Thailand's Immigration Bureau has launched a new mobile application allowing travellers to complete arrival forms before landing, aiming to reduce processing times at immigration counters to less than 40 seconds per person.
As reported by the Bangkok-based news site Khaosodenglish, the app, called THIM (Thailand Immigration Management System) was developed in partnership with Digital Identity Co. and built on Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure. It is available for download on iOS and Android as part of a pilot programme, with hundreds of thousands of downloads already recorded.
Travellers can use the app to fill out immigration arrival forms in advance, with the process taking under three minutes for first-time users and under one minute for return visitors, as the system retains basic personal information between trips.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Pratchaya Prasansuk, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said the shift from paper forms had been a long time coming.
"In the past, paper wasted both budget and time significantly," he said as quoted by the site.
THIM currently supports four languages,namely English, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. The bureau plans to expand to 15 languages by October 1.
The app’s backend uses optical character recognition to read passport data, with AWS cloud infrastructure handling traffic spikes during peak travel periods. Data is protected with end-to-end encryption.
Future features planned for the app include 90-day address reporting for long-stay residents, electronic document certification, and exclusive promotions for app users – all at no cost.
