90-Day Reports, TM30 and Re-Entry Permits: The Thai Visa Admin Cheat Sheet

Checked as of October 2026. Fees and fines come from the Immigration Act, Immigration Bureau handbooks and Samut Prakan Immigration's fee page. Anything that's office practice rather than law is marked as practice.

The visa is the easy part.

You gather documents, you apply, you get a stamp. One project. Done. What catches people is everything after it: four small, recurring chores nobody reminds you about.

Here's the one that hurts most. You're on a one-year extension. You fly to Singapore for a long weekend. You don't stop at Immigration first. Section 39 of the Immigration Act is blunt: "if the alien leaves the Kingdom it is considered that his temporary entry permit has expired." Your extension is gone. You come back on a fresh entry and start over.

A ฿1,000 stamp would have prevented it.

None of these chores is hard. They're just easy to forget. So here's the system: what each one is, who owns it, when it re-triggers, and what missing it costs.

The short version

Visa	90-day report	TM30	Re-entry permit	Extension	Annual report
DTV	Yes, if you stay 90+ days in a row	Yes	No, it's multiple-entry*	Optional one-off 180 days, ฿1,900	—
LTR	No	Yes	No, exempt	None; renew at year 5	Yes, after 12 months' continuous stay, at TIESC
Retirement Non-O + 1-yr extension	Yes	Yes, and the receipt goes with your extension*	Yes, or the extension is cancelled	Every year, ฿1,900	—
O-A	Yes	Yes	Not while the visa is valid. Yes once extended in Thailand*	Only if you extend in Thailand	—
O-X	Yes	Yes	Same as O-A*	See the retirement guide	—
Thailand Privilege	Yes	Yes	No, it's multiple-entry. Unclear after an in-country extension*	Up to 1 year per entry	—
Non-B + work permit	Yes	Yes	Yes, once on a 1-yr extension	Every year, ฿1,900, plus the work-permit renewal	—

* Agency or office practice, not confirmed on an official page.

Three things fall out of that table.

Only the LTR skips 90-day reports. It swaps them for one report a year. The DTV and Privilege don't exempt you. That's a common myth.
TM30 applies to everyone. It's your landlord's form, but it shows up in your paperwork.
Extension plus flight, no permit, equals a cancelled stay. Unless your visa itself is multiple-entry.

Not sure which row is you? Start with which kind of expat you are.

90-day reporting (TM.47)

Who. Anyone on a temporary stay who's in Thailand more than 90 days in a row. That's section 37(5) of the Immigration Act. You're telling Immigration you still live where you said you live.

When. The window is "15 days before or 7 days after the 90th day." Miss the back end and you're late.

What it costs. Nothing. The official handbook lists the fee as "n/a." Filing a 90-day report is free. Filing it late costs ฿2,000.

How. Three ways.

Online at tm47.immigration.go.th. You can file from 15 days ahead. The one case online can't handle, per Bangkok Immigration: a new passport. Report in person once, then go back to online.
By post. Thailand Post only, registered mail, sent at least 15 days before the due date. Include certified copies of your passport bio page, latest arrival stamp, visa, TM.6 and latest extension, plus the TM.47 form and a stamped addressed envelope.
In person at your local office, Monday to Friday, 08:30–16:30. You can send someone on your behalf, "unless the notification expired." Once you're late, you go yourself.

Your first report. Many offices want the first one in person. That's office practice. No official page we found says so, and Bangkok Immigration names only a new passport as the in-person trigger. Ask yours.

Leaving resets it. Per the handbook, if you leave before your next report is due, you "must notify within 90 days of the arrival date." Fly out, fly back, and the count starts again from the day you land. On a DTV, every re-entry resets it.

The fines.

Late, and you walk in yourself: ฿2,000.
Caught without having reported: "not less than 4,000 THB" plus up to ฿200 a day, per Bangkok Immigration.
The legal ceiling (s.76): up to ฿5,000, plus up to ฿200 a day until you comply.

The ฿2,000 is what offices actually charge within that ceiling. Walking in late is cheap compared to being caught.

TM30: your landlord's job, your problem

Who files it. The "house master," owner, or whoever controls the property. At a hotel, the manager. They have 24 hours from your arrival. That's section 38. It's free, and they can file in person, by post, or online at tm30.immigration.go.th after registering for an account.

Who gets fined. The landlord. Section 77 sets a fine of up to ฿2,000, or ฿2,000–10,000 for a hotel manager.

Why you still care. In practice, many offices won't process your extension or your 90-day report without a TM30 receipt. Agencies also report some offices fining the foreigner when the landlord didn't file. We found no official figure for that, so treat the number as unknown and the risk as real.

TM30 is your landlord's job. It becomes your problem the day you try to extend, or open a bank account: the Certificate of Residence most banks ask for needs a TM30 on file first. See opening a Thai bank account.

After a trip abroad. This is where guides disagree. According to Silk Legal, a law firm, a regulation published in the Royal Gazette on 16 June 2020, in effect from 30 June 2020, means landlords no longer have to re-report you when you come back from abroad to the same address within the validity of your re-entry permit, or after a domestic trip. Only your first arrival at a property needs a report.

Offices don't all agree. Some still treat a return from abroad as a new arrival and want a fresh TM30. Offices in tourist provinces are reported to be stricter than Bangkok.

