Thailand is welcoming tourists since July 1st, but rules have been changing since then and easing the entrance demands. Things changed a bit also since 1st October as the quarantine period was reduced from 14 to 7 days for vaccinated tourists entering Thailand under the Phuket sandbox scheme.
If before you just needed to buy a flight to enter Thailand, now things are a bit more complicated.
Procedure to enter Thailand under Phuket sandbox:
.1st you need to check if you are under the visa exemption depending on your country. I’m from Portugal and I can stay in Thailand for 30 days without having to apply for a visa. I had contacted my Thai embassy during the process and they helped me a lot with fast answers.
.2nd Go to https://coethailand.mfa.go.th/regis/start and apply for the COE (certificate of entry) that will be issued by the Thai embassy of the country you are flying from (not necessarily your home country). No need to go personally to the embassy. Please note that if your port of departure is not your country, you need to apply for the COE through the Royal Thai Embassy where you are flying from.
On that website, everything is very well explained.
Applying for the COE:
1ST Stage:
<You will have to upload your certificate of vaccination (if you have one) in case you don’t have one, your quarantine period will be a bit longer
Quarantine with the certificate: 7 days
Quarantine without vaccination certificate: at least 10 days
<You have to upload the biometric page of your passport
<You have to upload your health insurance with covid coverage of at least 100000 USD. I bought this one: https://direct.axa.co.th/ that is compatible with the Thai demanded insurance. They sent me by email a document that I could attach to the COE application form. The price was about 72€
<When applying to the COE, you will have to select the embassy where you are flying from. You should select the embassy where you are departing from directly to Phuket. Please note that if your port of departure is not your home country, you need to apply for the COE through the Royal Thai Embassy where you are flying from.
You will select that over there. (red circle)
In my case, I had instructions to do like this:
“Please choose Portugal as the country you are flying from
Please choose Royal Thai Embassy Lisbon
Please choose Medium Term Visitor – Visa Exemption as your type of permitted person”
Then you need to wait for about 3 working days to see if you have been pre-approved or not. (Mine took a few hours)
Once pre-approved you will be able to login at the website with a code that will be provided by email. If you can’t login (it had happened to me) is because you are not inserting the data correctly (usually it is a problem with the given name). In that case, email the embassy you are applying from and ask them the login data.
2ND Stage:
<You must buy a direct flight to Phuket. Flying from Portugal I could only book a ticket with Qatar, Emirates, or Thai airways. The whole route must be sealed and your bags must be checked through form your port of departure to Phuket. You will have to upload the ticket at this stage. Please note that you must land directly in Phuket, no transit flights in Thailand allowed. example: you can not fly to Bangkok and then Phuket even if the flights are 1 hour apart
<Book and pay SHA+ approved hostel. Confirmation for Alternative Quarantine (AQ) Reservation at the applicant’s own expense / For AQ reservation, please visit http://entrythailand.go.th/ and https://bit.ly/3556nel and https://asq.locanation.com/ and https://www.agoda.com/quarantineth. You will have to upload the proof of payment.
< Contact the hotel to provide you with the SHABA certificate.
<The SHABA certificate includes a SHABA ID that you will need to schedule your PCR tests in Thailand- (the PCR tests must be scheduled and paid in advance). You can register for the tests here: https://www.thailandpsas.com/
So, at this stage, you will have to upload: flight details, proof of payment of SHA+ hotel, proof of PCR tests payment (in case it is not included on your booking reservation)
After applying for the COE, you have to wait until they approve your application. Once approved, The COE will be sent to you. Mine took about 3 days.
*I advise you to print all these documents as they will be demanded to board your flight to Phuket.
In addition to all this, you have to do a PCR test.
Things you will need to be able to board your flight:
1 Certificate of Entry (COE)
2. Health insurance policy with COVID-19 coverage
3. COVID-19 Free laboratory result in English indicating that COVID-19 is not detected through RT-PCR Test within 72 hours before flying / please refer to the sample of the COVID-19 Free laboratory result
4. AQ Booking Confirmation
5. The ThailandPlus application / please visit https://thailandplus.in.th/en/faq-2/
6. T8 form
