With tens of thousands of foreigners still in Thailand over a year after the Thai government closed the country’s borders due to their panic over Covid-19, it has just been announced the very same government has extended the deadline for Covid visa extensions until July 29th.
That means, if you had been originally planning on extending your visa by May 29th, you now have two more months to do so.
When you do, your extension will then allow you to stay in Thailand until the end of September.
The Thai Immigration Bureau says the 60-day extension costs just 1,900 baht (approximately $62), and will likely be available for most people that apply for it.
The 60-day visa extension for foreigners in Thailand will be granted if you cannot return to your own country due to Covid-19 restrictions, you are unable to get a flight home, or you have a letter from your home country’s embassy asking for a temporary stay.
Any of these should allow you the right to remain in Thailand until the end of September.
Of course, with many countries opening up this summer, particularly in Europe and North America, many of those foreigners previously stuck in Thailand are now able to go home.
Time will tell whether they choose to do so, or to take advantage of the new more liberal visa extension policies currently being offered in Thailand.
Particularly as, while the 29th July deadline for a Covid visa extension will only allow you to stay in Thailand until the end of September, if recent government reactions to foreigners’ visa extensions continue as they have been, it is likely you will actually be allowed to stay in the country much longer than that.