If you’ve traveled to Thailand, you’ll likely remember the paper arrival form TM6 the flight attendants handed out just prior to landing. Thailand suspended the arrival card last year to ease congestion at the airport when going through immigration. And now, Thailand is replacing the old paper form with a digital arrival card, or TDAC.
The site for the new digital arrival card just went live, and in this video we’re going to walk through every step of the process. Now, even though the TDAC site is live, immigration will most likely begin accepting the TDAC at Suvarnabhumi Airport and other ports of entry on May 1, 2025.
So if you’re traveling to Thailand after April 30th, or want to get a head start on understanding how to complete the TDAC, here’s everything you need to know to clear Thai immigration with confidence on your next trip to the Kingdom.
Hey, before going through the form, let’s do a quick overview first.
You can access the form at tdac.immigration.go.th, and there’s a link to the site below. You can submit the TDAC up to 72 hours prior to your arrival, so put this on your to-do list when you start packing for your trip.
Once you submit the form, you’ll receive a QR code that you’ll give the immigration officer along with your passport on arrival. I’d recommend printing out the QR code just in case you have issues accessing your email once you land here.
So who needs to complete this? Everyone entering Thailand through immigration other than Thai nationals. This includes holiday travelers entering visa-exempt and residents of Thailand holding long-term visas.
Also, it’s one submission per family, and you can add your spouse or children after your information is entered.
Now here’s a tour through the TDAC process.
The first thing to do before you sit down to fill out the form on your device is to grab your passport, flight confirmation, and hotel booking.
Once you enter the site, click on either “Arrival Card” for new submissions or “Update Arrival Card” for changes you need to make on an already submitted form, such as a flight change or adding a family member.
Once you click through to the form, there are three parts to complete.
The first is personal information, both from your passport and general information such as your occupation, where you reside, and your telephone number.
The second part is your trip information. This includes your date of arrival, purpose for making the trip from a dropdown menu, and your flight number. Below that, you’ll be asked for your hotel or residence particulars, including the type of accommodation where you’ll be staying and the address.
There is no provision for multiple accommodations if you’re moving around Thailand, so just enter the first place you’ll be staying.
The third part of the form is titled “Health Declaration,” but the only required information is identifying the country or countries where you stayed over the prior two weeks.
There is a statement that you’ll need to be vaccinated, but there is no requirement or way to provide vaccination information.
Once all three parts are completed, you can select “Add Other Travelers” or proceed to preview the information you entered.
Once you’re good to go, click the submit button and wait to receive your QR code via email, which looks like this.
Again, out of an abundance of caution, I’d print this out in addition to having the email you received ready to show.
Now, a few final thoughts.
Please don’t let clickbaiters or hand-wringers stress you out about this. It took me about seven minutes to get to the finish line, and the next time it’ll likely be quicker now that I know what to expect.
Also, I’d much prefer to complete the arrival card process and have a QR code in hand before I leave for the airport. Frankly, filling out the old TM6 paper form on a small tray table during a bumpy descent into Suvarnabhumi was never much fun.
Finally, the goal in providing this information electronically ahead of time is to ease congestion at immigration, and frankly, anything that gets me on my way home a little quicker is welcome.
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