Who needs the Thailand Digital Arrival Card?
Short answer: every foreign traveller entering Thailand - by air, land or sea, whatever their visa status. The details differ below; the requirement does not.
Seven situations
Visa-exempt tourists
Nationals of many countries - 90+ under recent rules - enter Thailand without a visa. Standard stays moved from 60 to 30 days for many nationalities in September 2026; check your own nationality before booking. The arrival card is still required either way: it is an entry form, not a visa.
Tourist visa holders
Holding a Thai tourist visa from an embassy or the official e-Visa portal? You file the arrival card too. The visa is permission to enter; the card is the entry form. Two separate things.
Visa on Arrival / eVOA
Citizens of certain countries pay for a visa on arrival at the counter after landing, usually covering 15 days; some can request the same visa electronically (eVOA) before the flight. Either way, file your arrival card before you reach the VOA counter.
Transit passengers
Staying airside and flying straight on: no card. Clearing immigration for any reason - including changing airports in Bangkok - means you are entering Thailand, and you file one.
Families and children
Each traveller needs their own card - children and infants included. A parent completes a child's card. A family of four is four cards, not one shared entry.
Multiple entries
Every entry needs its own card. A Bangkok-Vientiane-Bangkok itinerary is two entries, so two cards.
Land and sea arrivals
Not just for airports: overland crossings from Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia or Myanmar, and sea arrivals, follow the same rule.
How your entry option changes things
| Entry option | Arrange before flying | At the border |
|---|---|---|
| Visa exemption | Nothing but your ticket - then the arrival card in the 72-hour window | Immigration stamps you in after checking the card |
| Tourist visa / e-Visa | Visa via an embassy or the official e-Visa portal, plus the card | Show the visa; the card is checked separately |
| Visa on Arrival / eVOA | The card (eVOA, if eligible, online in advance) | Pay the VOA fee at the counter, then immigration |
| Airside transit | Nothing - no card | No immigration clearance at all |
Thirty-second summary
- Entering Thailand and clearing immigration? You file a card - one per traveller.
- Your visa status (exempt, visa, VOA) changes the queue, not the requirement.
- Airside transit only? Exempt. Changing airports in Bangkok? You file one.
- Re-entering Thailand later in your trip? A fresh card for every entry.
- Airline and ship crew on duty are exempt; non-Thai diplomatic passport holders are not.
See Entry options compared for the full walkthrough, or How to File for the form itself.