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Does My Child Need a Visa? Easy FAQ for Parents

Whether or not you need a visa for Thailand depends on how long you intend to stay, and what you intend to do there: work, retire, volunteer, etc.

But what about children, do they require a visa to enter Thailand for a holiday or stay long term? And what about attending school?

Here's the answer to those questions and more.

visa-child-thailand

Does My Child Need a Visa to Visit Thailand?

It depends on the length of your stay.

Most tourists can visit Thailand on a 30-day exemption. This means you can arrive in Thailand without a visa and be stamped in for 30 days. You must leave within that 30-day period to avoid being on overstay.

Children can also enter under this same exemption.

If you plan on staying longer than 30 days, you should get a tourist visa for each member of your family, including children.

That being said, you can extend your stay legally inside Thailand. An extension of 30 days costs 1,900 Baht at an immigration office. This helps you avoid overstay, and the need for a tourist visa.

A tourist visa lasts for 60 days. A multiple entry option is also available. It lasts for six months, but with a maximum stay of 60 days at any one time. A tourist visa can also be extended inside the country, as discussed above.

Read more on the Tourist Visa here.

What Happens if My Child Overstay His/Her Visa?

Let's say someone in your family falls ill before your flight home and you have to delay your departure. A dicky tummy in Asia is not uncommon. Adults are fined 500 Baht per day for each day they overstay.

Children under 15, however, are not fined for overstay. They do, however, receive an overstay stamp in their passport to indicate that they did not leave before the visa expiration.

Any child over the age of 15 will have to pay the overstay fine.

Is an Overstay Stamp a Problem for a Child ?

One overdue stamp because of a delayed departure caused by illness isn't going to be an issue at all.

However, if your child accrues multiple overstay stamps over a number of trips then immigration will be concerned. Not with the child, though, but with the parents. The parents are obviously in charge of travel arrangements, so if the child overstays, the fault lies with the parents.

Try to avoid overstay. It shouldn't be necessary unless it's an emergency.

Read the full overstay rules here.

Can My Child Get a Long-Stay Visa for Thailand?

Yes. A child can get a long-stay visa.

A typical example would be as the dependent of a parent taking a job in Thailand. The child can obtain entry as a dependent off of the back of the parent's Non Immigrant O Visa status.

Children aged 20 or over cannot be dependents.

The child would first enter Thailand on a single-entry visa, which is valid for 90 days. His/her stay can then be extended for 1-year at a local immigration office, provided there is still 21 days left of visa validity.

In the case that a child is attending school in Thailand, the child can obtain an education (ED) visa from the embassy of their home country. The school will provide a letter confirming the child's place to assist with the application.

In relation to the child's ED visa, the parent can get a single entry Non Immigrant O Visa to accompany the child, and then do a 1-year Guardian Extension inside Thailand. If the parent has a confirmed job, the parent can get a visa based on their employment status.

You're probably wondering “what happens if there are two parents”, so let me quickly address that.

In this case, the wife, for example, can be a dependent on the husband's (who is taking the job) visa. Please note that the Guardian Visa, applied for in Thailand, is for one parent.

To get two of these visas you would need two parents. The Guardian Visa also requires a deposit of 500,000 Baht in a local bank. Two parents with two kids would require a 1 million Baht deposit and their marriage certificate.

Required Documents

Here's a list of documents you can expect to have to provide your local embassy or consulate. Depending on your application, additional documents may be requested.

  • Completed application form
  • Passport
  • 2 x passport sized photographs
  • Birth certificate
  • Confirmation of school placement (if applicable)
  • Sponsor's confirmation of employment (if applicable
  • Copy of sponsor's passport photo page

Does My Child Need to do 90-Day Reporting?

90-day reporting is a requirement of all long-stay visas.  This means a visit to immigration once every three months to report your residential address and show some documentation.

The official line for children is: If your children live with you and you already do 90-day reporting, then there is no need for your children to do so too. However, by the time they reach the age of 15, they should start doing it themselves. If you child is over 15, there could be a fine of 2,000 Baht for not reporting (1).

More on 90-day reporting here. 



