What Is Thailand's TDAC and Who Needs It
Thailand's Digital Arrival Card, known as TDAC, has fully replaced the old paper TM6 arrival card since May 2025. Every non-Thai national entering the country needs to complete it, regardless of entry method — air, land, or sea — and that includes children and infants traveling with family.
It doesn't matter what type of long-term visa someone holds, either; even residents on an LTR or retirement visa need to submit a fresh TDAC each time they leave and re-enter Thailand, since the system tracks entry data rather than visa status. The form itself asks for the same basic information that used to go on the paper card by hand: passport details, flight information, accommodation address in Thailand, and purpose of visit.
The process is free and only available through the official Immigration Bureau site, and it's worth being careful to use the real domain rather than a lookalike site, since scam versions have circulated online.
When and How to Submit the TDAC
The TDAC can only be submitted within 72 hours of scheduled arrival — not earlier. Trying to fill it out further in advance than that will simply show as invalid until the traveler is inside that window. Within the 72-hour window, there's no strict deadline, but submitting earlier is safer in case of technical issues, and a common approach is filling it out the evening before departure or during a layover with reliable wifi.
The form itself takes about three to five minutes to complete. Most of the process involves entering passport information exactly as it appears on the document, and the system supports scanning the machine-readable code at the bottom of the passport photo page to auto-fill several fields, which is worth using since it cuts down on manual entry errors. All information needs to be entered in English, and for any dropdown fields, typing the first few letters usually filters the list faster than scrolling.
After submission, a digital card with a QR code arrives by email, and that QR code is what gets shown at immigration on arrival — no printed form is needed, though keeping a screenshot or downloaded copy as a backup is a reasonable precaution in case of connectivity issues at the airport.
What Happens If You Make a Mistake or the Site Is Down
Not every detail is locked in after submission.
Travel-related information like flight times can be corrected afterward by logging back into the system and using the update function. Core identity details — name, passport number, date of birth, and nationality — are a different story: those can't be edited once submitted, so a mistake there means submitting an entirely new TDAC rather than correcting the existing one.
It's worth double-checking those fields carefully before hitting submit, since passport number and name typos are among the more common errors travelers run into. On the rare occasion that the online system is down or unreachable, the fallback as of 2026 is filling out the form at a self-service kiosk on-site at the port of entry — paper TM6 forms are no longer handed out as a backup, so this kiosk option is the only alternative if the site can't be reached in advance.
That said, relying on the kiosk isn't ideal, since it tends to add noticeably more time at immigration, especially during busy travel periods, so submitting online ahead of time is still the better plan whenever possible.
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