Chiang Mai Immigration Office: Locations, Hours and Fees

Chiang Mai has one immigration office with two counters. The main office at 71 Airport Road, beside the airport, handles every kind of extension, including retirement, marriage and work, plus TM30 and residence certificates. The branch on the 2nd floor of Central Festival handles 90-day reports, re-entry permits in the morning, and tourist, teacher and university or formal-school student extensions; language-school and Muay Thai students extend at Airport Road. Both open Monday to Friday only. Below: which counter does what, the hours and numbers, how a visit works, and each service with its form and fee. Every rule is dated and sourced at the end.

Where is the Chiang Mai Immigration Office?#

At 71 Moo 3 Airport Road (Sanambin Road), Suthep, about 200 metres from Chiang Mai airport, with a branch on the 2nd floor of Central Chiangmai (Central Festival) on the Superhighway. The office serves the whole province, so every district from Mae Rim to Hang Dong uses these two counters. The old counter at Promenada closed in 2022.

• Airport Road: ตรวจคนเข้าเมืองจังหวัดเชียงใหม่, 71 Moo 3 Airport Road, Suthep, Mueang Chiang Mai 50200. It has stood on this site since 1984.
• Central Festival: the branch (ส่วนแยก เซ็นทรัลเชียงใหม่) is on the 2nd floor, by door 2/1 beside the lift on the SuperSports side, open since 6 June 2022. The mall is called both Central Festival and Central Chiangmai.
• If your home is across the provincial line in Lamphun, as some estates south of the city are, Lamphun Immigration is your office. The province on your lease or title deed decides.

Opening hours, holidays and phone numbers#

Both counters open Monday to Friday and close on Saturdays, Sundays and Thai public holidays. Airport Road works 08:30–12:00 and 13:00–16:30; Central Festival 09:00–17:00 with a lunch break, and issues re-entry permits only between 09:00 and 12:00. No official source supports Saturday opening.

Weekday public holidays until May 2027, from the Bank of Thailand's official lists: 7 December 2026 (for 5 December), 10 December, 31 December and 1 January, 22 February 2027 (for Makha Bucha), 6 April, 13–15 April (Songkran), 4 May and 20 May. No holiday falls in November 2026. Monday 3 May 2027 is a bank holiday for Labour Day; whether government offices close is not yet published, so ask the office. Avoid the week before Songkran and the days around New Year for anything urgent: queues build before and after.

The office's Facebook page is facebook.com/immchiangmai. No official source promises English on the phone, and residents report that 1178 often goes unanswered; the Airport Road switchboard is the better bet.

Can you book an appointment, or do you queue?#

Most people queue. An official appointment calendar exists for retirement, business, education and volunteer cases, but on 24 October 2026 it showed no free slot for the next three months. At Airport Road you take a queue number on the day; arrive by 07:30, because numbers can run out. Central Festival has no numbers and is usually quick.

• The calendar offers 90-minute slots at 08:30, 10:00, 13:00 and 14:30, bookable from 90 days to 16 hours ahead. It is linked from the Immigration Bureau's page for the northern division, not from the Chiang Mai site.
• Residents report anything from under an hour to a full day at Airport Road. Once your papers are complete, the Immigration Bureau's handbooks set 4 minutes for a 90-day report and 50 minutes for a re-entry permit.
• Since May 2026 Airport Road has a priority channel for extension applicants who are elderly, disabled or ill. Ask at the screening point.
• Bring a spare set of signed copies and a spare 4×6 cm photo. No official dress code exists; dress as you would for a bank.

How does the 90-day report work?#

Every 90 days of continuous stay you report your address on form TM.47. It is free, both counters take it without an appointment, and you can also file it online at tm47.immigration.go.th, by registered post, or through someone you authorise. Long-Term Resident visa holders report only after each full year in Thailand without leaving, on form TM.95.

