Living & Moving — Thailand's arrival card[Illustrated] How to Fill Out the Thailand Arrival Card: Why Subdistricts Cannot Be Selected and a TDAC Entry Example
After booking a flight to Thailand, the arrival card registration screen usually brings the process to a halt at the accommodation address section. Even with the hotel name, it is hard to decide what to enter for the three fields: province, district, and sub-district. I will explain the Thai arrival card screen by dividing it into four parts, showing what to look at while filling them out, and where to split the single line of the address on the reservation confirmation. I will also cover when the registration can be submitted and what can be corrected after submission.
Thailand's arrival card is filled in from a passport, a flight ticket and a booking confirmation
3 things need to be at hand: a passport, a flight ticket showing the flight number, and a booking confirmation showing the hotel's name and address. With those 3 in hand, the registration takes about 5 minutes. The QR code is issued on the spot.
The Thai arrival card is officially called TDAC (Thailand Digital Arrival Card) and is submitted online, not on paper. There is no fee to register, and no credit card information is needed.
Everyone entering Thailand who does not have Thai nationality submits this. Those entering with a Japanese passport are also required to do so, regardless of the number of days of stay, purpose, or whether arriving by land, sea, or air.
Registration happens on a single official site, and lookalike fake sites are in circulation.
Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) official sitetdac.immigration.go.thWhether a visa is needed is a separate matter from this registration. The number of days allowed and the types of visa are in the article below.
Explained: Thailand's visa-free stay is now 30 days. What changed from 60 days, and which visas cover the restFlights booked first, the days of the stay recounted afterwards — a familiar order. Thailand's visa exemption changed from 60 days to 30 days on 15 September 2026, and many of the articles now in circulation still carry the number from before the change. How many days entry without a visa allows, and which visa comes into it beyond that, laid out in order from the shortest length of stay.amiresort.com
There are 4 screens to fill out. Only 3 fields are required in the accommodation section.
There are 4 screens to fill out: personal information, arrival and departure, accommodation, and health and email. Personal information is copied from the passport, arrival and departure from the flight ticket, and accommodation from the hotel booking. The health and email screen has nothing to copy from, and is entered manually.
1Personal information — copied letter for letter from the passport
The personal information section is divided into two parts. Five items are copied from the passport: last name, first name, passport number, nationality, and date of birth, while middle name and visa number are entered only by those who have them. The items entered without looking at the passport are occupation, gender, country of residence, city of residence, and phone number, which are selected from a dropdown or typed in.
The personal information fields and the official sample entry
Divided into fields copied from the passport and fields entered without looking at it
01A sample entry for personal information, with family name YAMADA, first name TARO, passport number XX1234567 and nationality JPN:JAPANESE. The name and number are the ones in the official sample.
Occupation goes in English: OFFICE WORKER for a company employee, PROPRIETOR for a business owner, STUDENT for a student. The phone number follows the country code with no hyphens. When the city of residence is not in the list, it is typed in by hand.
2Arrival and departure — The flight number is on the flight ticket. Which country to write when transferring
The arrival and departure section is filled in with the flight ticket at hand. The arrival date is picked from a calendar, the country of boarding is JAPAN, the purpose of travel is HOLIDAY, and the flight number is entered as TG612. The departure side follows the same order, with the departure date and the return flight number TG613.
| Mode of travel | Value on the screen | Next choice |
|---|---|---|
| By air | AIR | COMMERCIAL FLIGHT for a scheduled flight |
| By land | LAND | CAR or TRAIN |
| By sea | SEA | Type of vessel |
There are 3 modes of transportation: AIR, LAND, and SEA. Choosing LAND will then show CAR or TRAIN. The purpose of visit is selected in English, such as HOLIDAY for sightseeing, BUSINESS for work, and MEDICAL for medical care. If there is a transit in another country such as Singapore, the country of first departure is entered in the country of boarding field.
3Accommodation — only 3 are required. Where to split the 1-line address on the reservation slip
The accommodation section is where people pause the most. The 1-line English address on the reservation slip is split and entered into several fields on the screen. Thai addresses are written from narrowest to broadest, but the screen requires input from broadest to narrowest, making the order reversed.
One line of address on the booking, split into the fields on the screen
The top shows 1 line of the address on the booking confirmation, and the bottom shows the fields on the arrival card. The same numbers in the diagram point to the same parts.
02The example is the address of a Bangkok hotel. 98 RAMA 4 ROAD is the street, SI LOM the sub-district, BANG RAK the district, BANGKOK the province and 10500 the post code. The split is the one the tourism authority sets out. Of province, district, sub-district and post code, only province is required.
