Thailand e-Extension and Online 90-Day Reporting (TM.47) — 2026 Practical Guide

Three separate obligations people constantly merge

An extension of stay is a decision by an Immigration officer to let you remain beyond the date stamped in your passport, assessed under Royal Thai Police orders on criteria for permission to stay. It is discretionary and evidence-based.

The 90-day report (form TM.47) extends nothing. It is an address-notification duty under section 37(5) of the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979) for foreigners on temporary stay. Failing to file carries a fine but does not shorten your permitted stay.

TM30 is a third thing entirely: the duty of the house master, hotel or landlord to notify Immigration that a foreigner is staying at the address. It is not the visa holder's duty, but when it is not filed, the address on record is wrong and every online service downstream starts failing.

The online 90-day reporting window

The online channel accepts a report no earlier than 15 days before the due date and no later than 7 days after it. Outside that window the system refuses the submission and you must report in person, or by the postal route where the local office still accepts it.

• Four fields must match the database exactly: passport number, name as printed in the passport, latest entry / arrival record, and the permitted-to-stay date
• If you left Thailand and re-entered, the 90-day count restarts from the latest entry date — it does not continue from the previous cycle
• On success the system issues a receipt showing the next due date; save the file and keep a printed copy with your passport
• Watch out: the 90-day report does not replace TM30 and does not replace the annual extension of stay — they are three distinct filings

Which extensions realistically go online

Online support depends both on the ground for the extension and on the practice of the office covering your address. Cases that work online tend to be the standardised ones an officer can verify from records — retirement extensions backed by a Thai bank deposit are the usual example.

Cases that almost always require attendance with original documents are employment extensions (company, tax and social security evidence), Thai-spouse extensions (interview and home visit), and guardian extensions (school certification).

The safe operating rule: never leave less than 30 days before your permitted-to-stay date. If the online channel refuses your case, you still have time to take an in-person appointment.

Why submissions get rejected

Most failures are data-consistency problems, not eligibility problems.

• New passport issued without having the previous passport's records linked at the Immigration office, so entry history is broken
• House master, hotel or landlord never filed TM30 after a move, leaving an outdated address on record
• Name typed differently from the passport page — middle name reordered, a title added, or diacritics used
• Duplicate submissions after no confirmation email arrived; check the status before re-filing rather than sending again
• Leaving Thailand while a decision is pending without a re-entry permit, which voids the permission to stay immediately

Document work to finish before the appointment

In-person cases usually fail on foreign documents that were never properly authenticated. As a rule, a foreign document intended for a Thai authority must first be authenticated in the issuing country, then translated into Thai or English and legalised at the Department of Consular Affairs.

The recurring examples are a foreign marriage certificate for spouse cases, income or pension confirmation for retirement cases, and a school letter for guardian cases. Start these three to four weeks ahead of the appointment.

What our Phuket office does

We are not a government agency and we do not guarantee the outcome of any official decision. What we do is make the document set accurate and internally consistent before it reaches an officer: certified Thai translations, notarial certification of signatures and documents by a lawyer authorised as a Notarial Services Attorney, and consular legalisation at the Department of Consular Affairs.

For clients in Phuket and nearby provinces we also sequence the work so documents are ready before the Immigration appointment. Contact us by phone, LINE or email for scope and fees on your actual file.