> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://easythailandvisa.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A Weekend Trip to Laos Ends Your Thai Long Stay Visa and Nobody Warns You - URL: https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-re-entry-permit-keep-your-visa/ - Published: 2026-07-10T13:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-16T12:18:23.000Z - Description: The stamp that says how long you may stay and the permission to come back are two different documents, and only one of them is stamped in your passport. - Author: Somchai Jaidee - Tags: Visas & Immigration A man flew from Bangkok to Phuket for a friend's wedding, and came back on Sunday evening to find a hotel booking he could not use and a run of paperwork that would take a month, because a two hour flight had silently ended a year of permission to stay. Nobody did anything wrong. That is what makes it a bad story. Last verified 1 August 2026. ## What the re-entry permit is **It is the document that lets you leave Thailand and come back,** and without it your existing visa and your existing extension are cancelled the moment you exit the country. **Which is the part that catches people, because a visa looks like permission to be in the country and it is not,** it is permission to enter it once. Staying is a separate permission, granted at the border or at an extension, and it is that permission which evaporates when you get on the plane. **So the** [**re-entry permit**](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-retirement-visa-is-it-worth-it/) **is how you keep the stay while you are away,** and it does not extend the stay, it preserves the remaining balance of the one you already have. **There are two, and the distinction is simple:** **A single re-entry permit is one thousand baht** and it is valid for one exit and one return. **A multiple re-entry permit is three thousand eight hundred baht** and it lets you come and go as often as you like until the underlying permission to stay runs out. **And the permit expires with your visa or extension, whichever comes first.** A multiple permit bought with four months left on the stay does not give you four more months, it gives you permission to travel during the four months you had. ## Who actually needs one **Almost every long-stay visa holder:** retirement O and O-A, O-X, education ED, DTV, LTR, non-immigrant B, and the extension categories in between. **And on most consulates' published rules,** a tourist entry, a [visa on arrival](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-visa-rules-changed-september-2026/), the SMART visa and the LTR are handled as a single stay, so leaving ends the stay and you get a fresh entry on return. Rules and consular practice vary, so check the specific position for your own visa before you book anything, and do not take a general blog including this one as evidence. **What you must not do is guess,** because the difference between a preserved year and a cancelled year is a thousand baht of administration at best and a lost eligibility at worst. ## How to get one **At a local** [**immigration office**](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-visa-extension-30-day-procedure/) **before you travel, which is the calm option.** You need your passport, photocopies of the identity page and the visa and entry stamp pages, a [passport photo](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-passport-photo-requirements-visa/), and cash. **The form is TM.8,** which is free and is available from the counter, and you can complete it before you go, and completing it before you go is the difference between ten minutes and half an hour. **Pay in cash, at the immigration office fee of one thousand or three thousand eight hundred baht.** **Or at the airport departure hall, which costs a little more** because of the service charge and the photo, commonly around an extra couple of hundred baht, and in exchange you do not need a second trip across a city. **Allow real time.** Immigration at the airport before departure is not a formality you do while your bag is checked, and the departure hall queue for a re-entry permit can be long. The advice is to arrive at least two to three hours before an international departure and to know where the counter actually is before you need it. ## When you come back **Write the re-entry permit number on your arrival form.** This is a small detail with a real consequence, because the number is how your stay is reactivated against your record, and an arrival that does not carry it is an arrival that an officer has to work out how to reconcile. **And be clear with yourself about what is coming back.** A re-entry permit preserves the remaining days of a stay. It does not create a new one, and if you left with nine days left you come back with nine days left. ## What it costs to get this wrong **For an O-A holder,** you have lost a year of a sixty-five thousand baht permit and you have to reapply, and in-country renewal is a different and less pleasant process than the original application abroad. **For a DTV holder,** a lost visa is a lost visa, and reapplying means the documentation and the financial evidence again, and the five year validity is not a five year thing if you have to restart it. **And for anybody with a stay counted in days rather than months,** leaving at the wrong moment is a straightforward waste of the entire trip. ## The practical habit **When you book a flight, ask yourself one question: if this trip goes wrong, what does it do to my permission to stay?** The answer is almost always "ends it", and the fix costs a thousand baht and a form and a photograph. **And when the person at the airline desk asks why you want a re-entry permit,** which they will and which surprises people, the answer is that it is a long stay and you are going home for a funeral, and that answer is completely unremarkable to a Thai immigration officer, which is rather the point. **More on this** - [The Six Diseases Nobody Warns You About Are From 1992 and](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-visa-medical-certificate-health-check/) - [The Insurance Requirement Nobody Reads Before the Visa](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-health-insurance-long-stay/) - [The Destination Thailand Visa, Explained by Someone Who Has](https://easythailandvisa.com/destination-thailand-visa-dtv-explained/) - [What It Actually Costs to Overstay a Thai Visa](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-visa-overstay-fines/)