From May 1, all foreign tourists entering Thailand must register their travel details via the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) system. This new requirement was announced by the Thai Immigration Department and marks a major change in the country’s entry procedures. The TDAC system will completely replace the traditional paper-based TM.6 immigration form. Thailand is thus aligned with modern international standards for border control and immigration.
Online registration required for all types of travelers
Whether you enter Thailand by land, sea or air, you must complete your registration online. This is done via the official website: https://tdac.immigration.go.th. During registration, you will be required to fill in various details, including your passport information, personal details, planned travel route, residential address(es) in Thailand and your health status. This last information is requested at the direction of the Thai Ministry of Public Health.
To further simplify the process, a mobile application is being developed that will support the TDAC system in the future.
Confirmation and check upon arrival
After successfully submitting your details, you will receive a confirmation email. It is mandatory to show this confirmation along with your travel documents to the immigration officers upon arrival in Thailand. Make sure you have this confirmation easily accessible, for example on your phone or as a printed copy, to avoid delays.
The TDAC platform currently supports five languages: English, Chinese, Korean, Russian and Japanese. To help travellers complete the registration correctly, various information materials have been developed. These include instructional videos and brochures that provide step-by-step explanations of the registration process.
Integration with other systems
The Immigration Bureau has worked closely with several other government agencies to ensure a smooth implementation of the TDAC system. For example, the TDAC is linked to the existing E-Visa system, the health screening platform of the Ministry of Disease Control and the payment system of the Ministry of Tourism. This integration is expected to significantly speed up the arrival procedures and reduce waiting times at immigration checkpoints.
Call to travelers: register on time
The Immigration Bureau urges all visitors to complete their registration in a timely manner. Pre-registering your details will help to avoid unnecessary delays upon your arrival in Thailand. This new requirement will be strictly enforced from 1 May, so proper preparation is essential for a smooth journey.
About this blogger
-
This article was written and checked by the editors. The content is based on the author's personal experiences, opinions and own research. Where relevant, ChatGPT was used as an aid in writing and structuring texts. Although the content is handled with care, no guarantee can be given that all information is complete, up-to-date or error-free.
The reader is responsible for the use of the information on this website. The author accepts no liability for any damage or consequences resulting from the use of the information provided.
Read the latest articles here
News from ThailandMay 14, 2025Baht set for fresh dip on strong dollar and global uncertainties
Shopping May 14, 2025Tourist Guide: Shopping for Fashion and Clothes in Bangkok
Food and drinksMay 14, 2025Coconuts in Thailand are a delicious thirst quencher and healthy too!
IslandsMay 14, 2025Bounty Island Koh Phayam
Hans has a question.
Do you have to do it within 3 days?
Or can it be earlier if you know the departure date?
2 What does the health declaration entail?
Then comes back to Thailand with a re_entrance
Hans
And here we go again…..
1. From three days before arrival date. You actually have 4 days i.e. 3 days before arrival date and the arrival date. You will see that you can only select one of those 4 days.
2. You do not need to provide a health declaration. Only fill in the countries you have visited in the last 2 weeks, although it is not mandatory in principle. (no red asterisk)
Yes, if you have visited countries that pose a health risk. Usually this will be due to yellow fever, as has been the case for years.
https://hague.thaiembassy.org/th/page/76481-list-of-countries-which-require-international-health-certificate-for-yellow-fever-vaccination
If you enter a country that poses a health risk, you will see a list appear that you must fill in stating that you have been vaccinated and against what.
If no list appears then it is OK
3. It doesn't matter how you stay or enter Thailand. Every non-Thai must fill this out before entering
WHO SUBMIT?
All non-Thai nationals entering the Kingdom of Thailand are required to complete the Thailand Digital Arrival Card online prior to entry.
Indeed, I am flying from BRU to BKK with Thai Airways on 05/05/2025 and could not fill this in today (was refused)…but, everything went “ok” until I filled in my address…(as it is in my yellow book)…
If pre-selections are available, you should use them and not fill in anything yourself
For Province, District and Sub-district there are pre-selections available and if you click on them they will always be accepted.
