Royal Thai Embassy in Seoul

South Korea holds one of the most generous entry arrangements Thailand offers anyone: a treaty-based 90-day visa exemption — a full month longer than the 60 days most visa-exempt nationalities receive. That means the Royal Thai Embassy on Daesagwan-ro in Seoul's Hannam-dong diplomatic quarter is rarely part of a holiday plan; its work concentrates on long-stay visas, the sizeable Thai community in Korea, and one pre-arrival step every traveller now shares: Thailand's digital arrival card.

Korean travellers staying within 90 days need no visa at all — only the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC), registered online in the three days before arrival. The embassy's visa section (visa.sel@mfa.go.th) handles what the exemption does not: Non-Immigrant categories for work, retirement, education, and family, plus visas for third-country nationals resident in Korea whose passports are not visa-exempt for Thailand. Applications run through the Thai e-Visa system with submission requirements published on the embassy site.

The consular section serves the large Thai community in South Korea — workers under the Employment Permit System, students, and Thai spouses of Korean nationals — with passports (passport.sel@mfa.go.th), legalisations, and civil-registration documents (consular.sel@mfa.go.th). It is one of the busier Thai consular posts in Asia, and appointment booking through the embassy site is the norm.

Thailand and South Korea trade across autos and parts, electronics, petrochemicals, and agriculture, with Korean industrial investment flowing into Thailand's Eastern Economic Corridor. The embassy's commercial side, with Thailand's trade-promotion office in Seoul, supports Thai exporters — food and ingredients prominent among them — in the Korean market.

Korean conglomerates are established investors in Thai manufacturing and increasingly in digital and green-energy projects; Thailand's Board of Investment promotes Thai opportunities through its Seoul office, with the embassy connecting policy conversations on both sides.

Thai businesses entering Korea work with the Thai Trade Center in Seoul; the embassy provides the policy-level channel, including on labour cooperation — the Employment Permit System that brings Thai workers to Korean industry is one of the relationship's most consequential frameworks.

Thai cultural presence in Korea runs from festivals and Thai-food promotion — a natural fit in a country whose travellers have made Thailand a perennial favourite — to university-level Thai-studies programmes and the community life of Thai temples in the Seoul area. Student exchange flows both directions, supported by the embassy's education contacts.

Short stays need no embassy visit — register the TDAC online within three days of arrival and travel. Visa and consular matters: Royal Thai Embassy, 42 Daesagwan-ro, Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul; phone +82 2 790 2955; visa section visa.sel@mfa.go.th, passports passport.sel@mfa.go.th, other consular matters consular.sel@mfa.go.th. Book appointments and check document checklists at seoul.thaiembassy.org before visiting.

The 90-day exemption is treaty-based and specific to a short list of countries including South Korea — do not assume the same window applies to travelling companions of other nationalities, most of whom receive 60 days. The TDAC is mandatory for everyone regardless of visa status, and overstaying carries a fine of 500 baht per day — the generous window makes casual overstays rarer, but the meter runs the same.