Thailand's Digital Arrival Card (TDAC): The Free Online Step Pakistani Travellers Keep Missing

By the Kimi Travels Team | Updated November 2026

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Here is the fastest way to ruin a Thai holiday before it begins: sort your eVisa or visa-on-arrival, book the flights and the Phuket hotel, fly eleven hours — and discover at Suvarnabhumi's immigration line that a second document was required, one that costs nothing and takes ten minutes at home. Since 1 May 2025, every non-Thai national entering Thailand by air, land or sea must submit the Thailand Digital Arrival Card — TDAC — online before arrival. For Pakistanis it rides on top of the visa, it does not replace it, and it is the single most-forgotten item in the file. Visa bhi, TDAC bhi — the visa and the arrival card, both — is the checklist this guide exists to fix.

What TDAC Is — and What It Is Not

TDAC is Thailand's digital replacement for the paper arrival and departure cards you used to fill in on the plane, and it absorbed the country's earlier ETA proposal along the way. The essentials: it is filed online at the official portal, tdac.immigration.go.th, or through the official Thailand Immigration app; it is completely free; it covers every foreign entrant regardless of nationality — visa exemption, eVisa like Pakistanis hold, or visa on arrival; and a fresh TDAC is required for every entry. What it is not: a visa, a work permit, or an extension of stay. Your eVisa or VOA still governs whether you may enter; TDAC simply records your arrival details — passport, flight, accommodation — before you queue.

The Submission Mechanics, Precisely

File it within three days of arrival — close enough that your flight and accommodation details are certain, not so late that you are doing it at the gate. You will enter passport details, the arrival flight, and where you are staying; transit passengers who are not entering Thailand tick the transit option and skip accommodation entirely — a detail that matters to Karachi and Lahore families connecting through Bangkok to Australia or the Far East, whose itineraries our Thailand travel guide frames. On submission you receive a confirmation by email — screenshot it and check your spam folder, because if it never arrives you can resubmit, and worst case, airport kiosks exist as the fallback. And the warning worth printing: the official portal is free, so any site charging for TDAC is a copycat — travellers have reported scam pages demanding nearly a hundred dollars for a form that costs nothing.

Where TDAC Sits in the Pakistani File

The Thailand stack for a Pakistani traveller now runs: passport → eVisa or VOA → TDAC → boarding and arrival. The visa layer — which option fits which traveller, what it costs, how the application works — is covered in our Thailand visa options guide and the consultation mechanics in our Thailand visa consultation guide; TDAC is the final stamp on that file, filed in the last 72 hours before departure when flight and hotel are locked. The same digital-arrival logic now runs across the region — Malaysia's MDAC works identically for the Kuala Lumpur corridor, as our Malaysia arrival card guide explains — so a family doing a Bangkok–Langkawi double files one card for each country. The seasonal layer — when to go, monsoon vs. dry season — is in our month-by-month Thailand guide.

What Happens Without It

The honest consequences, without the fear version. Arriving without a filed TDAC means delay at the immigration line and, depending on the airport and time of night, the kiosk detour — annoying, occasionally missed-connection serious. Airlines increasingly check for it at check-in for visa-required nationalities, which is where the eleven-hour flight actually goes wrong: if the boarding gate in Karachi or Lahore asks and you have nothing to show, the argument happens before the plane, not after it. The fix costs ten minutes and zero rupees: file it in the departure window, screenshot the QR, and keep it beside the visa printouts — the same document discipline our international travel checklist already enforces for everything else in your folder.

The TDAC Checklist

• Filed at tdac.immigration.go.th only — the official portal is free; paid sites are scams.
• Within 72 hours of arrival — when flight and hotel are certain.
• One TDAC per entry — repeat trips need repeat cards.
• Confirmation screenshotted — and the spam folder checked.
• Transit box ticked when not entering — Bangkok connections count.
• Printed beside the visa papers — the folder is the system.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is TDAC?
The Thailand Digital Arrival Card — the online arrival record mandatory since 1 May 2025 for all non-Thai nationals entering by air, land or sea. It replaced the paper arrival card and the shelved ETA proposal.

Do Pakistanis need TDAC if we already have a Thai eVisa?
Yes — the two are separate documents. The eVisa governs permission to enter; TDAC records your arrival details and must be filed online before every entry.

How much does TDAC cost?
Nothing. The official portal, tdac.immigration.go.th, and the official immigration app are free — any third-party site charging a fee is a copycat to avoid.

When should I submit it?
Within three days of arrival, once flight and accommodation details are final. The confirmation arrives by email — screenshot it and check spam, and resubmit if it never lands.

What if I am only transiting through Bangkok?
Tick the transit passenger option and skip the accommodation fields — TDAC is required for entry, and airside transit without entering Thailand is a different box on the same form.

Booking Thailand and want the whole file handled — eVisa or VOA, TDAC in the final window, everything checked twice? Kimi Travels does exactly this, and answers when you message. Plan My Thailand Trip