• Your first report is due on your entry date plus 90 days, then on the date printed on your receipt: arrive on 1 March and it is due on 30 May. In person or through someone, you can report from 15 days before to 7 days after that date; online, from 15 days before and no later than 7 days before; by post, send it 15 days before.
• Online works for anyone with an email address, and the result arrives by email within 3 working days. After a new passport, make the first report at the office, in person or through someone you authorise. If the online system rejects a report, file it at the counter.
• Bring your passport, the signed TM.47, your previous receipt if you have one, and your TM.6 card if you arrived before May 2025. Not on the official list, but worth bringing: your digital arrival card confirmation and a copy of your landlord's TM30 receipt, which offices are reported to ask for.
• A late report must be made in person, and the Immigration Bureau collects a ฿2,000 settlement fine; if you are caught without having reported, its figure is ฿5,000, and the Act allows up to ฿200 more for each day. Leaving Thailand restarts the count. The Bureau names no other reset, so after an extension keep to the date on your last receipt.

The 90-day report, step by step

Who has to report, the due date, the online system step by step, reporting by post or through someone else, the fines, and the TM.27 after a move.

Read the 90-day report guide

How do you extend your stay?#

You apply on form TM.7 and pay ฿1,900, the same fee for every kind of extension. Apply before your stamp ends. No official rule says how early Chiang Mai accepts an application, so ask the office first (053 201 755, press 20), and do not leave it to the last days. Retirement, marriage and work extensions, and those of language-school and Muay Thai students, are made at Airport Road; tourist, teacher and university or formal-school student extensions at either counter.

1. Before you go, gather your passport with signed copies of the photo page, visa, latest entry stamp and latest extension; one 4×6 cm photo taken within 6 months; your landlord's TM30 slip; the proof for your visa type (below); and ฿1,900. No official page says whether cards are accepted, so bring cash.
2. At Airport Road, take a queue card at the screening point: A for tourist cases, B for long-term visas, C for Thai family and re-entry permits.
3. Fill in the TM.7 at the document point, then wait for your number on the 1st floor of the office building.
4. Hand in your file at the counter and pay the ฿1,900.
5. Collect your passport with the receipt, and check the new stamp before you leave.

If your case needs checking, you get an "under consideration" stamp with a date to come back; such stamps can run at most 30 days past your old expiry. A refused applicant must leave Thailand within 7 days. If you have already overstayed, you pay the overstay fine before the application is accepted. If you travel, you can add a re-entry permit on the same visit.

• Retirement: the ฿800,000 must sit in the bank for 2 months before you apply and 3 months after approval, and never fall below ฿400,000 for the rest of the year. O-A visa holders also need health insurance. The retirement guide has the full detail.
• Thai spouse: the money is held for the 2 months before you apply; bring the marriage papers, your spouse's ID card and house registration, and recent photos of the house. The first answer is often "under consideration".
• Work: ฿50,000 a month for Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and Japan, ฿25,000–45,000 for others; the employer needs ฿2 million paid-up capital, audited accounts and four Thai staff per foreigner, with lighter rules for representative and regional offices, certified startups and 18 target industries.
• DTV: the official fee schedule has one extension fee, ฿1,900, and no separate DTV rate, but sources disagree on the amount and on which counter takes it. Ask the office (press 20) before you go.
• Some extensions, mainly tourist ones, can be started online at thaiextension.vfsevisa.com; you still go in person for the stamp. Retirement and most long-stay extensions are made at the counter.

Retire in Chiang Mai

The two retirement visas, the money rules, eight areas with their rents and the drive to a hospital.

Read the retirement guide

Do you need a re-entry permit?#

Yes, before any trip abroad if you hold an extension or a stay you want to keep. Leave Thailand without one and your permission to stay ends at the border. A single re-entry permit costs ฿1,000 and a multiple one ฿3,800, on form TM.8 with one photo, at Airport Road or at Central Festival between 09:00 and 12:00.

• A multiple permit pays off from the fourth trip in the period it covers: four single permits cost ฿4,000.
• Buy the permit at the office. Residents report a desk at Chiang Mai airport for same-day departures; no official Chiang Mai source confirms it.
• Before every return, file the free digital arrival card at tdac.immigration.go.th; long-term residents file it too. Sites that charge for it are fakes.
• Every return restarts your 90-day count.