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    • TheThailandLife says

      Hi Jowel, do you mean what visa do you need to come back to Thailand? If so, it depends on how long you will be staying in Thailand and why you are staying. If you have a type of Non O visa then you can apply for a dependent visa.
      Reply

  3. Julie Montoya says

    Lets say my husband has a work permit, and has me and our two kids as dependents on the SMART O visa. One of our kids has a different biological mother and we don't have a decree from the court for sole custody (even though she is absent from our life). Does Thai immigration need any sort of permission from the bio mom for our son to stay there?
    Reply

    • TheThailandLife says

      You can check with your local Thai embassy, but I think you would need sole custody documentation. I'm quite sure you'd need permission from the biological mother to leave your country, too.
      Reply

  4. Jay Allan Cortes says

    Dear Thailand life,

    Me (non B), my wife (Non O), and my 5 year old son (Non O) entered in Thailand on January 4 2020. After a year, I changed a company with Non B and Non O. However, the Chonburi Immigration officer advised us not to apply Non O visa anymore for my son as he's under 15 years old. After a year, I moved to another company in Bangkok, that time the Chamchuri Immigration officer informed that my son is overstay already. May you please advise us what to do next time for my son because Me and my wife will be renewing our visas in August 2023 under the same company. We would like to re apply a Non O visa for my son. Thank you

    Jay Cortes
    Reply

  6. IAN MACKAY says

    Do i have to set up an account for each member of my family, 2 adults and 2 minors ?? Each application requires tax info etc and all sorts of info that seem to be very difficult for a child to answer. It also asks me for the Thai passport of the person inviting us although this is irrelevant we just need an extra few days on a 30 day visa as we are there for 37 days. They won't let us on the plane if we don't have the visa.
    Reply

  7. Kiki says

    Hello,
    I actually have a scenario/question which is similar to the one above, but I could not find an answer on this.
    My girlfriend an I (not married;), have 2 children together (3 and 5 year old by by the time we move to Thailand next year). We are considering getting an ED visa for us (the adults) and of course do a Tha language course. We would then get dependent visas for the children, who would then go to an international school/Kindergarden in Thailand.
    Does this make sense or better to do it another way?
    We have emailed various language schools, but have unfortunately not heard back. Couldn't find anything online about this either...
    I would very much appreciate anyone's help/feedback. Very much appreciated...
    Reply

    • TheThailandLife says

      Hi Kiki,That's correct. You should be able to get dependent visas for the children, in the same way a parent coming to work in Thailand would. The language school will provide you the letter to apply for your ED visas at your local embassy and then you can apply for the kids' visas once yours are secured. The best thing to do, since your situation is a little different, is contact your local Thai embassy to confirm what documentation you need. Thank you for the coffees by the way, much appreciated. Feel free to ask any further questions, and do come back and let me know how you got on.
      Reply

    • TheThailandLife says

      For which visa? If you mean traveling to Thailand for a holiday you will be admitted on an exemption stamp when you arrive. Your child will have one of your surnames, I assume, so it will be obvious the child is yours. However, you might want to bring a copy of his/her birth certificate along too, just in case you're asked by the airline or immigration to confirm that one or both of you are parents.
      Reply

      • Siobhan says

        No , I meant for a long term visa? I wanted to study in Thailand and would apply for the ED visa, can I bring my partner and son with me, or can they only come on my visa if we are legally married? Or would it be enough that we've be together 15 years and have a 12 year old son?
        Reply

        • TheThailandLife says

          I've looked into this and I'm not sure, as usually it's a parent accompanying a child for education. You can probably get a visa for your son based on your study period but I think your partner would have to apply for a visa separately, based on accompanying his son who is accompanying his mother. Drop your local Thai embassy an email and ask. I'd be interested to know what they say, so please report back if you can.
          Reply

  10. Matilda says

    Hello! Thanks for a great post! I have of course signed up for your mailing post to my email address! :D
    I have a question regarding visas for children. Can the child walk as a dependet on my ED visa? He is 7 years old. Me and my husband are going to study Thai between January and June 2023, moving to Thailand in december-22 and our son start school 11th of January. (we were going to arrange ED visa in Thailand and try to get in on 30 + 30 tourist visa on arrival+ extension) our plan is to stay at least 1 year. After that, the plan is for my husband to go over to the retierment visa when he turns 50 in May. I'm only 35, so after June I guess I need to study to get our son a visa on dependet. Otherwise, I would have gladly been behind my husband's retierment visa as dependet. Our son is going to a Swedish school and apparently only ED visas apply to children at international schools. When I call an agency and launge school in Thailand, they all say that it works out when we are there, but no information how? :) do you have and thougts or tip? Grateful for answers. Best regards Matilda
    Reply

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