10 TDAC Mistakes That Can Delay Your Thailand Entry
The Thailand Digital Arrival Card takes five minutes to complete, yet small errors cause real problems at the airport: extra questioning, secondary inspection, or filling the form again on your phone while a queue builds behind you. These are ten mistakes to check for before you submit, and how to avoid each one. Already submitted and something went wrong? See TDAC troubleshooting. New to the TDAC? Start with our complete Thailand Digital Arrival Card guide.
Verified: October 28, 2026
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Leaving it until you're at the airport
The TDAC must be submitted before you reach Thai immigration, and some airlines ask for it at check-in. Filling a government form on airport Wi-Fi, minutes before boarding, is how typos happen. Prepare your details days ahead so the card is filed correctly within the 3-day window.
Trying to file it too early
The opposite mistake is just as common. The TDAC system only accepts submissions in the 3 days before your arrival date, or on the arrival day itself (see the exact dates). If you try a week ahead, the portal rejects the date. You can prepare everything early, but the actual filing has to happen inside that window.
Name not matching the passport
Your TDAC name must match your passport's machine-readable line exactly. Nicknames, missing middle names, and transliteration differences (Müller vs MUELLER) are the top cause of mismatch flags. Copy the name letter by letter from the passport photo page, not from memory.
A single wrong digit in the passport number
Immigration scans your passport and pulls up the TDAC linked to that number. One wrong character means no card is found, and you start over at the desk. Double-check the number character by character, and mind lookalikes: 0 and O, 1 and I, 8 and B.
Entering the wrong arrival date
Overnight flights land the next calendar day. If you depart on the 14th and land on the 15th, the arrival date is the 15th. Use the local landing date and time shown on your ticket, not the departure date.
One card for the whole family
Every traveler needs their own TDAC, including infants. The official portal supports a group submission of up to 10 travelers, but it still issues an individual TDAC and QR code for each person.
No accommodation address at hand
The form requires where you sleep on night one: hotel name, province, district and postal code. Travelers who booked a package or are staying with friends often get stuck here mid-form. Have the exact address ready before you start, and use your first confirmed booking if you move around later.
Relying on airport Wi-Fi to show the QR code
Download the TDAC/QR from the official confirmation page and keep the emailed copy. Save it to your phone for offline access and print it if you want a battery-free backup.
A typo in the email address
The official system sends the TDAC to the email you enter. Check the address carefully; if it is wrong, use Update Arrival Card before travel and save the updated document. Restricted identity fields require a new correct submission instead.
Confusing the TDAC with a visa
The TDAC is an arrival card, not a visa, and it doesn't grant any right to stay. If your nationality needs a visa, you still need one; if you enter visa-free, the TDAC is simply an extra mandatory step. Check both requirements separately before you fly.
Which mistakes actually cost you something
Not all errors are equal, and treating them as if they were leads people to obsess over the flight number while mistyping their own email. This is the honest ranking.
| Mistake | What it costs | Fixable after submitting? |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong email address | The emailed copy never reaches you | Yes, with Update Arrival Card, or refile |
| Wrong passport number | The card cannot be found at the desk | Yes, refile before you fly |
| Name not matching the passport | Mismatch flag, extra questions | Yes, refile |
| Wrong arrival date | The card is filed for a day you are not arriving | Yes, with Update Arrival Card, or refile |
| One card for a whole family | Everyone but one person is unfiled | Yes, file the others |
| Wrong flight number | Usually nothing; occasional questions | Yes, low urgency |
| Accommodation address slightly off | A question, rarely more | Yes, low urgency |
The top four are worth reading your entries back for. The bottom three are worth fixing if you notice, and not worth panicking about at the gate.
The name problem, properly explained
More cards are unmatchable because of names than for any other reason, and the cause is that passports print your name twice in two different ways.
The photo page shows it as your country writes it, accents and all. The machine-readable zone at the bottom shows it as international standards require: capital letters, no accents, chevrons for spacing. The scanner reads the second one. So should you.
| On the photo page | In the machine-readable zone | Enter |
|---|---|---|
| Müller | MUELLER or MULLER | Whichever the zone shows |
| O'Brien | OBRIEN | OBRIEN |
| de la Cruz | DE LA CRUZ | DE LA CRUZ |
| José María | JOSE MARIA | Both given names |
The rule that resolves the rest: everything before the double chevron is the family name, everything after it is given names. Some countries print the family name first on the photo page and some print it last; the zone is unambiguous either way.
Dates: three different ways to get one day wrong
The overnight flight. Departing on the 14th and landing on the 15th, the arrival date is the 15th.
The date line. From the Americas, two calendar days can disappear. Los Angeles on Monday evening is Bangkok on Wednesday morning.
The format. The form works in day/month/year. 03/04 is 3 April to a European, 4 March to an American, and the form has its own opinion. Use the date picker and read back what it shows rather than typing.
Each of these produces the same failure — a card filed for a day you are not arriving — and each is invisible until the desk.
Errors that look like errors but are not
The arrival date is unavailable. First check that it falls inside the official filing window and that you selected the local date of arrival in Thailand.
You need to correct a submitted card. Use Update Arrival Card for permitted fields before travel. Full name, passport number, nationality, and date of birth cannot be changed there, so submit a new correct form when one of those fields is wrong.
You are filing for a family. The official group flow accepts up to 10 travelers, but it produces one TDAC and QR code per person. The official TDAC FAQ confirms the group and correction rules.
The check that catches almost everything
Before submitting, read these four back from the passport to the screen, not from the screen to your memory — the direction matters, because memory is where the error came from.
- Family name, letter by letter, from the machine-readable zone.
- Passport number, character by character, minding 0 against O and 1 against I.
- Arrival date against your ticket's landing date.
- Email address, read aloud.
Everything else on the form is recoverable at leisure. Those four are the ones that turn into desk time.
Before you fly: the 30-second check
- Name spelled exactly as in the passport
- Passport number verified character by character
- Arrival date is the landing date, local time
- One TDAC per traveler, children included
- QR code saved offline, plus a printed copy if you want a backup
- Confirmation email actually received
New to the TDAC? Start with our full Thailand entry requirements guide to see where the card fits in.
Sources checked
- Immigration Bureau: TDAC FAQ · October 28, 2026
- Immigration Bureau: TDAC user manual · October 28, 2026
- Tourism Authority of Thailand: TDAC launch announcement · October 28, 2026
