How does the Thailand visa work online in 2026?

Thailand doesn't have a proper online visa, but you can apply for the e-Visa on the official thaievisa.go.th website if you're coming from certain countries, or you can get the tourist exemption (60 days) on arrival if you're a European citizen. Anyway, I'd always check directly on the Italian embassy website for your country, because these things change and I don't want to give you outdated info.

Thai e-Visa works but it's not as automatic as in other countries - you still need to check if your passport is eligible on the official site because not all countries can use it, and then there's always the boarding pass or hotel certificate you need to upload. The 60-day exemption mentioned in the other answer is real, but watch out: it's not automatic for everyone upon arrival, it depends on which country you're coming from and which entry point you use!

If you're going there for tourism, the system basically works like this: you can fill out the form online and pay, but you still have to show up at the airport or border when you arrive to get the physical stamp in your passport. It's not really a "digital visa" in the sense that it doesn't get you out of the immigration line.

What people often don't realize is that the online process is mainly there to speed things up when you arrive, not to skip the procedures. You upload the filled-out form to the official website, make the payment (usually around 2000 baht or a bit less), and you get an email confirmation with a reference number. When you cross the border, you give this confirmation to the officers and theoretically the paperwork is already partially processed, but they still check your passport and ask you a bunch of standard questions. In my case it went pretty smoothly - the line was shorter than for people who hadn't done anything.

Keep in mind that not all countries are eligible for the e-Visa, so before you start, really check on the official page whether you're eligible. Some citizens can enter without a visa (the 60 days that others have mentioned), others have to do it online or at the embassy. It's not something bureaucratically transparent like in other places, but at least since they started doing it online it's become less of a hassle than it used to be.