Re-entry permits: why leaving without one kills your extension

Section 39 of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979) is blunt: if a foreigner with permission for temporary stay leaves the Kingdom, that permission is deemed terminated. The only way to preserve it is to obtain permission to re-enter before departing — the re-entry permit (application form TM.8) — in which case you are re-admitted for whatever time was still remaining on your permitted stay. The fees are 1,000 baht for a single re-entry and 3,800 baht for a multiple re-entry valid for the remainder of your permission, per the Immigration Bureau's published fee schedule.

This is where a lot of expensive mistakes happen. The people at risk are those living on an extension of stay — a retirement, marriage, work or DTV extension stamped in-country. Cross the border for a weekend without a re-entry permit and that annual extension is void; you return as an ordinary tourist and must rebuild your status from scratch, including re-seasoning any bank deposit. Holders of a still-valid multiple-entry visa, by contrast, do not need one — each entry on the visa is a fresh admission. The MFA's guidance confirms the permit is applied for at an immigration office before you leave; in long-standing practice it can also be obtained at re-entry permit counters at the major international airports before passing outbound immigration, though queues and hours are not guaranteed.