Visa Run From Phuket

Rungkit Tour's bus leaves Phuket Bus Terminal 2 at 05:30 and reaches Ranong at 11:00. 12Go's timetable lists it at ฿315, and booked on its site it's about ฿520. Later buses leave at 10:10 and 14:30, too late for a same-day crossing. From Ranong bus station, songthaews marked Saphan Pla run to the fishing pier in Pak Nam, where Thai immigration sits behind a PTT station and 7-Eleven off Chaloem Phrakiat Road.

At the pier you get your Thai exit stamp, then take a longtail across the estuary to Kawthaung, 25 to 45 minutes. There's no official fare. Recent accounts put it at about ฿200–300 each way, more for a boat to yourself. On the Myanmar side the stamp in and out comes with a day pass, which a traveler who crossed in August 2026 paid ฿500 for. Older accounts say US$10, so carry clean baht and a few small US dollar notes. The day pass keeps you within Kawthaung town and is valid for 24 hours at most.

Then the boat back and your new Thai entry stamp. Be back at the jetty by about 15:30. The buses home leave Ranong at 13:15 and 15:45, and the 15:45 is the realistic one, arriving at Phuket Bus Terminal 2 at 21:45. Agency vans run the same trip with hotel pickup between 04:30 and 05:30 and you're back in Phuket around 17:00–18:00, for about ฿2,500 per person as published. One agency lists a further ฿1,600 'stamp' fee paid on the day; a visa-exempt entry carries no Thai fee, so ask what that money pays for.

Ranong is the closest border, and its immigration office has said it looks hardest at people like you. In December 2025 the head of Ranong Immigration, Pol Col Denchai Charoenyut, told The Phuket News that stays on visa-free entries and tourist visas shouldn't add up to more than 150 days in a year, by land, air or sea, and that 'Immigration must be especially strict at land borders, more so than anywhere else.' He spoke the day after foreigners who'd come for a run were told they wouldn't be let back in.

He also said what gets someone through. People who could show confirmed flights, hotel bookings, a travel plan and enough money were allowed to cross, and people with long previous stays and no plan could be refused. That was said under the old 60-day rules and it's one office's stated policy, not a gazetted number. Still, I'd take a printed hotel booking, an onward ticket and proof of funds to Ranong, and I wouldn't go there for a second run in a year.

The UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to the part of Tanintharyi Region south of Tanintharyi township, which takes in Kawthaung, and it says your travel insurance could be invalidated if you travel against its advice. A visa run is unlikely to count as essential. Other governments word their Myanmar advice differently, so check your own, and read the exclusions on your policy before you cross. Our insurance guide explains how that clause works.

Malaysia is further than Ranong, and the one same-day option needs an agency.

The ฿1,900 extension adds 30 days without leaving and uses none of your two land entries, so it comes first. Phuket's main immigration office is at 482 Phuket Road in Talat Yai, near Saphan Hin, and handles extensions at Room 101, Monday to Friday 08:30 to 16:30 with a lunch break. You can walk in or book its online tourism slot. The Blue Tree counter in Choeng Thale, the only Phuket office on the e-Extension list, has been closed since 19 October 2026, and a small Patong office on the beach road keeps shorter hours. I'd be there for the 08:30 opening, since processing takes one to three hours. Bring your passport, a completed TM.7 form, one 4×6 cm photo and the fee in cash, and apply before the date on your stamp. Our Phuket Immigration Office guide has both open offices in full.

Then, near the end of the extended stay, do the run. The new 30-day stamp can be extended once too, which is how one run turns into 60 more days. Offices can refuse an extension when a passport shows back-to-back runs.

Phuket airport has nonstop flights to all three nearby cities. Kuala Lumpur is the busiest, with AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines and Batik Air flying about seven or eight times a day in 1 hour 30 to 1 hour 40. Penang is about an hour on AirAsia, Firefly or Qatar Airways, about 15 flights a week. Singapore Airlines and Scoot fly to Singapore about eight or nine times a day.

A flight takes the two-a-year land cap out of the picture, but the November 2025 screening applies at Phuket airport as much as at Ranong, so a passport full of quick exits still gets questions. A few days in Kuala Lumpur or Penang with a return ticket looks like what it is, a short holiday, and that's the honest case to make at the desk.

Since 15 September 2026 a visa-exempt entry is 30 days, and entries over a land border on the exemption are capped at two per calendar year. Since November 2025 immigration has been told to screen anyone who has done more than two runs, at airports as well as at land crossings, and it can refuse entry. No run is guaranteed. The visa run guide has the full rules, the embassy wording and what counts as a land entry.