If you fill in something yourself, it is not always recognized because it can be a different spelling. Especially if you translate from your yellow tabien baan where the address is in Thai to English.
Only street and house number need to be filled in freely. e.g. 290, Soi 10
Also applies everywhere where you have to fill in data. Where available use the pre-selections.
Everything went smoothly, using the pre-selections. When filling in the residence address (e.g. 345 Moo 4…) it went wrong and it could not continue. The data is correct and I wanted to try if filling it in 1 week in advance was also possible.
Strange because I filled it in with my Province, District and Sub-district and also with your street 345 Moo 4 (does not even exist in LatYa as far as I know) and that works without any problem.
At least if you enter an allowed date i.e. April 29-30, May 1 and 2
But you don't get any further if you work with a date of a week further. You get invalid format in red if you for example filled it in yourself as 2025/05/05.
If you do not fill in a date, you cannot even fill in your address and it will appear in red next to the date This fields is required. Do you then first have to fill in a date?
It actually does not depend on your address but on the date you used it.
Try it as a test with May 1st and then it should work. You should not send it then of course but just cancel it.
Doesn't matter as long as you don't send it. I do that regularly to try things out
I still don't understand what they mean by from three days before arrival date…
This can be interpreted in different ways:
– The earliest you can complete your registration is three days before you arrive in Thailand …
– You must register no later than the third day before entering Thailand (you can easily fill in everything 1 month before your entry) …
So totally unclear!
I am not the only one who stumbles over the wording. The comment "here we go again..." is actually misplaced.
From three days is anything but correctly formulated. Then say Within three days of arrival with the additional remark that you can even arrange everything at the airport itself before you report to immigration. Then there is NO doubt possible.
Now look at the official website and there it says, as stated here several times: 'no more than 3 days prior to their arrival in Thailand.'
On the official website it is clear, but as it is worded here, it mainly creates confusion. Otherwise, several of our readers would not have asked that question, right?
If something is taken over, make sure it is done correctly.
I find the sneer 'here we go again' inappropriate and unnecessary. It is more constructive to simply repeat the correct explanation, so that misunderstandings are avoided.
Someone who can read with understanding has no problem with that.
And what I think about that sneer you can read in Rene's response.
Maybe something else for you about clarity.
This also comes from the same official website and is not on the Home page but in the User's guide.
WHEN SUBMIT?
“Foreigners should submit their arrival card information 3 days in advance of arriving in Thailand, including the date of arrival.”
Is it still clear to you because this is also the official website?
https://tdac.immigration.go.th/manual/en/index.html
But I have also made it clear several times that this was written incorrectly and that it should not be submitted “3 days in advance” (3 days before arrival) and as stated there, but FROM 3 days before arrival date.
I looked up and investigated which of the 2 on their official website was actually the correct one by comparing the different official websites of immigration and TAT.
But above all by using “common sense”, because if there are only 4 days (the 3 days before arrival and the arrival day) available on the calendar to indicate, you can also submit it during those 4 days and not only 3 days before the arrival date.
So from three days before the arrival date you don't understand...
VANHANT means – To begin with/at or with effect from”, indicates a time after which something applies, indicates a starting point, etc.
https://www.encyclo.nl/begrip/vanaf
Furthermore, for the sake of clarity, I would like to add that it concerns the three days before the arrival date and the arrival date itself...
“You actually have 4 days, ie 3 days before arrival date and the arrival date. You will see that you can only select one of those 4 days.” I write.
How does your brain then manage, despite that information, to interpret it as “register no later than the third day before entering Thailand” or to interpret FROM as “(you can easily fill in everything 1 month before your entry) …
Is it just a reluctance to understand something, or are those texts too simple for your brain to process?
But still totally unclear you find. Ok. No problem.
You only have to let the editors know your dissatisfaction with my texts. Then I will hear it and if necessary you can figure it out for yourself in the future. And then you can make your own texts in your high-quality Dutch that everyone will find clear.
Although I doubt whether that will succeed, because you first have to understand what it is about before you can write about it of course, let alone answer questions about it.
And whether you find this comment or other comments inappropriate….
I don't give a damn about that...
(be happy, I'm staying polite because in Flemish it doesn't mean anything but it starts with kl…).
