How to request COE for Phuket Sandbox.

We are Thai, flying from SFO, USA, requesting approval from Thai Embassy in LA. *Each passport may have different requirements, but hope it gives you some idea….

There are 2 steps, both steps require information and some documents to be uploaded.

**Step 1 – getting COE pre-approval**

Documents needed at this stage:
1. Passport (We use Thai Passport)
2. Covid vaccine card/certificate, indicating 2 doses of Vaccine (We have Pfizer). The second dose must have more than 14 days of waiting period. For our case we use CDC card that was given to us (The small card).

(Note: I have seen several COE rejection  if you have 2 kinds of different vaccine. Stay posted, maybe they will reconsider)

3. Covid19 insurance with at least $100,000 coverage. The insurance policy document must clearly stated that it covers covid19 medical treatement. We submitted 1 insurance company that has coverage, but did not clearly mentioned on the cover page and got rejected.

We used this insurance and able to get pre-approval 👉 https://covid19.tgia.org/
(I am not related to this insurance or anything, just an option in case you cannot find the one you like. Someone in Phuket Sandbox FB Group posted it earlier, I tried and it works!). The minimum coverage is 30 days, price appx 2500thb. For Thais, choose free visa under visa type box.

We also attached Bank Statement along with insurance policy. I’m not sure if this is compulsory, but we just cannot miss again. This is to prove that in case we got Covid19, we have enough money to take care of ourselves. I guess it is similar purpose to having an insurance, for a peace of mind from both ends ^^

I download bank statement from my bank, SCB mobile app. It was sent to my email within seconds

4. Estimated flying date. (For us we have ticket on Jun 29, arriving Phuket July 1! We only able to start the process 2 days before flight.)

Procedure to get Pre-Approval:
1. Log on to 👉  https://coethailand.mfa.go.th/
2. Choose either you are Thai, or foreigners. For our case, we choose Thai… answer few questions, upload some documents.
3. Important point is to Choose that you are flying by air, and joining Sandbox, and choose Phuket (Now only have Phuket, I believe more cities will be opened soon!)

*Noted – As of July 1, you must land directly to Phuket (HKT). You can do transit in other country, for our case, we fly from SFO with Qatar, transit via Doha and then Phuket. Transit via Suvannabhumi is not allowed at this point but I heard they are planning about this for a while.

4. Upload all the documents needed as per detail above. Don’t forget after you drag&drop a file, there is a small yellow arrow icon to submit the file. Please click, or else it won’t upload.

—– Submit the document and wait for pre-approval——

At this point you should get 6 digits code. Write it down and don’t lose it. You will also receive email, check your junk mail.


I was told that this process is being sent to Thailand to check (Vaccine card is being checked by CDC Thailand). It can take up to 3 days. Lucky us we got approved within few hours as our flight was in less than 15 hours back then



Unfortunatedly our 1st choice of insurance got rejected. This is very critical as there are 2 types of rejection.
  1). Half-Reject. You can log on, click yellow box, and resubmit the missing documents. This way is faster as don’t need to go back at starting point.
  2). Completely reject. You have to redo since the beginning.

Since the system is new, there is a bug. We cannot resubmit the insurance, there is no box to re-upload insurance in the edit mode. So we have a bit of the hassle explaining to the embassy to completely rejected it. 

I hope this will get fixed soon 🙂

———————-
Step 2 : Getting the real COE

Documents needed at this stage:

1. Hotel with SHA+ logo booking.
14 nights if you want to go other cities in Thailand. Or less than 14 nights if you want to directly fly out from Phuket, you must have return ticket if you stay less than 14 nights. Hotel is fully paid. Then hotel will send you SHABA document with barcode, keep it for upload, print 1 for enter Thailand.

2. Transportation from Airport to Hotel with SHA+ logo. I booked with the hotel, ask the hotel to send me a receipt

3. Covid testing package (x3 tests for 14 night, day 0, day 6-7, day 12-13). We paid 12,000thb as soon as there is a news that we may need it. Back then nobody know how much and whether antigen test is ok or not. But as we are in a rush, we paid maximun with hotel stating that if the actual cost is not as high as 12,000thb, they will refund the differences :). Ask hotel for the recepit too. I asked hotel to clearly state all the important points, ie. Add SHA+ to transportation, add x3 times to covid19 test package, triple check our names spelling…you know, just to be super safe.

For a peace of mind, and I recommend you to do it, I have put together credit card charges for all the cost, and hotel receipt stating price of hotel room 14 night/ airport transfer with SHA+/ and Covid test package in 1 receipt in a pdf file with our names (You can only submit 2 files per required documents)

So when upload, file 1 is SHABA document with QR code (jpg, pdf is ok), file 2 is receipt and payment document in PDF file.

4. Airplane ticket, simple 🙂
Qatar airway offers full refund if you book before Jun 30, I hope they extend this term for more as life really unpredictable these days 😭

*Noted* Keep an eye on the news. There may be an update on documents needed. For example on the last hours we just know that we need to prepaid Covid Test Package, luckily our hotel staffs are well awared of and able to manage it for us just in time.

—————————

After your Step 1 approved, you will receive an email to go to step 2. Then follow this process

1. Log in with your name, surname, passport number, and 6 digits code given to you earlier.

2. Click the blue box, it will take you to submitting document page. Disregard the name of the box, it’s confusing 😆

3. Upload all the documents mentioned above

4. Click save/submit

5. As of the day I do it (Jun 28, PST Time), and I believe this is a bug, there will be a popup page saying that you cannot submit document if you leave the ASQ hotel blank….

Yes…we were like….huh?

Long story short, it’s correct way already. Maybe it’s input validation error, maybe it is just a wording not being changed as it should be, but the SHA+ hotel name is there. So resubmit it again!

Pray 🙏 All the good karma we did in the past, please help we get through this 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

And yes we finally got COE at 9.36 this morning Jun 29 (PST time), rushing to printing, then to airport by noon!!

The final document needed is RT-PCR Covid test result, no longer than 72 hours. You don’t need covid test result when uploading document for COE, only need at airport.


This is as far as I know. If anyone have questions, please let me know, I will try to update here as single post so it’s easier for you.

Excuse my English, hope it’s clear and hope this help as Thais and foreigners are going through similar process.


See you in Phuket!