What is a passport?
A passport is an official document given by a government to its citizens. A passport gives permission to the owner of the passport to visit foreign countries. The passport contains information about the person's name, date and place of birth, nationality and gender. It is signed by the citizen and includes their photograph.

How do I get a passport?
A passport must be paid for. To get a passport, a person fills in a form, has photos taken and makes an appointment at a Post Office to hand in the application and show documents such as birth or citizenship certificate.

Who checks a traveller's passport?
When a traveller leaves his or her country a government official stamps the passport. This is also done when the traveller returns home.

The passport is shown to government officials of the country being visited on the traveller's arrival. The government officials stamp a page in the passport when a traveller arrives in the country and again when he or she leaves.

What is a visa?
A visa is permission to enter a foreign country. It is a stamp made in a traveller's passport by a representative of the foreign country before the traveller leaves on the trip. A visa allows a visit for a set number of days or months. The traveller must leave the country at the end of the set time. Not all countries require an Australian traveller to have a visa. The embassy or consulate of the country to be visited will inform travellers about the need for a visa.

Travellers from the following countries do not need a visa to enter Thailand. They will be given a temporary visa as they arrive in Thailand and will be able to stay for 30 days:

AMERICAS: Argentina, *Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Mexico, *Peru, U.S.A.
ASIA : Bahrain, Brunei, Hong Kong,Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, Philippines, Qatar, *Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates
PACIFIC: Australia, Fiji, *New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Western Samoa.
AFRICA: Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Yemen.
EUROPE: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovene, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, U.K.

Acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:
Thailand (2001). [Online], Available: www.kidcyber.com.au

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updated February 2001