Only 3 items are required: accommodation type, province, and address. The district, sub-district, and zip code submit successfully even if left blank when the accommodation type is set to HOTEL. Just selecting the province and entering the accommodation name and address together in the free-text "Address" field is enough to proceed.
There are 3 options for the accommodation type: HOTEL, FRIEND'S HOUSE, and APARTMENT. I copied the address exactly as it appeared on Google and pasted it into the address field. The article below explains the order of Thai addresses, 1 line at a time.
Illustrated Guide: How to Read and Write a Thai Address, for Arrival Cards, Hotel Bookings, and International MailEver stalled at a Thai address field? On an arrival card, a hotel booking, an online shopping delivery form, or the front of an international parcel, the snag is the same. Using a Bangkok address written in the Latin alphabet as the example, the diagrams below split it into 7 parts and show what each part means, which box on a form it goes in, and what order it takes on an envelope. They also explain what a soi is.amiresort.com
4Health and email — countries visited in the past 2 weeks, and where travel companions are added
The health section asks which countries were visited in the 2 weeks before arriving in Thailand. JAPAN, for anyone who stayed home. Travelling companions go in through Add another traveller.
Finally, the email address is entered, the terms of use are checked, and the form is submitted. The typed email address turns into uppercase because this site is designed to receive all fields in uppercase. It will still be delivered even in uppercase.
Comparing the 4 screens by what to look at while filling them out
| Screen | What to copy from | Required fields |
|---|---|---|
| Personal information | Passport | Everything except the middle name and visa number |
| Arrival and departure | Flight ticket | Arrival date, country of boarding, purpose of visit, mode of transportation, type selected next to mode of transportation, flight number |
| Accommodation | Hotel booking confirmation | Only these 3: type of accommodation, province and address |
| Health and email | None (enter manually) | Countries stayed in, and an email address |
Registration is open for the arrival date and the 2 days prior. Anything earlier results in an error
When registration opens is counted from the arrival date. The official rule determines how many days in advance submission is allowed, and it is accepted on the arrival date and the 2 days prior.
Landing on the 10th, registration opens on the 8th. Trying on the 7th returns an error.
A registration that has been used cannot be reused. A new one is submitted for each entry into Thailand.
Registration is possible even after arriving at the airport, as long as it is before passing immigration. Connecting to the airport Wi-Fi is sufficient, and some airports have computers set up for registering. A computer is fine if a smartphone is unavailable, and family or friends registering on one's behalf is also fine.
I have registered while standing in the immigration queue. The line was long that time, and 1 hour passed between finishing the form and clearing the desk.
Common misconceptions
- ❌ The site is in English, so English is what the fields want. Anything typed in Japanese is rejected, and the field has to be retyped in the Latin alphabet.
- ❌ Seeing the name in kanji on the final confirmation screen looks like a typing mistake. It is the automatic translation on the device doing it, and if the alphabet matches there is nothing to correct.
- ❌ The district and sub-district cannot be selected, so the form seems stuck. Those 2 and the post code carry no required mark, and choosing the province and putting everything into the address field moves it along.
- ❌ People tend to think that submitting information for 1 representative is enough for the family. The representative's information alone does not pass, and the names and passport numbers of companions are entered separately, 1 by 1.
- ❌ Once it is sent and the flight changes, it is too late. Travel dates and the place of stay can both be changed under Update Arrival Card, and the corrected version is the one that applies.
What gets shown at passport control, and what can be corrected after submitting
The QR code arrives at the registered email address. At immigration, companions also show their own QR codes individually. Passports are presented at the same time.
A mistake is corrected under Update Arrival Card. A changed flight or arrival date goes the same way, and the last version submitted is the one that applies; earlier ones are not used.
A registration cannot be cancelled. If the trip is called off, it is fine to leave it as it is. When the arrival date changes due to postponement, the date is corrected from "Update Arrival Card".
The QR code shown at immigration works either on paper or on a screen. I show mine on a screen. Next time round, it is a fresh registration from Arrival Card on the official site, filled in the same order.
| Checked before sending | Details |
|---|---|
| Typed characters | Uppercase Latin letters only |
| The 3 required accommodation fields | Type of accommodation, province, address |
| Companions | Everyone entered, 1 at a time. Up to 10 in 1 submission |
| Email address | Where the QR code arrives |
The fields and steps in this article were checked on September 23, 2026.
