1. Do Indian tourists need a visa in advance to visit Thailand?
Answer- No. It’s not mandatory to have a visa with you before travelling to Thailand.
2. How can I get a tourist visa to Thailand?
Answer- Indian Tourists can get a Visa on Arrival (VOA) in Thailand up to 15 days. You also can opt to get E-Visa on arrival (E-VOA) prior to visiting Thailand via VFS Global. For the E-VOA, you can apply directly in VFS website or you can take help of a travel agent.
3. How much does Thailand visa Cost to Indian citizens?
Answer –Visa on arrival (VOA) fee in Thailand is 2000 TBH (~Rs. 4000). But this fee has been exempted till 30th April 2020. You will not be charged anything if you want to take a VOA after reaching Thailand.
E-Visa on arrival (E-VOA) fee- If you are applying at VFS to get an E-Visa on arrival, they will exempt the visa fee but will charge you a service fee of 600THB (~ Rs. 1200) for processing. For more information on E-VOA please check here.
4. What are the required documents to get the Visa on arrival (VOA) for Indian Tourists?
Answer- Tourists require their passport which must be valid at least for 30days. Tourists must have a valid address of stay in Thailand whether hotel/apartment/BnB. Tourists must have a ticket confirming that they will be flying out of Thailand within 15 days. Tourists should have some proof suggesting they have sufficient means of support for their day to day expenses in Thailand. VFS and other official sites suggest the amount to be 10000 THB (~Rs. 20,000) per person and 20000 THB (~Rs. 40,000) per family. Tourists must have a coloured passport photo of size 4×6 cm.
5. What is the difference between Visa on arrival and E-visa on Arrival (E-VOA) for Thailand?
Answer – Visa on arrival (VOA) is the visa you receive in Thailand airport from Thai authority. You don’t need to get any prior visa in India. Once you reach at the airport in Thailand, you will have to fill two documents- one arrival form and one VOA form. Attach your photo on the VOA form and you have to stand in the VOA line. After waiting for some more time after submitting your form, the visa officers will take your passport and forms and will come back with the stamped VISA on your passport. Then you will have to cross immigration in that airport showing the stamped VOA on your passport.
E-Visa on arrival (E-VOA) is when you have Thailand visa before visiting Thailand. In this process, after you reach Thailand, you don’t have to fill the VOA form at the airport. You just fill your arrival form, have the E-VOA printout and directly go to the immigration line. To get the E-VOA, you will have to create a VFS account and submit the required documents. Documents for E-VOA are same as VOA– a return flight from Thailand within 15 days, a photograph of 4*6 cm., confirmed accommodation in Thailand(hotel/apartment/BnB) and your passport bio page/page where you have your photo and passport number in your passport.
6. Any Tips for Thailand Visa from our experience?
Answer – We have availed both VOA and E-VOA in Thailand in August 2019. At that time also the Visa fee exemption was in effect. So Visa on arrival was free of cost for us. But for E-VOA we had paid a processing fee of around 1200 INR. As we were reaching late in Bangkok, we decided to take E-VOA to beat the queue for VOA (it takes anywhere upto 2-4hours for the complete process during peak season). We had done our E-VOA through makemyTrip which was super easy.
The second time we availed Visa on arrival in Bangkok is on the same trip when we were coming back from Vietnam to India and we had a transit in Bangkok. We did not have to wait very long in Bangkok for VOA as that was a relatively less crowded time and it was off season.
In the end we would recommend avail the visa exemption till 30th April 2020 and get a free Visa.
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