems in Thailand get solved at your local immigration office, not at a border. Here is what each job costs and how long it takes.
The short answer: a Thailand visa extension costs 1,900 THB and adds 30 days to a visa-exempt or tourist entry; retirement, marriage and work categories extend a full year at a time. Leaving the country and coming back needs a re-entry permit, 1,000 THB single or 3,800 THB multiple. And if your job has just ended, your visa needs cancelling, on a tighter clock than most people realise.
- TM.7 the one extension form
- 1,900 THB every extension, every category
- 1,000 THB single re-entry permit
- Same day departure after a cancellation
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This page covers the four in-country jobs: extensions, re-entry permits, cancellations and visa runs, plus when a visa agent earns their fee. Missed 90-day reports and overstays have their own guides, linked below.
Thailand visa extension: who gets how many days
Every Thailand visa extension runs on the same form, the TM.7 (the application to extend your stay), and the same fee, 1,900 THB. What changes is the number of days, and that depends entirely on how you entered.
| How you entered | What you can get | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Visa exempt | 30 days, once per entry | 1,900 THB |
| Tourist visa (TR) | 30 days, once per entry | 1,900 THB |
| Visa on arrival | 7 days, normally for genuine necessity such as medical reasons | 1,900 THB |
| Visa exempt, restricted nationalities | 7 days instead of 30 | 1,900 THB |
| Long-stay categories (retirement, marriage, work, education) | 12 months at a time | 1,900 THB |
Restricted nationalities. Immigration applies the shorter 7-day extension to nationals of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Nepal, Togo, Nigeria and Uganda.
The 30-day extension of a visa-exempt entry is confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and every extension is granted at the officer’s discretion. One reassurance worth knowing: the days are added to your current stamp, not to the date you apply. Applying a week early costs you nothing. Entitlements for tourist entries are covered in detail on the tourist visa page; what immigration calls an extension of stay is the same thing most people call a renewal.
What to bring
Four things: the TM.7 form (pick one up at the office desk or print it in advance), your passport plus signed photocopies of the photo page, visa and latest entry stamp, one 4 x 6 cm photo, and 1,900 THB in cash. Sign every photocopy. Offices reject files over missing signatures more than anything else.
What happens at the counter
Take a queue ticket, wait to be called, have your photo taken, pay the fee and collect the stamp. Before you leave the desk, check the stamp: right length, right date. Fixing a wrong stamp on the spot takes a minute; fixing it a month later takes a morning. File at the office covering your registered address.
Re-entry permits (TM.8): protect your extension
An extension of stay dies the moment you leave Thailand without protecting it. A re-entry permit keeps it alive: 1,000 THB for a single trip, 3,800 THB for unlimited trips until your stay expires. File the TM.8 form at your immigration office, or at the airport counter before passport control on the day you fly.
Leaving without one is the single most expensive mistake in Thai visa admin. Your extension is void the moment you exit, and you come back as a fresh tourist, rebuilding a long-stay application from zero. If there is any chance you will travel, buy the permit with your extension and be done with it.
Cancelling your visa when a job ends
If you hold an extension of stay based on a Non-B (the business and employment visa category), it lives and dies with the job. When employment ends, the sequence runs in one day: collect a termination letter from your employer, go to the labour office to cancel the work permit and collect the cancellation receipt, then take that receipt to immigration the same day to cancel the extension. The permit itself must be returned to the Department of Employment within 7 days of the job ending.
Book your flight before you start the paperwork. Once immigration cancels the extension, you are expected to leave Thailand that same day, by the end of it. The 7-day wind-down you will read about elsewhere is not automatic: you get those 7 days only by filing a TM.7 extension, 1,900 THB, at the same counter after the cancellation.
Changing jobs does not mean leaving the country. With the new employer’s paperwork ready, current practice lets you cancel and reapply in-country, moving from old job to new without a border in between. Line the documents up before you resign, because the same-day clock above does not pause while your new company finds its shareholder list.
Keep the cancellation receipt with your passport. Officers at departure sometimes ask for it, and a cleanly closed file is what keeps your next Thai visa application boring. Skipping the cancellation is what turns it interesting, in the worst way, years later.
