The THIM App: I Used Thailand’s New Immigration App Coming Home

I just got back from a month in Europe and used the new THIM app to come into Thailand instead of filling in the TDAC on the website like I normally would. Short version: it was noticeably faster, entirely because I had registered before I left rather than because the app is doing anything clever at the airport.

It is also a slightly irritating thing to have to do at all when you hold a Thailand Privilege membership, which I will come back to.

What THIM Actually Is

THIM stands for Thailand Immigration Management. It is the Immigration Bureau’s own app, launched in May 2026, and it is currently a pilot. Full rollout is planned for 1 October 2026.

The important part, because a lot of coverage has muddled this and it is the single thing worth getting right: THIM does not replace the arrival card. The TDAC is still legally required for every non-Thai arrival, every single time. THIM is a container that happens to include TDAC submission, alongside a traveler profile, an eKYC passport scan, notifications, and group or family submissions.

• Status right now: voluntary. You can keep using tdac.immigration.go.th and nothing bad happens.
• What it replaces: nothing yet. It is an alternative front end for the same arrival card.
• Full rollout: planned for 1 October 2026.
• Cost: free, like the TDAC itself. Any site or app charging you to file an arrival card is a scam.

What It Was Actually Like

The gain is entirely front-loaded. I set up an account and did the eKYC step before I flew out, which scans your passport and saves the details to your profile. That is the part that takes a few minutes and it only happens once.

Coming back, almost everything was already filled in. Passport details, personal information, all of it sitting there. I only had to add the trip-specific bits: flight, dates, where I was staying. Filing a TDAC from scratch on the website means retyping the same passport number and the same personal details every single time you enter the country, and if you leave Thailand regularly that adds up to a genuinely annoying amount of typing for no reason.

So the honest recommendation is a conditional one. If you come to Thailand once, the app saves you nothing; just do the TDAC on the website. If you live here and leave a few times a year, do the eKYC once and every subsequent entry gets shorter.

The Part That Annoys Me

I pay for Thailand Privilege. One of the things you are buying is the sense that the immigration side of living here is handled. And I still have to file an arrival card before every entry, same as someone arriving for a week on a beach holiday.

That is not a THIM complaint, to be fair. The arrival card requirement applies to all foreign nationals regardless of visa type, and no long-stay category exempts you from it. But if you are weighing up Privilege partly for the friction reduction, this is a piece of friction it does not remove. The app at least makes the repeated version of it faster, which is something.

One Thing That Was New: They Asked for the Physical Card

Worth reporting because it has not happened to me before. At the counter, after I had already shown the Privilege visa in my passport, the immigration officer asked to see the physical Thailand Privilege membership card as well.

I had it, so it was a non-event. But I have entered Thailand a number of times on this visa and never been asked for the card before, and the one variable that changed on this trip was using THIM.

I want to be careful here: I do not know that those two things are connected. One entry is one data point, officers have discretion, and it could just as easily be a policy nudge, a new officer, or nothing at all. I am not going to turn a single anecdote into a trend. The practical takeaway does not depend on the cause though, which is: if you hold a Privilege membership, carry the physical card when you travel rather than leaving it in a drawer at home.

Should You Bother With It?

• Visiting once: no. File the TDAC on the official website in the three days before you fly and forget about it.
• Living here and travelling regularly: yes. Do the eKYC once and every re-entry after that is quicker.
• Travelling as a family: probably. Group submission is one of the few things the app does that the website does not.
• Anyone: do not pay for this. The official app and the official site are both free, on iPhone and Android alike.

Where to Get It

It is free on both platforms, listed as THIM - Thai Immigration Bureau: iPhone (App Store) and Android (Google Play). If you would rather not install anything, the arrival card website is tdac.immigration.go.th and works fine.

Check the publisher before you install. There are copycat apps and third-party sites that charge for arrival cards, and the official one is published by the Immigration Bureau. Anything asking you to pay is not it.

What Is Coming in October

This is the part that will actually matter, and it is why I would set the app up now rather than later. Phase 2 is planned for October 2026 and is supposed to bring immigration paperwork that currently means a physical queue into the app:

• 90-day reporting: filed in the app rather than through the separate TM47 site.
• Visa extension applications: submitted from the app.
• Queue booking: reserving a slot at an immigration office instead of turning up and waiting.
• Digital document requests: certificates and paperwork requested through the app.

If queue booking lands and works, that is a bigger deal for anyone living here than the arrival card feature is. Anyone who has spent a morning at Chaeng Wattana knows exactly why.

All of that is announced rather than shipped, though. I will update this page when I have used the features myself, not when the press release goes out.

For the current arrival card rules and how they fit with visa-free entry, see the Thailand visa exemption guide. For the reporting THIM is due to absorb, see the 90-day reporting guide.