Status: LIVE, OPTIONAL. The THIM app is real and works — but as of 20 August 2026 no rule requires you to use it. The TDAC arrival card is still the requirement; THIM is one free way to file it. This page tracks both halves.
Update log — 20 Aug 2026: page created for the app’s official-launch month; trial open since 6 June.
Thailand’s Immigration Bureau has a new app, and this month is its official coming-out. THIM — Thailand Immigration Management — opened as a free public trial on 6 June 2026 and reaches full launch in August. What it does today is simple and genuinely useful: it files your Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC), the entry form every foreign visitor has needed since May 2025, in about three minutes. Photograph your passport, let it read the details, add your accommodation and travel information, done. It can register a group of up to ten people in one go, runs in English, Russian, Japanese and Chinese with more than fifteen languages promised, and carries a 24/7 Tourist Police hotline.
The Bureau’s ambitions are bigger than an arrival form. Deputy Commissioner Pratchaya Prasansuk, who is driving the project, says THIM should make Thailand “a leader in the transition to digital immigration systems in Southeast Asia”, and the roadmap reads like a super-app for foreigners: document submission and verification, appointment booking at immigration offices, and — the one long-stayers should watch — reporting features that could eventually spare you the ritual of the 90-day queue.
What it means for you: TDAC yes, THIM optional
Nothing about your next arrival changes. You must file a TDAC within 72 hours before entering Thailand — that rule stands. How you file it is up to you: the TDAC website as before, or now the THIM app. Both are official, and both are free. Our Price Index keeps the running list of what Thai officialdom actually charges, and the arrival paperwork is entry number one in the “฿0 — anyone charging you is a scammer” category. That goes double for app stores: the real THIM comes from the Immigration Bureau, and no legitimate version charges money to file an arrival card.
The part the headlines got wrong
You may have read that THIM “becomes mandatory in August 2026”. We can find that claim on travel blogs; we cannot find it in any official source. No Immigration Bureau order, no Royal Gazette publication, nothing from the ministries makes THIM compulsory — and the Tourism Authority of Thailand has said the opposite in plain words: “THIM is not an additional arrival-card requirement and does not replace TDAC at this stage.”
What would make it real is the same chain as always: an official order from the Immigration Bureau, published and dated. That is the trigger we watch for. If THIM ever becomes the required channel — or absorbs TDAC entirely, which is the direction of travel — this page will say so with the date and the source, and our visa pillar will be updated the same day. Until then, treat “mandatory” claims as what they are: launch-month noise.
Should you install it?
If you are arriving as a family or group, yes — one person filing ten TDACs in one sitting is THIM’s best trick. If you are a solo traveller comfortable with the TDAC website, there is no advantage yet worth a new app on your phone. If you live here on a long-stay visa, keep an eye on this page: the appointment and reporting features trailed for later phases are the ones that would actually change your life, and we will report them when they are official rather than promised. First trip and none of this means anything to you yet? Start with the first-timer’s guide — the TDAC step sits in its proper place there.
The THIM app: your questions, answered
Do I need the THIM app to enter Thailand?
No. You need a TDAC, filed within 72 hours before arrival. THIM is one way to file it; the TDAC website is another. No rule requires the app.
Does THIM replace the TDAC?
No — it files your TDAC for you. The TAT has said explicitly that THIM is not an additional arrival requirement and does not replace TDAC. One form, two ways to submit it.
Is the THIM app free?
Yes — free to download and free to use, like the TDAC itself. Any app or website charging to file Thai arrival paperwork is a scam.
What does THIM actually do today?
It reads your passport from a photo, files your TDAC in about three minutes, registers groups of up to ten, works in four languages (fifteen more promised), and includes a 24/7 Tourist Police hotline.
Will THIM become mandatory?
Possibly — the Bureau’s stated direction is a single digital immigration platform. But no official order says so today, and claims of an August 2026 mandate have no official source. We track the trigger (a published Immigration Bureau order) and will update this page when one exists.
This is a DT News Desk page: one URL per question, updated when the answer changes. We read the official Thai sources so you don’t have to — the status box above always reflects the current position. See also: the ฿450 tourist fee, tracked the same way.
