South Africans planning a trip to Thailand are looking at less time in the country for free, after Thailand’s Cabinet voted on 19 May 2026 to scrap the 60-day visa exemption that has been in place since July 2024.
Most of the roughly 93 affected nationalities will revert to a 30-day visa-free stay. A smaller group may be reclassified to 15 days pending a country-by-country review by the Visa Policy Committee.
South Africa is confirmed on the affected list. It is one of only three African countries that hold visa-free access to Thailand at all, alongside Mauritius and Morocco. That exemption will remain, but the window shrinks.
The change is not yet in force. The current 60-day rules remain valid at the border until the implementing notification is published in Thailand’s Royal Gazette. No effective date has been announced, so that means the rules could change with little warning.
Why Thailand is doing this
Officials cited three overlapping reasons:
- visa misuse (people entering as tourists while working without permits);
- links to transnational scam operations;
- a broader push toward quality tourism over volume.
Tourism and Sports Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul confirmed the Cabinet resolution on 19 May, and was direct about the scope of it. “The initial step is to cancel all 60-day visas for all countries. We are not discriminating; we are cancelling all visas,” he said, citing an average tourist stay of only nine days.
The implication is plain: most visitors are not using the 60 days, and those who are have become a policy problem.
What this means in practice
Under the old framework, a South African traveller could enter Thailand visa-free and stay for 60 days, with the option of a 30-day extension at an immigration office for 1,900 THB. That gave a potential 90 days in-country without a visa.
Under the new framework, the default visa-free stay drops to 30 days, with the same 30-day extension still available, bringing the maximum to 60 days total. The extension fee is unchanged.
For most short-haul tourists, the change is irrelevant. The average stay is nine days anyway. It’s a bigger problem for remote workers and long-stay travellers.
The 60-day visa exemption had been treated as permanent and was considered a competitive draw for European, North American, and Australian visitors since its introduction in July 2024. South Africa benefits from the same exemption, and has since mid-2024.
What to do now
If you have a trip booked in the near term, the 60-day rules still apply at the border. The Cabinet’s decision requires publication in the Royal Gazette before it becomes law, and no effective date has been set. Monitor the Thai Embassy website and credible travel news sources closely.
Anyone planning a trip further out should assume 30 days as the working baseline.
If you need longer, Thailand’s Tourist Visa (TR) allows 60 days from the outset and can be extended. The Thailand Elite Visa remains an option for longer stays. The 60-day window was always a bonus. It is going away.
