Visa requirements for Thai citizens

Thai citizens need a Schengen visa, which covers all member states for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Thailand and 47 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

65 countries ask holders of the Thai passport for a visa beforehand, although their own citizens enter Thailand without one: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium and 60 others.

The reverse holds for 32 countries: holders of the Thai passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Thailand (Barbados, Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros, Djibouti and 27 others).

79 countries ask holders of the Thai passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 31 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Thailand.

48 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Thailand, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Thailand, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Vietnam (6) and Malaysia (4).

The United States refused 26% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Thailand in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 87 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 109 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Schengen consulates in Thailand refused 5.9% of short-stay visa applications in 2025 (all Schengen consulates worldwide: 15%). Among the 74 countries where they received at least 10,000 applications, that is the 60th highest rate. The figure counts every nationality applying there, not only citizens.

Visa-free travel with the Thai passport

By continent, the Thai passport is visa-free in 21 countries in Asia, 11 countries in the Americas, 5 countries in Oceania, 2 countries in Europe and 2 countries in Africa. The longest visa-free stays for Thai citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Peru (180 days), Fiji (120 days), Vanuatu (120 days), Argentina (90 days) and Barbados (90 days).

Visa on arrival

Thai citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Armenia, Bahrain, Burundi, Cape Verde, the Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia and 27 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Thai citizens enter Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia and 33 others. Ivory Coast, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, South Korea and Suriname ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Thailand’s neighbours

Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Malaysia admit Thai citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the Malaysian passport ranks 6th (161 destinations), the Cambodian passport ranks 162nd (51 destinations), the Lao passport ranks 176th (46 destinations) and the passport of Myanmar ranks 181st (42 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 97 can enter visa-free, 15 get a visa on arrival and 86 need an e-Visa for Thailand.