How to Get a Certificate Of Entry to Thailand

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If you’re planning to travel to Thailand, you must receive a Certificate of Entry from the Thai government.

We had some questions when filling out the form for Certificate of Entry to Thailand, and needed to contact our Embassy (not easy to get through on the phone!) and wait for responses. Hopefully, this article will help answer any questions you might have!

In this post, we’ll show you what we needed to do and how we completed our COE for our trip to Phuket, Thailand in October 2021.

Table of Contents

• Official Website for Applying for a Certificate Of Entry
• Pre-Approval
• Approval For Uploading More Information
• Approved!
• Download and Print the Certificate of Entry
• Conclusion

Official Website for Applying for a Certificate Of Entry

The official website to apply for a Certificate of Entry to Thailand is www.coethailand.mfa.go.th.

After entering this website, you’ll be asked to click on whether you are a Thai national or not. Unless you are from Thailand, you will click non-Thai national. Then select your language preference. 

Pre-Approval

Step 1: Pre-approval:

This is the screen you should see at this point in the process.

After reading the details of the process, move to the next screen where you will complete the registration process. Go to the bottom of this page and click the box acknowledging you understand the information and click ‘next”.

You should now be here:

The first drop-down box requires you to select your country of departure. 

The second drop-down box will give you the Embassy options for the country of departure. Select the appropriate Embassy where your application will be sent for review. Ours was the Royal Thai Embassy, Ottawa. 

Drop-down box three lists all the visa options for entry to Thailand. Because we were coming from Canada and were allowed to claim a visa exemption, we selected 11(Exempt)- Medium Term Visitor-Visa Exemption. You select the option that applies to you.

As a side-note, we had applied for a tourist 11(TR) Medium Term Visitor-Tourist Visa before we submitted our application for the Certificate of Entry but were still waiting for the Visa approval. After a discussion with a representative from the Embassy, we were told that we could submit the Certificate of Entry using the Visa exemption without any conflict with the pending Visa application.

The fourth drop-down box will request you select your quarantine options upon arrival. As we were going to Phuket, we selected the “Entering Sandbox Program” option.

This added a fifth drop-down box for us to select the “Phuket Sandbox” option. 

Click “Enter” and you will go to a colored flow chart of the entry process screen, which should look like the one below. 

Click at the bottom to acknowledge you understand the process. You will then click the “Register” button at the bottom of the screen you filled in previously.

You will now be directed to upload information in support of your application. The screen should look like this.

The first section is only if you are booking your trip through a travel agency; otherwise, disregard it. 

The second section is your “Personal Information”. This is pretty standard information, complete as requested. 

When it comes to your passport, you need to select the option that applies to you in the drop-down menu. Ours were Ordinary passports. The passport number is the letter and number sequence listed on the bottom left of the passport between the arrows. Example: <<<<GM222222>>>>. Ensure your passport is valid for more than 6 months prior to your trip. 

The last box in this section requires you to indicate your expected date of travel. NOTE: at the bottom of this page it states: “ Travellers to a Sandbox Program may apply for a Certificate of Entry within 30 days of the arrival date in Thailand”.  

Because there may be unexpected delays in the process of obtaining your Certificate of Entry, we strongly recommend you apply at the earliest possible date before your arrival date in Thailand. We received our Certificate of Entry with about 1 week to spare, but as we had previously booked all of our arrangements for travel, lodging, transportation, etc. for specific dates, as we waited to hear back it became a little stressful not knowing when or if we would actually receive it!

The next section is “Contact details outside Thailand”. This would typically be your home address and mobile phone number. 

The next section is for “Contact details in Thailand”. This would only apply if you have an address and phone number in Thailand. We left this section blank.

The next section requires information regarding a “Contact Person” in case of an emergency. 

The next section is for “Information on Covid-19 vaccination”. Here you will identify the name of the manufacturer of your Covid shots from the drop-down menu, indicate the dates of each dose and then upload a copy of each. Click the “Browse Files” button to find the dosage confirmation you need to upload.

NOTE: Once you’ve selected the file/photo of the dosage confirmation be sure to click the little “up arrow” symbol in the bottom right of the file you uploaded to attach it. If you don’t click this arrow, it won’t attach and be saved in the application! 

The next section is to “Attach Documents”, starting with a photo of your passport. You only need to take a photo of the bottom page of your passport, not the upper and lower pages together. Click the “Browse Files” button, upload the photo as requested and click the little “up arrow ” symbol to attach it. 

The next section is for “Attachment of Further Consideration”. We didn’t have anything further to add but, if you had a Visa, you would upload that here. 

The next section is “Medical Insurance”. Remember that:

(1) you need to arrange medical insurance before you submit the Certificate of Entry for pre-approval, and

(2) you need to have insurance coverage in place for the full period of your stay.

