Border control at Thailand airports: what happens to travellers and their data

Arriving: the steps at the border

From 1 May 2025 all non-Thai nationals entering Thailand by land, air or sea must complete the TDAC. It replaces the paper arrival card known as the TM.6 ¹.

The Royal Thai Embassy in Bucharest says foreigners should submit the card within 3 days before arrival, counting the day of arrival. Entries must be in English. One submission can cover a group of up to 10 people. Name, passport number, nationality and date of birth cannot be edited, so a mistake in those fields means a new registration. Kiosks at the airport are available for people who forget, with possible queues. The TDAC is not a visa ¹.

The Royal Thai Consulate-General in New York says the TDAC links to immigration, health, visa and customs services. Travellers of some nationalities, or those who have been in high-risk disease areas in the past 14 days, must add a health declaration. The consulate says the form can be completed up to the moment the traveller goes through immigration ².

On 17 August 2026 the government warned that some travellers reach unofficial websites through search engines and pay fees there. It said filing the TDAC through the official system is free ³.

Entry permission: visa exemption, e-Visa and the entry fee

On 19 May 2026 the Cabinet approved a review of Thailand's visa exemption and visa on arrival schemes. The plan gives each country only one scheme, revokes the 60-day exemption for all 93 countries and territories, cuts the 30-day tourism exemption list from 57 to 54, creates a 15-day tourism exemption for 3 countries and territories, and cuts the visa on arrival list from 31 to 4 ⁴.

The details sit in Ministry of Interior notices that take effect 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette. Visitors already in Thailand keep their granted stay. After the change, travellers can enter under the new schemes, under bilateral agreements, or with a visa from Thailand's e-Visa system ⁴.

VisasNews reported that four Interior Ministry regulations appeared in the Royal Gazette on 31 August 2026 and take effect on 15 September 2026. Its figures differ from the May plan. It reported 60 countries and territories on the 30-day list, 2 on the 15-day list and 3 eligible for visa on arrival ⁵.

The Cabinet endorsed a tourism fee for foreign visitors on 14 February 2023. It set 300 baht for air arrivals and 150 baht for land or sea arrivals. Diplomatic and official passport holders, some permit-holding workers, transit passengers and children under two were to be exempt ⁶.

The fee has not started. Pattaya Mail reported on 13 January 2026 that no start date had been announced ⁸. On 30 March 2026 Storyboard18 cited Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn as saying the fee would cover air arrivals only, at 300 baht, and would need Cabinet approval ⁷.

Biometrics and autogates

Thailand opened automatic channels at Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports to some foreign passport holders years ago. From 15 September 2018, Hong Kong e-passport holders staying up to 30 days could use them without enrolling. At the channel the traveller scans the passport and boarding pass, has a photo taken and places an index finger on a scanner. An officer then stamps the passport ¹⁰.

On 17 August 2026 the government said the Immigration Bureau had approved in principle 31 more nationalities for the Suvarnabhumi auto gates. It expected the change by the end of August 2026. The nationalities were picked using refusal-of-entry statistics, the Henley Passport Index, and legal and security factors ³.

The rollout is gradual and depends on equipment, security systems and biometric records. Returning travellers whose records are on file may use the gates first. First-time travellers must still go through biometric data collection at a staffed desk ³.

The government estimated the change could add about 6.5 million visitors and 900,000 holders of some long-term visas to the pool of users. Fully running, it expects about 53 per cent of arriving passengers to use the gates ³.

Passenger data: API and screening

Thailand brought in the Advance Passenger Processing System (APPS) on 1 December 2015 at six international airports: Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai and Mae Fa Luang Chiang Rai. It planned to extend it to 32 airports during 2016 ⁹.

APPS lets immigration officers run instant checks on inbound travellers using passport details. The Tourism Authority of Thailand said it was funded by adding 35 baht to the price of tickets in and out of Thailand ⁹.

TDAC data on travel plans, accommodation and health goes to the same platform that links immigration, health, visa and customs services ². Rules on airline PNR in Thailand were not confirmed in the sources reviewed for this guide.

Watch lists and checks

Under APPS, personal and visa details are checked against a database of blacklisted or banned people held by immigration. Blacklisted passengers are flagged at once ⁹.

Eligibility for automated channels has long depended on a clean record. The 2018 arrangement with Hong Kong required travellers to have no adverse records in Thailand ¹⁰.

Your data: the law and how to ask for records

Thailand's main data protection law is the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562 (2019). Its full force was postponed in 2020 and 2021 and was scheduled from 1 June 2022 ¹¹.

The Personal Data Protection Committee oversees the law. The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society acted as its interim office in the early years ¹¹.

The official pages reviewed for this guide did not say how long TDAC records or biometric data from the border are kept.

Who runs the systems

The Immigration Bureau, part of the Royal Thai Police, runs the TDAC through tdac.immigration.go.th and the auto gates ^1,36. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs runs visa policy and the e-Visa system ⁴.

The National Tourism Policy Committee was named in 2023 as the body to issue the tourism fee announcement, with the Immigration Bureau updating entry procedures ⁶. Airports of Thailand PLC asked passengers for patience when APPS started in 2015 ⁹.