If you hold a single-entry visa or an extension of stay, leaving Thailand cancels your permission to stay the moment you fly out — unless you have a re-entry permit. This is the plain-English version: what the permit does, the difference between the single (1,000 baht) and multiple (3,800 baht) versions, who actually needs one, and exactly where and when to get it. Factual information only, never paid placement.
On a single-entry visa or an extension of stay, flying out of Thailand cancels your permission to stay — the months left on your extension simply vanish. A re-entry permit, bought before you leave, protects it. Pick single (about 1,000 baht) for one trip or multiple (about 3,800 baht) for unlimited trips. Get it at the airport counter before check-in or at an immigration office in advance.
A re-entry permit does one job, and it does it well: it preserves the permission to stay you already hold when you leave the country and return. The trap is that your visa and your permission to stay are different things. Many long-stay foreigners are not really living on a visa at all — they are living on an extension of stay granted inside Thailand (retirement, marriage, work), tied to a single stamped permission. The instant you board an international flight without a re-entry permit, that permission is cancelled, no matter how many months were left on it. The permit keeps it alive so you walk back in on the same stay. It does not add time and it is not an extension — see our overstay guide for the date that really matters. None of this is legal advice; confirm current rules with Thai Immigration.
There are two versions, and choosing between them is simple arithmetic on how often you travel:
Covers one departure and one return, then it is used up. The right choice for a single planned trip — a wedding back home, one holiday, a single work trip.
Covers unlimited departures and returns for as long as your permission to stay is valid. The right choice if you travel in and out several times a year — it pays for itself past roughly three or four trips.
Both are tied to your current permission to stay; when you renew your extension, you renew the permit too. Fees are widely cited at these levels but can change — verify the current amounts with Thai Immigration.
The permit exists to cover the gaps a multiple-entry visa already fills. As a rule of thumb:
If you are not certain which category you are in, read your visa and your most recent entry stamp carefully, and ask Immigration before you book travel — the cost of guessing wrong is your entire stay.
You can obtain a re-entry permit in two places, but always before you leave — never after:
The paperwork is light. The widely used checklist is:
Requirements vary slightly by office and over time, so check the current list with Thai Immigration before you go, and carry the cash.
This is the section worth re-reading. If you are on a single-entry visa or an extension of stay and you leave without a re-entry permit, your permission to stay is cancelled outright. The months remaining on your extension do not travel with you. To come back you would need a fresh visa, or a visa-exempt or visa-on-arrival entry where you qualify — and you would have to rebuild any extension from scratch, repeating the financial and document requirements that a retirement or marriage extension demands. A 1,000-baht permit prevents all of it. The discipline is the same one that prevents overstay: know your status, and handle the admin before you travel, not after.
The re-entry permit is one of several pieces of long-stay admin that get confused with each other. Keeping them separate in your head saves a lot of grief:
The foreigners who travel in and out of Thailand smoothly are the ones with a stable long-stay base and their visa admin squared away. Explore residences and neighbourhoods built for long-stay foreigners, and the visa-housing guides that match each route to the right home.
General information only — not legal or immigration advice. Thailand’s re-entry permit fees, forms and procedures change over time and can vary by office; confirm current requirements with Thai Immigration or a qualified local adviser before relying on any of the above. BAANLYY never takes paid placement.
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.