My advice: after any trip abroad, ask your landlord to file again anyway. It's free. Much less than an argument at the extension counter.

Moving. A new address always needs a new TM30.

How to check it was filed. Ask your landlord for a copy of the receipt. Keep it with your passport copies. If your landlord doesn't know what a TM30 is, you have your answer. Sort it out now, not the week your extension is due.

Re-entry permits (TM.8)

The rule. Section 39: leave Thailand and your permission to stay is considered expired. A re-entry permit granted before you leave lets you come back "for the rest of the authorized time." Without one, your extension doesn't survive the flight.

The cost. ฿1,000 single. ฿3,800 multiple. Non-refundable, and you apply in person. Multiple pays off at four or more trips in one permission period.

What to bring. Your passport and certified copies of the bio, latest arrival and extension pages, the TM.8 form with a 4×6 cm photo, and your departure card. The handbook puts service time at about 50 minutes.

Where. The handbook names only your local Immigration office. Many travellers get a single permit at the re-entry counter at Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang, before passport control. That's widely reported by agencies, not in the handbook. Leave time, and don't count on it.

Who doesn't need one.

DTV: the visa is a 5-year multiple-entry visa, and each entry gives you a new 180 days. Agencies agree there's no permit needed. One catch, also agency-reported: leave during a 180-day extension and you give up the rest of it. You still get a fresh 180 days when you come back.
LTR: exempt. The BOI's benefits list covers re-entry.
Privilege: multiple-entry, up to 1 year per entry. If you extend inside Thailand, whether you then need a permit isn't something we could verify. Ask before you fly.
O-A and O-X: fine while the visa itself is valid. Once you've extended in Thailand, you need one. That's agency consensus.

Permanent residents use a different instrument, an endorsement on the Residence Certificate. Different process, out of scope here.

Extensions (TM.7)

The fee. ฿1,900 per application. That's confirmed on Samut Prakan Immigration's official fee page: "1,900 baht per time."

The basics. File form TM.7 in person at the office for where you live, before your current permission expires. Bring your passport and signed copies, a photo, your TM30 receipt, and whatever your category needs: a bank letter, a pension letter, employer documents. The extension is discretionary. Meeting the criteria is a strong case, not a guarantee.

When to file. There's no window in law that we could find. In practice, most offices accept applications from about 30 days before expiry, and some accept 45. Check yours.

"Under consideration." For some extensions, Immigration stamps your passport "under consideration" while it checks your file. The Immigration handbook sets 21 working days for marriage extensions; offices sometimes do the same for retirement or a first extension. You come back on the date for the final stamp. You're in the country legally while that stamp is valid. Most retirement renewals are reported as same-day. Again: practice, not law.

File early. If you're refused on your last day, you have no buffer.

Overstay

The fine. ฿500 a day, capped at ฿20,000. You hit the cap at day 40. The Act's own ceiling (s.81) is up to two years in jail or a ฿20,000 fine, or both.

The bans. Ministry of Interior Order 1/2558, in force since 20 March 2016. Bans run from the day you leave.

You turn yourself in, overstay of	Ban	You're caught, overstay of	Ban
More than 90 days	1 year	Under 1 year	5 years
More than 1 year	3 years	More than 1 year	10 years
More than 3 years	5 years
More than 5 years	10 years

Under 90 days and paid at departure: no ban, per Thai embassies. That doesn't mean it's free. Thailand Privilege bars applicants with more than one overstay in the past three years. Short overstays can follow you.

Overstay is ฿500 a day until day 40. After day 90, it's a ban.

What's new

TDAC replaced the paper TM.6 arrival card from 1 May 2025. You register online at tdac.immigration.go.th within 3 days before you arrive. One loose end: the official handbooks for postal 90-day reports and re-entry permits date from 2015 and still ask for a TM.6 copy. What offices accept instead isn't something we could confirm. Keep your TDAC confirmation with your passport copies.

The THIM app (Thai Immigration) has been downloadable since 1 August 2026, and the Immigration Bureau officially launched it on 25 September 2026, per news reports. Right now it does TDAC. Queue booking, a certificate of stay, extensions and 90-day reports are announced, not live. Until they are, keep using tm47.immigration.go.th.

What hasn't changed. We found no change in 2025–26 to the ฿2,000 late 90-day fine, the ฿1,900 extension fee, the ฿1,000 / ฿3,800 re-entry fees or the overstay rules.

The calendar routine

The visa is a project. Staying legal is four chores. Put them in your phone.

Every time you land: set your next 90-day due date (arrival day + 90). Add a reminder 15 days before it, when the window opens, and one on the due date.
Your extension: a reminder 30 days before your permission expires. Earlier if your office takes applications at 45.
Every flight booking: "Do I need a re-entry permit? Do I have one?" Answer it before you pack.
After every move or trip abroad: message your landlord for the TM30 receipt.
If you're on the LTR: your annual report, 12 months after your continuous stay starts. Renewing your passport? Plan for one in-person 90-day report, and on the LTR, moving the visa to the new passport.

Then keep one folder, paper or phone, with your TM30 receipt, your last 90-day slip, your TDAC confirmation and your passport copies. Offices ask for previous slips. Have them.

Moving here on a work permit? Working in Thailand: the Non-B and work permit

Before you go

This is information, not legal advice. Offices apply these rules differently, so when in doubt, ask yours. Checked as of October 2026.