Thailand for Indian Citizens: 60 Visa-Free Days, Cut to 30 Soon

If you hold an ordinary Indian passport, you do not need a visa to visit Thailand for tourism or short-term business. You are stamped in at the counter, free of charge, for a stay of up to 60 days. That is the rule the Royal Thai Embassy in New Delhi still publishes, and it is the rule immigration officers are applying today.

It is also a rule with a replacement already signed. Thailand has approved cutting the visa-free stay from 60 days to 30, and the paperwork that enacts it was signed on 26 August 2026 and sent for publication in the Royal Gazette the following day. It becomes law 15 days after that publication appears — not on the day the Cabinet approved it, and not on the day a newspaper reported it. So the only question that matters for your trip is which rule is in force on the date you land.

Approved is not the same as in force

This is the distinction that will decide whether your trip goes to plan, and it is the one travel coverage flattens. Thailand’s Cabinet approved the new scheme on 14 July 2026. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior signed the notifications on 26 August 2026. Neither act changed the law. Each notification says it takes effect once 15 days have passed from the date it is published in the Royal Gazette, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states the same mechanism.

On the date this guide was checked, that publication had not happened, so the 60-day exemption applied at every airport, land crossing and seaport. Once it does happen, the countdown is short: publication plus 15 days. A trip booked for a month or two out is exactly the trip that can straddle the change.

One relief is written into the change itself. The embassy states that Indian passport holders already in Thailand under the current scheme, and those who travel before the new scheme takes effect, may remain until their permitted stay expires. The stamp in your passport is honoured; it is the next entry that follows the new rule.

What actually changes, and what does not

The change is narrower than the headlines suggest. India stays in the visa-exemption category — the tier where you are waved through the ordinary queue with no fee and no pre-approval. What shrinks is the length of the stay: 30 days per entry instead of 60.

• You are not being moved to Visa on Arrival. The embassy notice places Indian passport holders in the 30-day visa exemption scheme. There is no counter to queue at and no arrival fee to pay.
• The entry stays free. Both the 60-day stamp today and the 30-day stamp afterwards are issued at no charge.
• Longer stays move to an e-visa. The embassy directs travellers who want more than the exempt period to apply through Thailand’s official e-visa site before departure.

If you need the longer stay, the tourist visa is the documented route rather than a favour to ask at the airport. The New Delhi embassy publishes its fees in rupees: a single-entry tourist visa costs INR 3,000 and permits 60 days per entry, and a multiple-entry tourist visa costs INR 13,500 with the same 60 days per entry across six months of validity.

The arrival card is mandatory, free, and not a visa

Separate from any visa question, every foreign national entering Thailand must file the Thailand Digital Arrival Card. It has been compulsory since 1 May 2025, it replaced the paper form that used to be handed out on the aircraft, and it applies however you arrive — by air, by land or by sea. Thai nationals are the only people exempt.

• It costs nothing. The Immigration Bureau’s own portal says so on its front page.
• The window is the three days before you arrive. The portal instructs travellers to submit arrival card information three days in advance of the arrival date, and you can still complete it right up to the moment you reach the immigration counter.
• One card, one entry. The card covers a single arrival, so a trip that leaves Thailand and comes back needs a new one for the return.
• The only official address is tdac.immigration.go.th. A .go.th domain is reserved for Thai government bodies; anyone can register a .com that says “official”.

What the counter can ask you to show

Visa-free does not mean condition-free. Thailand’s official government portal lists the requirements that come with the exemption, and an officer may ask for any of them.

• Proof of funds of at least THB 10,000 per person, or THB 20,000 per family.
• A completed arrival card — the QR-coded confirmation from the official portal, ready to show.
• A genuine visit. The exemption is for tourism and short-term business. Working on it is not permitted, whatever the laptop is doing.

Land crossings: twice a year, and that is the limit

If your itinerary loops through Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia or Myanmar and back into Thailand overland, count the crossings. Visa-exempt entry at a land border is limited to twice per calendar year — a long-standing restriction aimed at travellers living in Thailand on a chain of tourist stamps rather than at ordinary tourists. Nationals of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore are the exceptions; an Indian passport is not among them. Flying in does not carry the same numeric cap, but an officer can still refuse an entry pattern that looks like residence.

So what should you actually do?

• Travelling within the next few weeks, for 30 days or less: nothing about the pending change affects you. File the arrival card in the three days before you fly.
• Travelling soon, for more than 30 days: check whether the Gazette has published before you commit. If it has, count 15 days from publication — an entry on or after that date gets 30 days.
• Travelling later, for more than 30 days: plan on the e-visa or a tourist visa rather than the exemption, and treat 60 days as gone.

None of this is exotic paperwork. It is a free stamp, a free form and a date to check — and the only expensive mistake is assuming a rule that changed while you were booking.