Digital arrival cards in Asia: Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and what they ask

Four of the five systems below ask you to file an arrival card online before you fly. The fifth, Japan's Visit Japan Web, is a service that speeds up the immigration and customs desks, and Japan's paper customs form still works. The official versions are free, and Singapore, Japan, Thailand and Indonesia have all had to warn about look-alike sites that charge a fee.

This guide gives the filing window, the exemptions and what each form collects for Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand and Indonesia. Every rule was read on the official page linked in its box on 2 October 2026.

Singapore: SG Arrival Card

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) runs the SG Arrival Card. It combines your arrival details with an electronic health declaration, which ICA says is for disease control.

ICA's example makes the window concrete: a traveler arriving on 30 June can submit from 28 June. There is an Update SGAC option for revising your health status after you submit, and ICA warns that false declarations can be prosecuted under the Infectious Diseases Act. It also says it does not support or endorse commercial services that submit the card for a fee. The page shows a last-updated date of 18 September 2024. The UK government's Singapore entry page gives the same three-day window.

Malaysia: MDAC

Malaysia's immigration department runs the Malaysia Digital Arrival Card, and its page is addressed to foreign visitors. The Malaysian foreign ministry's missions abroad published the rules.

The UK government's Malaysia page adds that airlines may ask for proof of submission at check-in, so keep the confirmation email where you can find it offline.

Japan: Visit Japan Web

Japan's Digital Agency runs Visit Japan Web, described as a service for performing arrival procedures, meaning immigration and customs, and tax-free shopping online. It is open to people entering Japan from overseas and to people returning to Japan. After you register, it produces QR codes that you show at the immigration counter and at the customs terminal.

Japan Customs explains the declaration and says that since 25 January 2024 travelers should use Visit Japan Web, not the older Customs Declaration App. The pages do not set a deadline for registering and do not call Visit Japan Web compulsory. Japan Customs also warns of fake websites that impersonate Visit Japan Web or offer paid "assistance" with the declaration, and names the Digital Agency address as the official one.

For the immigration side, the Digital Agency's materials say foreigners can register their disembarkation card through Visit Japan Web. Ask your airline whether a paper disembarkation card is still handed out on the plane. For what you can pay with once you land, and how tax-free shopping changes on 1 November 2026, see our Japan money guide.

Thailand: TDAC

The Immigration Bureau runs the Thailand Digital Arrival Card, which replaced the paper arrival form. Its user guide lists five groups of information: passport, personal, travel, accommodation in Thailand and a health declaration. The guide says the card is not a visa.

The filing window comes from the Bureau's FAQ, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand's launch announcement gives the start date and the exemption for transit without immigration. That the card is free comes from the Royal Thai Embassy in Canberra, whose notice of 24 November 2025 says the official site is the only one and warns against scam sites. The UK government's Thailand page says the same about timing. Our Thailand entry guide covers the 30-day exemption that sits alongside it.

Indonesia: All Indonesia

Indonesia's All Indonesia form combines the arrival card with the customs declaration and the health declaration, and it ends in a QR code that you show on arrival. The UK government's Indonesia entry page and the Indonesian immigration directorate's local office pages point to the portal at allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id.

The portal is the All Indonesia site run by the Directorate General of Immigration. The window and the free service come from the FCDO page, which cites the same address. The e-VOA and Bali levy sit alongside this form and are covered in our Bali entry guide.

The questions differ by country, and the official pages describe them at different levels of detail.

Singapore's card collects your arrival details plus the electronic health declaration, and ICA gives disease control as the reason. Thailand's user guide is the most specific: passport information, personal information, travel information, accommodation in Thailand and a health declaration. Indonesia's form is a customs declaration and a health declaration in one, and it asks you to declare goods, so read the customs questions before you tick them. Visit Japan Web carries two sets of answers, one for immigration and one for customs, and the customs set is the declaration of accompanied and unaccompanied articles that every arriving passenger must submit.

For Malaysia, the pages give the filing window, the exemptions and the official address but do not list the fields. Open the MDAC form to see what it asks before the day you fly, and have your passport, flight and first-night address ready, as you would for the others. The practical rule is the same everywhere: answer from your documents, not from memory, because a mismatch with your passport is the easiest error to avoid.

Foreign visitors are covered everywhere. The exemptions are narrow and mostly about people who never clear immigration.

Singapore exempts transit and transfer passengers who do not seek immigration clearance, and residents and citizens only at land checkpoints, which means citizens and residents arriving by air still file. Malaysia exempts Singapore citizens, diplomatic and official passports, permanent residents, long-term pass holders and holders of a short list of border documents. Thailand's rule covers all foreign nationals, with exemptions for people on technical landings or transit flights who do not pass immigration, for crew and for Border Pass holders. Indonesia's page addresses travelers to Indonesia in general and names no exemptions. In Japan every arriving passenger completes a customs declaration, on paper or through Visit Japan Web, and returning residents can use the service as well.

None of these cards replaces a visa or an entry authorization. The Thai guide says so explicitly, and none of the official pages presents any of the five as a visa. If your passport needs a visa, an e-visa or an authorization such as the Thai exemption or the Indonesian e-VOA, you arrange that separately.

• Work out which of the five apply to your route, including stops. A trip through Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand needs three separate filings, each with its own window.

• File inside the window, not before it. Three days is the limit for Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and Singapore counts the day of arrival as one of the three. Indonesia's limit is 72 hours.

• Build a small timeline. For a flight landing on the 12th, Singapore's window opens on the 10th because it counts the day of arrival, and Thailand's does the same. Indonesia's window is 72 hours counted back from landing, so an evening arrival on the 12th can be filed from the evening of the 9th.

• Enter names, passport numbers and flight details exactly as on your documents, and have the address of your first night to hand.

• Save the confirmation or QR code to your phone and take a screenshot, because mobile data on arrival is not guaranteed. Airlines can ask for proof, as the UK government notes for Malaysia.

• Use only the official address. Singapore's ICA, Japan Customs, the Royal Thai Embassy and the UK government's Indonesia page all warn about fee-charging look-alikes. The official forms are free, so a payment request is a warning.

• If your health status changes before you land, update the Singapore card through its Update SGAC option. For the other cards, check the official page for how to amend a submission.

Malaysia made the MDAC compulsory for foreign citizens on 1 January 2024. Japan Customs retired its Customs Declaration App in favor of Visit Japan Web from 25 January 2024. Singapore's ICA page was last updated on 18 September 2024. Thailand replaced its paper arrival form with the TDAC on 1 May 2025, and the Royal Thai Embassy in Canberra warned about scam TDAC sites in a notice of 24 November 2025.

Separately, Thailand shortened its visa exemption to 30 days on 15 September 2026, which is a different rule from the TDAC and is covered in our Thailand guide. The pages show no change dated 2026 to the arrival-card rules themselves, but several carry no date, so check the official site again close to your trip.

Put the filing dates in your calendar next to the flights. If a card has a three-day window, file inside it and keep the confirmation in your photos as a screenshot. If you will need mobile data to open a QR code on arrival, see our connectivity guides, and for cover while you travel, our travel insurance guides.