Thailand to start eVisa On Arrival for 20 countries including India from Feb 14

Starting from this Valentine’s Day, Thailand will introduce its first e-Visa On Arrival (eVOA) for visitors from 20 countries and one business district. The system is developed jointly by Immigration Bureau of Thailand and VFS Global. The new system is expected to cut the processing time for visas on arrival at airports to as little as one minute.

The fast-entry online visa system will initially be available to nationals from Andorra, Bhutan, Bulgaria, China, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. They will be eligible if they arrive at any of the four main international airports: Suvarnabhumi INternational Airport (BKK), Don Mueang International Airport (DMK), Phuket International Airport (HKT) or Chiang Mai International Airport (CNX). The service will be made available at more airports later this year, the officials said.

As per the new system, when applying for a Thai visa, one has to fill out the electronic form and make an e-payment anytime regardless of the embassy working hours. Once the visitor arrives at one of the airports, they have to show their passport to the concerned counters and obtain the visa within a minute.  The will receive their travel authorisation from the Immigration Bureau of Thailand prior to their departure from their country of origin.

The visitors will be able to use the eVOA service at thailandevoa.vfsevisa.com from 30 days to at least 24 hours before arriving in Thailand.