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Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) — the form, not the folklore
What this means
The TDAC is the online form that replaced the old paper arrival card: every foreign-passport traveller entering Thailand is expected to submit it before arriving. It is a form, not a permission — it does not decide whether you may enter, and this guide deliberately says nothing about visas or entry rights. What it covers is the practical layer: the one real website, the timing window, and the mistakes that actually cost people money or airport time.
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Decision helper
Quick decision
Fill it at tdac.immigration.go.th — that exact address, ending in .go.th — within the 3 days before your arrival, for free, and keep the confirmation on your phone. That is the whole task.
What changes your plan
The 3-day window changes when you can act: you cannot tick this off weeks ahead. Put it on the same mental checklist as online check-in for your flight.
Common mistake
Googling 'Thailand arrival card' and landing on a paid lookalike site. The official system is free — its own title says 'No Fees Required'. Any site charging for the TDAC is a middleman at best and a scam at worst.
Local-style move
Fill it when you fill in your airline's online check-in — same evening, same passport in hand. Two forms, one sitting, and the details end up consistent on both.
What the TDAC is
The Thailand Digital Arrival Card is the Immigration Bureau's online replacement for the paper TM.6 arrival card. Since 1 May 2025 it applies to foreign-passport travellers entering Thailand by air, land or sea; the commonly stated exemptions are passengers transiting without passing immigration control and holders of a border pass. It is an information form about you and your trip — it is not a visa, not an entry approval, and submitting it says nothing about whether immigration will admit you. Questions about visas or entry rights belong to official immigration channels, not this page.
When and where
- Where: tdac.immigration.go.th — the official Immigration Bureau system. Type it or follow a link from an official source; check that the address ends in .go.th before entering anything.
- When: within 3 days before your arrival date — the official site states the information must be submitted 3 days in advance of arrival. You cannot usefully do it a month early.
- Cost: free. The official system's own page title says 'No Fees Required'.
- What you need at hand: your passport, your arrival details and where you will be staying — the same information the old paper card asked for.
- Afterwards: keep the confirmation reachable on your phone; the same system also has an update function if your details change before arrival.
The practical mistakes
- Paying a lookalike site. Search results and ads surface commercial sites that charge for 'processing' the free form; Thai authorities have repeatedly warned about fake TDAC websites. The .go.th check is the filter.
- Leaving it to the airport. The form is designed to be done before travel; doing it on airport wifi with a boarding queue behind you is how typos happen.
- Typos in passport number or dates. The form's details should match your passport exactly — use the update function if you spot an error rather than submitting a second conflicting card.
- Assuming someone else did it. Airlines and hotels do not file it for you; each traveller's card is their own responsibility.
Related guides
The TDAC is step zero of arriving; step one is getting out of the airport — the airport-to-city guide covers that without the folklore. A working phone helps at every step of arrival: see SIM cards in Thailand. And since the TDAC's fake-site problem is really a scam problem, the wider pattern is in common scams in Thailand.
Sources & further reading
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