Updated October 30, 2026.
The Thailand Digital Arrival Card, or TDAC, is a free online arrival-information form provided by Thai Immigration. It is separate from a visa application and does not give permission to remain for a particular number of days. Use the official service at tdac.immigration.go.th rather than assuming a paid search advertisement is the government website.
Prepare the form within the official submission window for the arrival date. Have the passport, travel and accommodation information ready, then review every traveller’s details before submitting. Most preventable problems come from using the wrong arrival date, accepting an inaccurate passport scan or overlooking a mistake in a group submission.
The official TDAC manual explains individual applications, groups and updates. The version reviewed on 30 October 2026 includes information on automated-border-control eligibility in the confirmation email.
Work out whether you need a visa separately
TDAC records arrival details. It does not decide whether your passport qualifies for exemption, issue a tourist visa or replace a DTV approval. Resolve the entry route before treating the arrival form as the final travel document.
A traveller who needs a visa before departure still needs the issued visa even after completing TDAC. A traveller eligible for exemption still needs to meet the conditions of that route. A DTV holder still needs a valid visa record and the appropriate entry documents.
Our guide to e-Visa, TDAC and ETA terminology explains the different jobs of those labels. Our current visa-exemption guide covers the September 2026 change in initial tourism periods.
Keep each document separately labelled in your travel folder. “Arrival card” and “visa approval” should not be two filenames for the same record.
Use the correct arrival date
The official service uses a window within three days before arrival, including the arrival day. Enter the date you will arrive in Thailand, rather than the date you depart your home airport.
A hypothetical overnight flight might leave on 8 November and reach Thailand on 9 November. The TDAC should describe the Thai arrival on 9 November. A connecting journey can introduce another date change, so read the final itinerary rather than relying on the first flight’s departure date.
If the arrival date changes, review the submitted card and use the update process where applicable. Do not assume a confirmation for a cancelled itinerary accurately describes a replacement journey.
For a land arrival, use the planned Thai entry date and the actual transport details requested by the form. TDAC is not limited to air travellers. The official manual describes arrival by land, air and sea.
Gather the information before starting
Keep the passport you will use in front of you. Prepare the travel itinerary, first accommodation address and an email account you can access while travelling. If another person is helping, have each traveller check their own identity information.
| Information group | What to have ready |
|---|---|
| Passport and personal details | The actual travel document and its identity page |
| Travel details | Thai arrival date and the transport information requested |
| Accommodation | The genuine address for the stay described in the form |
| Health information | Recent travel and any details prompted by the official questions |
| Contact email | An address that can receive the confirmation and be accessed during travel |
Enter information in English as the manual instructs. Use the form’s dropdown selections where provided. Do not force a place name into an unrelated field merely because the correct option is not immediately visible.
The health section can depend on recent travel and other information entered. Read the questions actually displayed for your journey. Do not copy an old answer from another traveller’s form when your recent travel differs.
Check the passport scan instead of trusting it blindly
The system can retrieve information from the passport’s machine-readable zone. That can save typing, but the manual specifically tells travellers to recheck the retrieved information.
Compare the full name, nationality, birth date and passport details with the physical document. Pay attention to similar characters and to names divided across several fields. A successful scan is a data-entry convenience, not confirmation that every field is correct.
If the scan fails, follow the available manual-entry process accurately. Do not repeatedly upload a blurred image and assume the system will infer the right information. A clear view of the identity page is more useful than an artistic photograph of the passport.
Use the passport intended for this journey. If you recently renewed it, do not allow an old saved image to populate the form with the previous document’s details.
Review before submitting
The preview stage is the best point to catch mistakes. Compare the information with the passport and itinerary before accepting the terms and submitting.
Read the email address carefully. A correct form sent to an inaccessible or mistyped address creates an avoidable retrieval problem. If a family member is handling the submission, establish who will keep and distribute the confirmations.