What is the TM30, and who files it?#

The TM30 tells immigration that a foreigner lives at an address. The law puts it on the landlord, owner or hotel, within 24 hours of your arrival; it is free, can be filed online at tm30.immigration.go.th, and late filing costs a private landlord up to ฿2,000. Immigration asks you for the slip at extensions and other services, so ask your landlord for it.

• Your landlord does not file a new TM30 when you come back to the same home from another province, or from abroad on a re-entry permit or a multiple-entry visa (a rule in force since 30 June 2020). A new visa-free entry starts a new stay and needs a new TM30, and so does a new address.
• Ask for a printout of the online record, with a "stay until" date that covers your lease: offices check it.
• If you live in a condo you own, the law's "owner" is you, so the filing falls to you. Whether a tenant may file for themselves no official page says; ask the office (press 30).
• Trips to another province need no report for retirees, spouses, students, workers or tourists. If you move house, the new landlord files a TM30 and you tell immigration of your new address yourself, on form TM.27 within 24 hours.

TM30, step by step

Who files it, when a new one is needed, the online steps, the receipt and what to do if your landlord doesn't file.

Read the TM30 guide

Changing visa type, residence certificates and overstay#

Changing your visa type#

Converting a stay inside Thailand, typically from a visa-exempt entry to a Non-Immigrant visa, is done at Airport Road. More than 15 days must remain on your stamp, and no application is possible after an overstay; apply earlier to be safe. The fee is ฿2,000 and the result is a stay of up to 90 days, which you then extend for a year at ฿1,900. With a 30-day visa exemption that means filing within the first two weeks, and a retirement change needs ฿800,000 already seasoned in a Thai bank, so most retirees are better off applying for an O or O-A visa from home at thaievisa.go.th.

A residence certificate#

The land transport office and district offices ask foreigners for a letter certifying their address, for a driving licence, a vehicle transfer or a yellow house book, and Immigration's own form lists opening a bank account among its uses. Chiang Mai Immigration issues it at Airport Road, weekday mornings 08:30–12:00. Its official form tool at chiangmai-immigration-form.pages.dev builds the application and a checklist for your purpose: signed copies of every passport page with a Thai stamp, your TM30, proof of residence such as a lease or house registration, and one photo on a white background. File the TM30 at the new address first. No fee or processing time is published; ask the office (press 10).

Thai residence certificate

Which offices ask for it, the Chiang Mai documents and steps, what the office does not publish, and the alternatives.

Read the residence certificate guide

Overstay#

Staying past your permitted date costs ฿500 a day, up to ฿20,000, which is reached on day 40. Since 20 March 2016, longer overstays also bring a ban on returning, counted from your departure:

What changed in 2025 and 2026#

• 30 September 2026: the House passed, 403 to 0, a bill that would let the national police chief decide whether to keep the 90-day report and would end your own change-of-address notice. It is before the Senate and not law (checked 28 October 2026); until it appears in the Royal Gazette, every rule on this page applies.
• 15 September 2026: the visa exemption fell from 60 to 30 days for nationals of 60 countries and territories, for tourism only. With the one 30-day extension, a visa-exempt stay is now about 60 days at most. Visa-exempt entries over land are capped at two a calendar year, except for nationals of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore.
• 12 November 2025: immigration began screening visa runs; repeated entries without a good reason can be refused, and extension approvals were tightened.
• 1 May 2025: the free digital arrival card replaced the paper TM.6 for every arrival. Some official checklists still mention the TM.6.
• 23 January 2025: Immigration Bureau Order 12/2568 re-issued the rules for every extension. The retirement and marriage money tests did not change.
• 1 January 2025: every Thai visa applied for abroad goes through thaievisa.go.th, at the embassy or consulate where you are.
• Announced, not in force: a ฿450 entry fee for foreign visitors has been proposed for 2027, and the Immigration Bureau's THIM app is to add 90-day reports and extensions later, with no date.