Thailand is a short flight away. The question is how long you are staying
Thailand is close enough that people book it like a holiday and plan it like a holiday, then want to stay longer than the plan allows. Length of stay is a legal category here, not a preference. This course takes the questions in the order they answer each other.
Written for readers travelling on an Australian passport. We do not cover Australian tax or residency rules: we raise the questions, you check the answers with a professional.
Seven decisions, in the order that works
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Limestone cliffs at Railay West Beach, Krabi 01Why you are going
Not the answer you give at dinner. The real one. A holiday, a reset, cheaper months, work you can do anywhere, or somewhere to retire. Every decision below follows from this one, and people who skip it end up booking a trip that answers nobody's question.
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Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok 02How long you are staying
In Thailand this is not a preference, it is a legal category. Thirty days, a hundred and eighty days and a full year are three different situations with three different sets of paperwork. Decide the length before you fall in love with a plan that needs a visa you cannot get.
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A night market after dark 03What it actually costs
Not the monthly figure from a video. Yours: rent where you would really live, food the way you really eat, transport, health cover, flights home, and the months when you earn nothing. A budget that only works in a good month is not a budget.
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A latte in the north 04Where the money comes from while you are there
Savings, remote work, a business, a pension, rental income. This is the question that decides which visa route is open to you, and it is the one most people answer last.
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John-Suwan viewpoint, Koh Tao 05Where in Thailand
The region before the hotel. Bangkok, the northern mountains, the Andaman coast and the Gulf islands are four different countries in terms of weather, cost, medical care and how easy it is to leave again. Choosing a hotel first is how people end up in the wrong half of the map.
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Temple ruins in Ayutthaya 06Which visa your answers make possible
Only now. Visa-free entry, a tourist visa, the DTV for remote workers, a retirement route: each one has conditions your first four answers either meet or do not. Working in this order takes an afternoon. Working backwards takes months.
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Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Grand Palace, Bangkok 07Banking, and the day count that changes everything
How you will be paid, how you will hold money locally, and what happens once you have been in the country long enough to be treated as resident for tax. This is where a plan that felt simple becomes a plan you need to check properly.
Seven e-mails, one a day
- One decision per e-mail, with what it settles and what it rules out.
- Written from the same research as the rest of this site: 59 answers checked against official sources, each one dated.
- No live session to attend, no time zone to work around. It starts when you sign up.
- Free, and it stays free. Nothing is sold at the end of it.
- One click to unsubscribe, on every e-mail.
It suits some people and not others
Useful if you are weighing a long stay, a season, a move or a retirement in Thailand and you have not yet decided how long for.
Not useful if you have already got your visa and your dates, or if you want a two-week holiday planned for you. The guides on this site do that better.
Written by travel professionals
We publish an independent travel guide to Thailand. This course comes out of the same research as the rest of the site: every rule we state carries the official source it came from and the date it was checked. Rules in Thailand move, and when they move we say so.
That is our trade, and only that: we are not lawyers, immigration agents or tax advisers. On those questions we tell you what to check and who to ask, never what to do.
