Are you in Bangkok and want to extend your stay past the allowed 60 days?

If you entered Thailand on a visa exemption on arrival, you would have received 60 days to enjoy the kingdom, but you have the option to extend this for a further 30 days, and it’s very easy to do!

In this guide I’ll show you step-by-step how to get your 30-day extension.

The first thing you need to do is get yourself to the immigration office at IT Square in Lak Si (third floor). The Google Map address is here.

It is not hard to find, in fact, it is literally right outside the Lak Si subway station (red line).

Here’s what you will need to take with you:

• Your passport
• 1,900 baht for the extension
• 104 baht for some printing
• A pen (very important!)

The office is open Mon-Fri from 8:30 am to 3:30pm (they close at 12-1 for lunch).

My suggestion is to get there at 8:30 a.m. because the crowd will be far less and the staff will also be less grumpy before they start dealing with clueless tourists all day.

As soon as you reach the third floor and find the office you’ll walk past these photocopy shops:

Give them your passport and they’ll make a photocopy of your bio page and your visa stamp page. You shouldn’t need to tell them what you need, they do this thousands of times per week.

Then they’ll ask if you need photos. If you don’t have a passport photo handy (a physical copy, not on your phone) then say yes! They’ll quickly take your photo and print some for you.

All this should cost you 104 baht or thereabouts.

Once you’ve got your documents, head to step one (everything is signposted).

At Step 1, there will be three forms you need to fill out.

You don’t need to print them beforehand, they are all provided:

The forms are all straightforward, it’s the usual things like your name and address and favourite ice cream flavour (just kidding).

For those of us who are a bit slow they even have written examples posted on the wall for you to copy:

Make sure you fill everything out properly because if you don’t, the ladies will just send you back to fix it and you’ll need to rejoin the queue again.

When I was last there, I saw three people get sent back to correct their forms. Don’t think you can just get to the desk and they’ll let you fill in all your gaps there. They won’t! You’ll get banished back to the form-filling station, so do it right the first time.

As i said the forms are straightforward, but you will need to put a full address for your accommodation so make sure you have this handy. You can’t just write “Sheraton Hotel” you actually need to write the street name, district, country, city, postcode etc.

Once you finish your forms, you’ll join the queue at this station where someone will check you completed all the paperwork correctly.

This is also where you will hand over your passport photo and your photocopies of your passport.

If everything is peachy, you’ll get your forms stamped and be sent to the processing room which looks like this:

Wait for your number to be called, the staff here will collect your 1,900 baht extension fee and take a photo of you for their biometrics.

I believe they only take cash (and they give change).

Once that’s all done, you’re done! Just head back to the waiting area and take a seat.

If they’re busy you might wait a while, but usually your passport comes back within 15-30 minutes. A staff member will come out of the room with a pile of passports and call your number.

If the crowds are not too big, this whole process from start to finish can usually be done in less than an hour.

If the queues are long and you need to wait over the lunch break, you might take 3-4 hours.

This is why it’s advisable to arrive early, but in most cases, you should be in and out within one day.

Also, this extension service is only for people who entered Thailand on a visa exemption.

If you have a different type of visa that you acquired as an e-visa or from a Thai embassy, you will need to extend it at the immigration department in Chaengwattana (Building B).

Do I need a TM30 form?

You might have read around the interwebs that you need a TM30 form.

The TM30 form is used for your accommodation provider to register you online with the immigration department.

I asked if my accommodation had registered me before I went, and they said they had.

I am actually not sure if they checked this on their systems while I was doing my extension, it’s possible they did. However, they definitely did not ask me for a physical copy of the TM30 form, nor did I see it mentioned anywhere at any of the stations.

If you want to be safe, you can ask your accommodation provider if they’ve registered you with a TM30 before you go (I think they’re all supposed to do it regardless of whether you’re extending or not).

Do I need a return ticket?

No, this was never asked for, nor is it mentioned anywhere in the requirements.

They did not even ask for a leaving date.

When given my passport back they just told me the date I had to leave by.

Can I book an appointment online?

Yes, this is possible, however I have not looked into it nor do I know anyone that’s actually used the service.

If you go early, the process is easy enough that you can be in and out within an hour, so I don’t see any need to try book appointments online and complicate the process more than it needs to be.

However, you can try it. If you do – come back and let me know how it goes!