By the way, I also asked the now well-known ChGpt to see what they think of the wording “From three days before arrival date” and how they “interpret” this.
This was their answer:
The expression “From three days before the arrival date” means that something starts to apply or is possible three days before the day you arrive.
For example:
If your arrival date is Friday, May 10, then “from three days before arrival date” is from Tuesday, May 7.
This is often used in contexts such as:
Cancellation policy: “Cancellation is no longer free of charge from three days before arrival date.”
Check-in information: “You can check in online from three days before your arrival date.”
Totally clear now???
I know enough people, mainly elderly people like my father, who is 80 years old, who do not have or use a PC or smartphone. My father does not even have a mobile phone and still does everything with the phone that is connected to a line with the outside world. He can take the receiver to his bedroom or outside in the garden as long as it is within 25 meters of the base station. So he can no longer visit us in Thailand next winter.
Toine van Dijk, is that so? Take your dad's copy of his passport and his travel plans and then you fill in that screen, right? You have all the details at hand.
Only that confirmation by email, that will come to you because your dad, I think, doesn't have an email. Print that out and send it by mail to your father's house.
Finally, I want to see how many people will be at the airport without such a notification. Will they send them all back? I doubt it. They will be helped with a bit of delay but sending people away, I really don't think so.
By mail????
Seems to me like an expensive and optimistic solution
Why not? He has family who would be happy to do this for him.
And how does your father get his ticket? I'm surprised he's already touched there...
Or is he such a loner that he really doesn't know anyone?
No other children, grandchildren, relatives, friends, neighbors, library, etc……..
You can also fill it out upon arrival. There are TDAC poles where you can fill it out and where help is certainly available.
There are TDAC posts upon arrival where you can fill them in
Those who have FB. There is a picture on Richard Barrow's webpage
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1270114574474803&set=a.212825276870410
RonnyLatYa, those poles are between arrival and Immigration. Then that father will have to fill that in himself because family in Thailand can't get there.
Of course, those always stand for immigration, no matter how you enter. There would be no point in putting them afterwards.
But I have also written here several times that assistance is provided at those poles. Although it is the intention to fill it in beforehand.
so again
“If you cannot submit in advance
Travelers who are unable to complete the TDAC before arrival and do not have internet access at the point of entry will be assisted at designated help points located at immigration checkpoints. This assistance is intended for exceptional circumstances only. All travelers are strongly encouraged to complete the TDAC online in advance to avoid delays and reduce congestion at entry points.”
https://www.tatnews.org/2025/04/thailand-digital-arrival-card-system-set-to-launch-on-1-may-2025/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=thailand-digital-arrival-card-system-set-to-launch-on-1-may-2025
There is also an exit date that you must/can fill in. Now I have booked a one-way trip not knowing when I will return... That will be mid-July 2026, I can't buy a return ticket that far in advance either. I am staying on a one-year multiple entry visa. I don't see a red asterisk either. Is this field not mandatory?
No, an exit date is not mandatory. That is why there are no red asterisks.
You can just leave that open.
As long as you can continue, everything is fine. If something is mandatory and not filled in, you cannot continue and what you have not filled in will be in red.
I am staying 1 night in a hotel in Bangkok and then traveling onwards, what should I fill in the address field of the TDAC??
Your first address where you will stay. Whether that is 1 day, a week or a month does not matter.
Upon arrival a TM30 must be completed by that hotel and if done correctly this will also be the case for your subsequent addresses where you will stay.
This is how your stay is monitored… if everyone does what they are supposed to do.
I don't know what the guidelines are, but maybe now or in the future people will scan that QR code every time. Who knows?
I will stay 1 night in a hotel in Bangkok and then travel further. Is filling in the hotel address in Bangkok sufficient for the address field of TDAC, because after that I still don't have an address?
See previous response
Dear Ronnie,
Please don't let negative and know-it-all people spoil your good mood.
I understand that you are fed up with it, but there are so many people who are really happy with your explanation.
And I am certainly one of them, I am also not that skilled in all that paper/PC work.
So thank you for your often indispensable contribution.
Greetings Mike.