Check the accommodation fields against the real address. Hotel trading names and property addresses can differ; use the requested address information rather than guessing a district from a booking website’s marketing title.
Take particular care with full name, nationality and date of birth. The manual identifies those identity fields as unavailable for update through the ordinary update process. If one is wrong, use the official service’s current instructions or support guidance for correcting the submission rather than assuming it can be edited later.
How group submissions work
The official manual allows up to ten entries in a group submission. Group processing can save repeated travel and accommodation entry, but each person still needs their own correct details.
Use the “same as previous traveller” option only where the information really is the same. Family members can arrive on different flights, stay at different addresses or have different recent travel relevant to health questions.
For a hypothetical group of eight people, one organiser can enter the shared itinerary and then review each person’s passport information. Ask each adult to confirm their record. For children, a parent or responsible adult should compare the details with the child’s own passport rather than copying the parent’s nationality automatically.
A group larger than the stated limit needs more than one submission under the system’s current process. Keep a traveller list so nobody is omitted between groups. Do not assume the lead traveller’s confirmation covers people who were never added.
Updating a submitted card
The manual’s update process asks for the TDAC number, date of birth and nationality to retrieve the record. Keep that reference available. Review the proposed changes before submitting the update and save the resulting confirmation.
An update is useful when editable travel or accommodation details change before the journey. It should describe the actual itinerary. Do not keep using an old confirmation simply because it is already saved on your phone.
Identity errors need separate attention because the ordinary update function excludes the fields identified above. Follow the official instructions for that situation. Avoid creating several inconsistent records without understanding which confirmation relates to the final correct submission.
If you cannot retrieve the record, check the reference and identity details against the confirmation first. Use the official help channel rather than sending passport scans to an unsolicited message claiming to fix the problem for a fee.
Save the confirmation for travel
Download the card after submission and keep the email. A printed copy can be useful where phone battery, connectivity or account access fails, but store it securely because it contains personal information.
For a family, distribute the relevant confirmation to each adult who may need it. If one parent travels separately with a child, that person should have the child’s records available rather than depending on another traveller’s phone.
The manual says the confirmation email indicates whether the traveller is eligible to use automated border control. A green eligibility message concerns use of that processing channel; a manual-processing message directs the traveller to the ordinary immigration counter. Neither message is a visa or an advance guarantee of admission.
Follow airport or checkpoint directions on arrival. Do not join an automated gate queue solely because another member of the group received an eligibility message.
Recognise paid intermediaries and avoid unnecessary charges
The official TDAC service is free. A private website may charge for assistance, but that payment is not a Thai government TDAC fee. Check the domain and terms before entering payment or passport information.
An official-looking design does not establish government ownership. Start from Immigration’s published address and inspect the actual domain. Avoid relying on a sponsored search result’s title alone.
If you choose private assistance, understand what service you are purchasing and what personal data will be handled. No intermediary can turn the arrival card into a visa approval. You can complete the official form yourself without buying an arrival-card package.
A short departure-day review
Reopen the saved confirmation once the itinerary is final. Check the traveller’s identity first, then the Thai arrival date, transport details and accommodation. If the airline moved the flight across midnight, the arrival date deserves another look. Check the final correct record rather than a screenshot taken before an update.
Keep the official reference with the confirmation so the record can be retrieved if needed. Avoid posting the card in a public travel group when asking a question; describe the problem without exposing the traveller’s identity details.
Complete the final entry check
Before departure, put the passport, appropriate visa or exemption plan, TDAC confirmation and genuine travel evidence together. Check that the names and Thai arrival date agree.
After entry, read the admission deadline. TDAC completion does not determine how many days Immigration grants. Record the actual permission separately from the card number and any visa-validity date.
If you need help identifying the underlying visa route, contact Visa Support Thailand with your passport nationality, purpose and intended visit length. A route discussion is different from paying someone to submit a free arrival form.
Official sources reviewed: 30 October 2026. Use the live Immigration service and manual for the fields and procedures applying to your next arrival.