Without obtaining medical insurance of at least $100,000USD, you will not meet the entry requirements to Thailand.

If you are unsure of the actual dates you will be travelling, make sure you overbook the insurance so it covers the period you believe you will be travelling. If you don’t, you’ll have to rebook the insurance for the correct dates once confirmed.

Upload a copy of your policy and, again, click the “up arrow” symbol to attach it.

We obtained our insurance through Allianz using the broker, Mister Prakan. We received all the required documents in a matter of minutes through their online process.

Lastly, read through the information at the bottom and tick the box acknowledging you have read and understood the information. Click the “Save” button. You must now review and confirm the details of the information you have input as being correct. If so, submit it. 

You now have to wait for the pre-approval of your application. This will likely only take a few days.

After submission, you will be issued a 6 digit code you can use to check on the status of your application.

Approval For Uploading More Information

Step 2: Pre-approved, upload further documents:

Once you’re pre-approved, if you haven’t already done the following you must now:

(1) Book and pay for your SHA+ facility to stay at least 7 days,

(2) Book and pay for the SHA+ airport transportation to your facility (this will cost around 800-1,000 baht) and

(3) Book and pay for the two PCR swab tests that will need to be performed. The first swab test is done before leaving the airport, the second at 6 days after arrival. For Phuket, we booked this through the site www.ThailandPSAS.com. Copy of the screen for the site below:

Create an account and book your swab tests at the location nearest to where you will be staying. Ours was Jungceylon, which was about a 5-minute car ride from our hotel. The airport swab will cost 2,400 baht and the second swab test will be 2,800 baht. 

When you get to the payment page, be sure to select the country you reside in from the drop-down menu. Also, input the credit card used in the box next to your country of origin. Once paid, you will receive a receipt for confirmation of your swab test booking.

Provide proof of your swab test booking to your hotel(s). The hotel(s) will then issue you a SHABA Certificate with an ID on it. You will need to input and upload this ID in your Certificate of Entry application.

You will need to upload and attach a copy of your passport. 

You’ll also have to upload and attach a photo of yourself within the last six months for a Visa application.

We just used our phone to take a close-up photo of ourselves following the general criteria of filling the frame of the photo about 70-80% with our head and using a white background. Make sure there is space all around your head and the edge of the photo. If it doesn’t appear to meet the criteria for the application, you’ll get a pop-up saying so.

If you don’t get a pop-up saying your photo may not meet the criteria, hit the “up arrow” symbol to attach it. However, if you get a pop-up, try again with the criteria of trying to fill the photo frame at about 70-80% with your head. If you have long hair, you may need to tuck it behind your ears to succeed in meeting the criteria.

You will need to input the details of your SHA+ hotel(s) where you will be staying for at least 7 days, provide a booking confirmation and a copy of the SHABA Certificate issued to you by the hotel.

You also have to input details of your flight. These include the points of transfer (if any), flight numbers and the final leg to Phuket. Upload and attach a copy of your flight confirmation. If you have a return ticket, enter those details as well. 

Because we did not know when we would be leaving Thailand, we selected a one-way ticket. This was the cause for the first rejection of our Certificate of Entry.

In order to be approved for a Certificate Of Entry to Thailand, you’re required to have a departure ticket from Thailand.

We’d only purchased a ticket to Thailand. To resolve this situation we used Onward Ticket to reserve a departure ticket to give us a (temporary) departure date from Thailand; we uploaded and attached this reservation.

With Onward Ticket, we also purchased the “14-day flight reservation” so we could arrive in Thailand within 14 days of the purchase. This allowed us to satisfy proof of a departure flight for the immigration department when we arrived in Thailand. After 14 days, the ticket reservation is automatically cancelled; you don’t have to worry about doing a thing. There is a small fee for this service and is perfectly legal.

Again, if you purchase a return ticket instead of a one-way ticket, this won’t be an issue. But if you don’t know when you’ll be leaving Thailand, this is a very reasonable way to deal with the issue of acquiring your Certificate of Entry.

Once all the information is input, uploaded and attached, save and submit it for approval. The approval will take around three business days unless you need to give more information.

Approved!

Step 3: Approved: 

Download and Print the Certificate of Entry

Once you’ve received your approval, download and print the Certificate of Entry. You will need to show this at multiple points through your journey to Thailand.

Conclusion

As Thailand moves closer to fully reopening for tourists, policies and procedures for entry requirements to Thailand are quickly and frequently changing. This article merely details the process we completed for obtaining a Certificate of Entry in order to be able to enter Thailand in October 2021. Before proceeding with plans to visit Thailand, you should always investigate the most recent updates for entry requirements.

We hope this post was helpful to you in obtaining a Certificate of Entry to Thailand, and that you enjoy your future trip! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us and we’ll try to help as best we can.

We’d love to hear from you if you found this post helpful. Please leave a comment below!