If you’re flying, driving or sailing into Thailand, you’ll almost certainly need to file a Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) before you land. It’s the online form that replaced the paper TM6 arrival-departure card, and since its 2025 rollout it’s become a routine, mandatory step for most foreign visitors, alongside whatever visa or visa-exemption rule already covers your trip. The process itself is simple and free. The catch is that “simple and free” also makes it an easy target for scam websites that charge a fee for something the government hands out at no cost. This guide covers what the TDAC actually is, who needs one, the 72-hour submission window, what information it asks for, and how to make sure you’re on the real government site and not a costly imitation.
This is a YMYL (immigration) topic, and outthailand.com is a travel guide, not an immigration authority. Rules, exemptions and enforcement can change with little notice, so treat everything below as orientation and always verify current requirements on the official Immigration Bureau site before you travel. Nothing here is legal or immigration advice. All prices referenced are ฿33 = US$1 (July 2026).
TDAC at a glance
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| What it is | Online arrival form replacing the paper TM6 card |
| Cost | Free — no legitimate site should charge a fee |
| When to submit | Within 72 hours (3 days) before arrival |
| Where | Official Immigration Bureau portal, tdac.immigration.go.th |
| Who needs it | Most non-Thai nationals arriving by air, land or sea |
| Is it a visa? | No — a separate step alongside your existing visa or exemption |
Compiled from Thailand Immigration Bureau public guidance. Verify current rules on the official site before travel; requirements can change.
What is the Thailand Digital Arrival Card?
The TDAC is an online form run by Thailand’s Immigration Bureau that collects the same category of information the old paper TM6 arrival-departure card used to: your passport details, travel information, and where you’ll be staying in the country. It launched in 2025, replacing the paper card most travellers used to fill out by hand on the plane or at the land border. It applies regardless of how you enter, air, land or sea. It is a piece of digital paperwork, not a permission slip, so don’t confuse it with anything visa-related, which we’ll get to below.
Who needs to submit a TDAC?
According to the Immigration Bureau’s own published guidance, it applies to non-Thai nationals entering the Kingdom; Thai citizens don’t need one. Beyond that broad rule, specific exemptions (certain transit passengers who never clear immigration, or particular visa and diplomatic categories, for instance) can exist and can be updated without much notice. If anything about your situation feels unusual, don’t guess, check directly on the official portal or ask your airline or a licensed visa agent. If you’re already sorting out a longer-stay visa such as the Thailand DTV visa, note that the TDAC is a separate, additional step on top of it, not a substitute for it.
When do you submit it, and does it cost anything?
Submit your TDAC within 72 hours (3 days) of your arrival date in Thailand, not sooner, the portal is built around that window and earlier submissions typically won’t process. It is free. There’s no legitimate reason for a website to charge you to file it. Build the 72-hour window into your pre-trip checklist alongside things like confirming Thailand SIM card options and locking in your dates around the best time to visit Thailand, since a rushed arrival is exactly when people fall for a scam site out of urgency.
Where do you actually submit it?
The one official channel is the Immigration Bureau’s own portal, published as tdac.immigration.go.th. Type it directly or reach it through Thailand’s official immigration or tourism authority pages, rather than tapping a link from a search ad, a forwarded chat message, or a Facebook group post. Once you’ve confirmed you’re on the real site, bookmark it, that saves you from re-searching, and re-risking a lookalike link, on your next trip.
Beware: TDAC scam websites charge for a free form
This is the section worth reading twice. The TDAC costs nothing, so any site that asks for a “processing fee,” “service charge,” or expedited-handling payment is, at minimum, an unnecessary reseller and, at worst, a site harvesting your passport and travel details. These scam sites often buy search ads and mimic the government’s look, so a top search result is not proof of authenticity. Before entering any passport information: check the address bar matches the official domain, be suspicious of any payment request, and if you’re unsure, navigate in from Thailand’s official government or tourism channels instead of a link someone sent you.
What information does it ask for?
Expect the same broad categories the paper TM6 collected: passport details, basic travel information (arrival date, flight or transport details), and your accommodation address in Thailand. Have your passport and your hotel or host’s address ready before you start so you’re not hunting for details mid-form. Double-check every field before submitting, since correcting a mistake after the fact is a hassle you want to avoid at the immigration counter, not something to discover on landing.
Is the TDAC a visa? What if you skip it?
No. The TDAC is not a visa and doesn’t replace visa-exemption rules or a visa-on-arrival application, whatever visa category already covers your trip still applies in full; the TDAC sits alongside it, not instead of it. As for arriving without one, enforcement and process can vary and change, so we won’t guess at outcomes here, that’s exactly the kind of detail to confirm on the official site or with your airline before you fly. What we can say plainly: filing it inside your 72-hour window before departure means you never have to find out.
The honest downsides
The TDAC itself is a minor hassle: a short form, filed once, free. The real friction is everything around it, confusion about the correct website, given how many scam clones exist, uncertainty about edge cases (unusual visas, transit routings, land-border quirks) that this guide can’t resolve for your specific case, and the fact that rules genuinely do change, so a guide written today can drift out of date. Treat the 72-hour window and the official domain as the two facts to nail down every single trip, and verify anything else on the government site rather than assuming last year’s process still holds.
Where to next
Pair the TDAC with the rest of your pre-arrival checklist: sort connectivity with our Thailand SIM card guide, and if you’re weighing a longer stay, read up on the Thailand DTV visa, a separate process from the TDAC. Timing your trip? Check the best time to visit Thailand before you lock in dates. And once you’ve landed, see what’s actually on with the latest Thailand events.
Sources
- Thailand Immigration Bureau, official Thailand Digital Arrival Card portal and manual (tdac.immigration.go.th), for submission rules, the 72-hour window, and the no-fee policy.
- U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Thailand, notice on the Digital Arrival Card system’s 2025 launch.
- Tourism Authority of Thailand, public guidance on the TDAC process for travellers.