3rd September 2026 - 3 min read
If you’re heading to Thailand you will still be able to travel without a visa, but the maximum visa-free stay will return to 30 days from 15 September 2026.
Thailand has officially published the regulations replacing its current 60-day visa exemption, which has been in effect since July 2024.
For a short holiday, you probably won’t notice a difference. Longer stays will require an extension or other visa arrangements once you hit the 30-day limit.
Thailand’s current visa exemption covers eligible travellers from 93 countries and territories, including Malaysia, for stays of up to 60 days.
From 15 September, the new scheme will cover:
Some countries will continue to have separate visa-free arrangements with Thailand under bilateral agreements, so the new 30-day scheme does not apply to everyone who was previously covered by the 60-day exemption.
The new exemption is for tourism. The previous scheme also allowed certain short-term work activities and business engagements, but these are not included in the new arrangement.
If 30 days isn’t enough, eligible travellers can apply for a one-time extension of up to another 30 days, subject to approval by Thai immigration authorities.
This means Malaysians could still potentially stay for up to 60 days, but the second 30 days would need to be obtained through an extension rather than being granted as part of the initial entry.
Travellers from countries subject to the new rule can enter Thailand through a land border twice a year under the 30-day visa exemption.
Malaysians are specifically excluded from this restriction, along with nationals of Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore.
So if you regularly drive or take a bus across the Malaysia-Thailand border, you won’t suddenly be limited to two visa-exempt land crossings a year.
The restriction applies to land-border entries and does not create a general two-entry limit for Malaysians arriving by air.
If you enter Thailand before 15 September and are granted a 60-day stay, that period won’t be shortened when the new rules take effect. You’ll keep the period of stay granted when you entered Thailand.
The new rules were published in Thailand’s Royal Gazette on 31 August 2026 and will take effect on 15 September 2026.
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Christina writes about personal finance with an eye for making the complicated feel straightforward. She is drawn to the everyday money decisions people face and genuinely enjoys finding the clearest way to explain them. Between articles, she is probably napping, on a hiking trail, or terrorising her sister’s cats.
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