Travel guide
Visas and entry rules, country by country
Four of the six countries now require a digital form before you fly, and two of them will refuse boarding without it. Here is what each country actually asks for.
Visas and entry
The short version
Entry to this region used to be a question of whether you needed a visa. It is now mostly a question of which form you have to file before you fly, and whether the document you hold is valid at the specific gate you are heading for. Two of the six countries will let an airline refuse to board you without a digital arrival registration, and one of them added that requirement during 2026.
- Thailand shortened its visa exemption from 60 days to 30 on 15 September 2026.
- Vietnam made its pre-arrival declaration compulsory at every airport in mid-2026.
- Laos publishes a nine-port list that limits where its e-visa can be used.
- Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines each require an arrival form filed within days of landing.
Six countries
The table
| Country | Visa-free | E-visa or visa on arrival | Before you fly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vietnam | 45 days for the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, South Korea and the Nordics; a separate 45-day tourism scheme runs to 14 August 2028 for the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia and six more. Not the US, Australia or Canada. | E-visa open to every nationality, up to 90 days, single or multiple entry, 3 – 5 working days. You name your entry and exit gates when you apply and cannot change them later. | A pre-arrival declaration is now compulsory at every airport, filed no more than three days ahead. Passport valid six months, two blank pages. |
| Thailand | 30 days for 60 countries and territories since 15 September 2026 — the old 60-day rule has gone. Tourism only. Entering overland on the exemption is capped at twice a calendar year. | Visa on arrival now covers only three nationalities; everyone else is either exempt or applies for an e-visa. | The Thailand Digital Arrival Card is compulsory and free, filed within three days of arrival. Passport valid six months. |
| Cambodia | None for European, North American, Australian or Northeast Asian passports — everyone pays. | E-visa 30 days, single entry, around a week to be safe. Visa on arrival at the three international airports and at the main land gates, in US dollars cash with a passport photo. | An e-arrival card is required for flights only, filed within seven days of arrival. Your hotel must register you with the foreigner registration system. |
| Laos | Japan has 30 days. UK, EU, US, Australian and Canadian passports all need a visa. | E-visa 30 days single entry, printed on paper — a phone screen is refused — and valid at nine named ports only. Everywhere else it is visa on arrival, which can be extended twice to 90 days. | The Lao digital immigration form is filed within three days of arrival and again before departure. Passport valid six months, two blank pages. |
| Indonesia | None for European, North American, Australian or Northeast Asian passports. | Visa on arrival, 30 days, extendable once by another 30. Buy it on arrival or in advance through the immigration e-visa portal. | The All Indonesia arrival card is filed within 72 hours of arrival. Bali charges a separate tourist levy per person. Proof of onward travel is checked. Passport valid six months, two blank pages. |
| Philippines | 30 days for the UK, EU, US, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea, and for around 190 countries in all. | Not needed for those nationalities. Extensions are done in-country through the Bureau of Immigration. | eTravel registration is compulsory and free, filed within 72 hours of arrival — airlines do check it. A return or onward ticket is an explicit condition of entry, and your passport must be valid six months beyond the day you leave. |
Entry rules move, sometimes with days of notice — Thailand shortened its visa exemption on 15 September 2026, and the Thailand – Cambodia land border has been shut since June 2025. We check this table against the immigration portals and the UK and US government travel pages, and we write the date we checked at the top of it. Before you book flights, confirm your own nationality on the official portal; fees in particular change without announcement and we do not quote them here for that reason. Your coordinator will tell you which documents your route needs and when to file them.
Arrival forms
The forms that are genuinely compulsory
These are free, they take a few minutes, and they are the most common reason a traveller is delayed at a gate or refused boarding. None of them should be paid for — several lookalike websites charge a “service fee” for filing a free government form.
Every one of these is free on the official government portal. If a site asks you to pay for one of them, it is not the official site. We send you the correct link for each country on your route.
By passport
What actually changes between nationalities
Most of this page is the same whichever passport you hold, but three things are not, and they are worth checking rather than assuming.
Vietnam
Most western European passports have 45 days visa-free — the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Nordics under the long-standing exemption, and the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia and several others under a tourism scheme that runs to August 2028. American, Australian and Canadian passports are not exempt and use the e-visa, which is open to every nationality for up to 90 days.
Thailand
Sixty countries and territories have 30 days visa-free since 15 September 2026, including the UK, the EU states, the US, Canada, Australia and Japan. South Korea sits outside that list under a separate bilateral arrangement, and Korean travellers should confirm their own allowance directly rather than relying on a general figure.
Cambodia and Laos
Neither country exempts European, North American or Australian passports. Cambodia sells an e-visa and a visa on arrival; Laos exempts Japan and sells an e-visa valid at nine ports, with visas on arrival everywhere else.
Indonesia
No exemption for European, North American, Australian or Northeast Asian passports. Everyone buys a visa on arrival, 30 days, extendable once by another 30.
Philippines
Thirty days visa-free for around 190 nationalities, which covers almost every traveller we work with. The stricter part is the passport rule: six months of validity counted from the day you leave, not the day you arrive.
Documents
Passport validity, blank pages and photographs
Six months of remaining validity is the working rule across all six countries, counted from arrival everywhere except the Philippines, which counts from departure. Two blank pages is the safe assumption; Vietnam and Laos both expect them, and a passport that is full or physically damaged is a genuine refusal risk rather than a formality. If you are crossing land borders, carry four passport photographs — visas on arrival in Cambodia and Laos want one each, and the machine at the border will not be working.
ArrivalsOur part
What we do, and what we will not do
We tell you exactly which visa your route needs, at which gate, and what has to be filed before you fly — and we build the itinerary so that the gates on your applications are the gates you will actually use. What we will not do is take your passport details and apply on your behalf through a third-party agent. Every one of these applications is made in your own name on the official portal, and we send you the correct link rather than a reseller’s.
We do not print visa fees. They change without announcement, and the only figure worth having is the one on the official portal for your nationality on the day you apply. Your coordinator confirms it with you before you travel.
Send us the passports you are travelling on.
Plan My Trip
Tell us your nationalities
Different passports in one party often need different documents. We check each one against the route before anything is booked.
Common questions
Questions travellers ask most
How long is Thailand’s visa exemption now?
Thirty days, since 15 September 2026. It was sixty days before that, and a great deal of published advice has not caught up. Overland entries on the exemption are also capped at two per calendar year.
Does the Vietnamese e-visa really fix my entry and exit points?
Yes. You nominate them on the application and they cannot be changed afterwards. If your plans move, you apply again. This is the single most common reason a self-planned overland route fails at the border.
Do I need to pay anyone to file these arrival forms?
No. Every one of them is free on the government portal. Sites charging a service fee to submit a free form are resellers, not governments.
What if different people in my party hold different passports?
Then they may need different documents for the same route — one exempt, one on an e-visa, one on a visa on arrival. Send us all the nationalities at the start and we check each one separately.
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Start planning
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