Visa runs and border bounces
A visa run is simple: leave Thailand, re-enter, collect a fresh visa-exempt entry, currently 60 days (a cut to 30 days has been approved but was not yet in force at last check, pending Royal Gazette publication). The catch is at the border. By land, immigration caps visa-exempt entries at 2 per calendar year, a rule dating from December 2016; checked August 2026, and enforcement varies by checkpoint. By air there is no published cap, but back-to-back entries invite questions, and officers can ask for proof of funds and an onward ticket, or refuse entry outright.
Run the numbers before you run the border. A Thailand visa extension is 1,900 THB, filed in your own town, with a guaranteed 30 days if granted. A border bounce costs transport both ways, a full day, and queues at two checkpoints, all for a stamp an officer is free to refuse. A run makes sense when your extension is used up and you need weeks, not days. If you are bouncing more than once or twice a year, you need a proper visa, not a routine.
Using a visa agent
A good agent sells you time, not magic. Legitimately, they queue at immigration for you, check your file before an officer does, and handle repeat chores like extensions and mail-in filings. That is worth real money if your office is hours away or your nearest counter is a packed one like Bangkok’s Chaengwattana.
What no agent can do is fix an overstay ban, conjure eligibility you do not have, or guarantee approval, because the decision belongs to the immigration officer. Anyone promising a guaranteed visa with no documents is describing something you do not want your passport near. On price, keep one number in mind: the government fee is 1,900 THB no matter who files. Everything above that is the service charge, so ask for the breakdown before you pay.
Skip the immigration queue. Tell us what you need, an extension, a cancellation or a re-entry permit, and our visa partner handles the paperwork and the waiting. Start with the form
90-day reporting
Stay 90 consecutive days and you must report your address to immigration. It is not an extension and changes nothing about your permission to stay, it is just a report. File late and the fine is 2,000 THB, rising to up to 5,000 THB if immigration catches you having never filed. Our 90-day reporting guide covers filing online, by mail and in person.
Overstay
Overstaying costs 500 THB per day, capped at 20,000 THB, and longer overstays bring re-entry bans measured in years. Even one day over is worth fixing today, not tomorrow. Our overstay guide covers the fines, the ban tiers and how to leave cleanly.
What to do next
Check your stamp today, not the week it expires. If you need days, file the TM.7 early, since the extension adds to your stamp, not your filing date. If you are leaving and coming back, buy the re-entry permit before you fly. And if a job has ended, book the flight or the new employer’s paperwork before you touch the cancellation.
Visa services FAQ
How much does a Thai visa extension cost and how long does it add?
1,900 THB, whatever your category. Visa-exempt and tourist visa entries get 30 days, visa on arrival gets 7, and long-stay categories such as retirement, marriage and work extend 12 months at a time.
Can I extend my stay twice?
Not on the same tourist entry. Visa-exempt and tourist entries get one extension per entry. After that your options are a proper visa, or leaving and re-entering, subject to the border limits above.
What is the difference between an extension, a re-entry permit and 90-day reporting?
An extension adds days to your permission to stay. A re-entry permit preserves that permission while you travel outside Thailand. A 90-day report is just an address notification, it adds nothing and replaces nothing.
What happens if I leave Thailand without a re-entry permit?
Your extension of stay is void the moment you exit. There is no way to restore it; you re-enter as a new visitor and rebuild your long-stay status from the beginning.
Do I have to cancel my visa when I quit my job?
If your stay is based on a Non-B and employment, yes, the same day your work permit is cancelled. If your extension is based on retirement or marriage, your stay does not depend on the job, so there is nothing to cancel.
Are visa runs still legal in 2026?
Yes, within limits. Land borders allow 2 visa-exempt entries per calendar year, air entries carry no published cap, and every entry is at the officer's discretion. Frequent bouncing draws scrutiny, and refusal at the border is always possible.
My extension was denied, now what?
Immigration normally stamps you a short stay of 7 days to arrange departure. Use it to leave on time, fix the gap in your application and reapply, or get an agent to review what went wrong before you try again.
Are visa agents legal?
Using an agent for queueing and paperwork is legal and common. What is not legal, for you or them, is falsified documents or paying to bypass requirements. If the offer sounds like the rules do not apply, walk away.
Which immigration office do I use?
The office covering your registered address, the one on your lease, house registration or hotel record. In Bangkok that is the Immigration Division 1 office at the Government Complex on Chaengwattana Road.