You are doing a very good job
Ronny, whether it's visas or tax returns, if you advise in this blog you must have a lot of calluses on your soul because people keep asking for the well-known way and you become an answer machine, so to speak... But appreciation for that work is really deep among the loyal readers, but it is not constantly expressed, so the complainers sometimes get the upper hand. C'est la vie!
I don't need constant pats on the back, and I don't mind if someone notices an error in my texts and tells me. It can always happen and it should be reported. And that also applies if it's not entirely clear to someone...
I will always reply and thank anyone who notices an error, or otherwise explain why it is not an error in that particular case, or otherwise clarify it again.
Only the way some people think they should let people know… I sometimes have problems with that….
But actually it always comes from the same angle, Erik.
Producing something yourself is not an option, but everything is, because others write with a magnifying glass, analyzing it down to the last detail. Then they nitpick, preferably together in a group during the cocktail hour, about something... and then they react because "everyone says or thinks this too".
Not infrequently they themselves are wrong, also due to a lack of sufficient knowledge of the subject. You know... have heard the bell but do not know where the clapper hangs
Actually, it should leave me cold, but it doesn't.
Especially when what they come up with is nonsense, but if you don't respond to it, it will take on a life of its own and it will take you weeks to get rid of it.
And that I sometimes give a sneer. Yes, that has happened and will happen.
As I wrote in the first response “And here we go again….”
This is because this is already the umpteenth article about the TDAC and the questions have already been answered -tig times.
That sneer is not aimed at Hans van Mourik personally if he had to think that. He was just unlucky that he was the first to respond to this article. I would have written that to someone else. So don't take it to heart Hans
But you see it more often, if you don't put an icon next to it, people don't know what to think of it.
It is already exactly like with a few weeks months ago for weeks: as soon as something digital has to happen, people throw their hands up and get stressed. The other person then has to demonstrate, explain, preferably solve it. When that is provided, all kinds of trivialities are invented, such as back then around the 180 days, and now the formula "from 3 days" is the unlucky one. Apparently, when seeing a Thai digital requirement, healthy Dutch common sense is gone.
That's also true.
And that's just whining because in many cases they can't personally benefit from it.
Then people start thinking about all kinds of things, what if this and if this, etc…
Most of the time it doesn't even apply to them, but they think of it to please a “friend”…
But say that with a DTAC check-in you get a 10% advantage on the hotel price for x days, or a discount on public transport, or in parks, museums, etc.
Suddenly it won't be a problem to fill that in anymore..
Well, maybe then there will be some whining because it is only a discount and why is it not free… 😉
And then the 300 Baht still has to arrive and also the ETA... I can hardly believe my luck 😉
Dear Ronny, how could it be solved that this agency stops using the wrong name for Dutch people, because you find your country of origin under the wrong term Dutch, invented by Americans. That's why it suddenly said that I was German. I always fill in Dutch because Hollander doesn't cover it. I also tried to fill in the form but even my visa number was refused. Perhaps because I'm in Thailand and I just left it at that. I was shocked by the film in which the question was asked: have you been vaccinated against yellow fever. What if you fill in no there? I'd like to hear from you, Danny
Some people are really looking for 'trouble'…… How do you get the idea that 'Dutch' was invented by the Americans? Here is the real story: https://onzetaal.nl/taalloket/dutch
By the way, there is also an option 'Netherlands Antilles' - a country that was dissolved in 2010………
This yellow fever thing only applies if you have recently been to certain countries, as Ronny and others have explained here several times.
I think the embassy will have to intervene about that Dutch thing.
Strange that your visa number is refused. It is not even a mandatory field and you can fill in whatever you want. The reason is probably not with that visa number but somewhere else. Day of entry?
If you are not vaccinated against yellow fever they will isolate you.
It has been mandatory for years and you even have to report it if you have traveled through a country that is one of the risk countries. That is not something new.
At least isolate yourself if you are coming through or from a country that is a risk area:
4. Travelers traveling from/through countries which have been declared Yellow Fever Infected Areas must acquire an International Health Certificate verifying the receipt of a Yellow Fever vaccination. For more information, please see List of Countries which are Declared Yellow Fever Infected Areas.
For yellow fever see https://shorturl.at/eg0Wo