🇹🇭 Thailand — Visa Documents for Indians

Step 1 of 6

First: you probably do not need a visa

🔴 Start here, because most people reading this page do not need a visa at all. Indian ordinary passport holders are exempt for stays of up to 60 days for tourism and short-term business. This is not a rumour: the Department of Consular Affairs lists India at number 34 of the 93 countries on its exemption list, and the Royal Thai Embassy in New Delhi repeats it on its own visa page, last updated 21 May 2026, saying it remains effective until further announcement. That last phrase matters — there is no published end date, so this is an open-ended arrangement rather than a permanent one, and it has changed before. Check it again close to your travel date.

You need a visa in two situations, and only two. First, if you will stay longer than 60 days. Second, if you are going for any purpose other than tourism or short-term business — studying, taking up employment, medical treatment running past 60 days, a long family visit, volunteering, research, media work, religious work or sports. If neither applies to you, the rest of this page is background rather than instructions.

Source: the Royal Thai Embassy

Step 2 of 6

If you do need one, which one

Thailand names its visas by letter, and the letter follows your purpose rather than your nationality. TR is tourism. MT is medical treatment under 60 days. TS is transit. ED is study, including study tours and training run by government bodies. B covers business, employment and internships. O is the catch-all for visiting family, long-term treatment and volunteering. O-A is for applicants over 50 staying up to a year without working. There are also S for sports, M for media, RS for research and R for religious work, each with its own approvals.

The Destination Thailand Visa is the one worth knowing about and the one least often mentioned. It runs for 5 years, allows multiple entries with a stay of up to 180 days each time, and costs INR 30,000. It is built for digital nomads, remote workers and freelancers, and also for people coming for Thai boxing, cooking classes, sports training, medical treatment, seminars, art performances or music festivals. Spouses and dependent children of a holder can come on it too. The financial bar is real: the embassy's checklist asks for evidence of no less than THB 500,000, which it puts at about INR 10 lakh, alongside an employment contract, employment certificate or a professional portfolio showing the freelance or remote-work status you are claiming.

Source: the Royal Thai Embassy

Step 3 of 6

What it costs

Fees are set in Indian rupees. A single-entry tourist visa is INR 3,000 and lets you stay 60 days on a visa valid 3 months; the multiple-entry version is INR 13,500 on a 6-month validity. Transit is INR 2,500 for a single entry with a 30-day stay. Non-immigrant categories — business, education, family and the rest — are INR 7,000 single entry with a 90-day stay, or INR 13,500 for a year of multiple entries. One caution: the checklists the embassy links carry older figures from July 2024, and where they disagree with the fee table the newer table is the one to trust.

If the visa is refused, the fee is not returned. The embassy states this on its checklists in as many words, and it applies to the difference too where a fee has been adjusted.

Source: the Royal Thai Embassy

Step 4 of 6

The documents

Everyone brings these

• A passport or travel document valid for not less than 6 months, with at least two blank pages
• The visa application form, completely filled in and signed by you
• Two colour photographs to the 3.5 x 4.5 cm specification above
• Confirmed tickets both into and out of Thailand — for a transit visa, tickets showing different ports of departure and destination
• Confirmed hotel or accommodation booking in Thailand in your own name, with address and contact number. Staying with friends or relatives instead means an invitation letter and a copy of their Thai ID; if they are not Thai, copies of their passport, visa and work permit valid at least six months

Two colour photographs, each 3.5 by 4.5 cm and taken within the last 3 months, on a white background. Your face and eyes must look straight at the camera, with no sunglasses and no hat or other head covering — the exception being head coverings worn for religious or ethnic reasons.

And these, if they apply to you

• Financial evidence, and the bar depends on the visa — the transit checklist asks for the original bank passbook or the last month's statement attested by the bank showing a balance equivalent to about USD 700, while the DTV asks for evidence of no less than THB 500,000
• An international health certificate for yellow fever vaccination, if you are travelling from one of the countries where Thailand requires it
• An invitation letter from the organisation in Thailand, where you are coming for a specific activity — a sporting event, a cooking class, medical treatment, a meeting, a seminar or a performance
• Proof of relationship where you are applying as a spouse or dependent child — a marriage certificate, birth certificate or adoption certificate, for children under 20
• Evidence of permanent residence in India, if you hold a passport of another country

Two rules that are easy to miss and easy to satisfy. Every document must be in English unless the checklist says otherwise, and the set must be arranged in the order the checklist lists them rather than in whatever order you gathered them. The embassy also reserves the right to ask for further documents, or to call you for an interview, even after you have submitted a complete set.

Build these files with the checklist above

Source: the Royal Thai Embassy

Step 5 of 6

How you file it, and how long it takes

Thailand's e-Visa has been live for applicants in India since 1 January 2025, and the application is made online through the official portal rather than by walking into a counter. If you do need to deal with the embassy in New Delhi directly, note that consular services there are by appointment only. Anything you read describing demand drafts and submission counters is describing the older paper process.

The embassy's own guidance is 3 working days for a normal application. If it asks you for additional documents, add another 3 working days, and add 2 more if you are dealing with a centre outside Delhi. Its standing advice is to apply at least 7 working days before you travel — and that is advice about the paperwork, not a promise about your particular case.

Source: the Royal Thai Embassy

Step 6 of 6

Validity, stay, and the border

These are two different clocks and confusing them is the commonest mistake here. The validity of a visa is the window in which you may use it to enter Thailand. The period of stay is how long you may remain once you are in. A tourist visa valid for 3 months with a 60-day stay does not give you 3 months in Thailand — it gives you 3 months in which to arrive, and 60 days from arrival.

🔴 A visa is permission to travel, not permission to enter. The embassy says so directly: issuing a visa does not guarantee entry into Thailand, and the Immigration Bureau has sole discretion at the border, subject to Thai law. This is as true on the 60-day exemption as it is on a visa — officers commonly look for a return or onward ticket, somewhere to stay, and funds.

Source: the Royal Thai Embassy