How to fill in the MDAC, field by field

The Malaysia Digital Arrival Card, usually shortened to MDAC, is a short online form that most foreign visitors complete before they arrive in Malaysia. It lets immigration see who is coming before they land.

The form itself is not difficult. What trips travellers up is the detail: a name typed in the wrong order, a passport number with a letter O instead of a zero, an arrival date that does not match the flight. This guide goes through the form in the order you meet it, so you know what each box is asking for before you start.

At the time of writing, the MDAC is completed on the official Immigration Department of Malaysia website, it costs nothing there, and your arrival must fall within three days of submitting it, counting the day you submit. Labels on the form are sometimes reworded, so treat the names below as a close guide rather than an exact copy.

Before you start

Have everything in front of you before you open the form. Stopping halfway to hunt for a booking email is how mistakes creep in.

• Your passport, the one you will actually travel on. If you renewed it recently, make sure you are not reading from the old one.
• Your flight, ferry, bus or train details, including the number of the service that brings you into Malaysia.
• The address of where you will stay first, with its postcode if you can find it.
• An email address you can open right now. A confirmation is sent there, and you may need it before you travel.
• A mobile number with its country code.

Use a laptop if you can. The form works on a phone, but long addresses and drop-down lists are easier to check on a bigger screen.

Section 1: personal details

The first part of the form is about you, and almost all of it should be copied straight from the photo page of your passport.

Name

Type your full name exactly as it appears on the passport, including middle names. Do not shorten names, add titles such as Mr or Dr, or use a nickname. If your passport shows a surname first, keep the same spelling; the officer will compare what you typed with the machine-readable lines at the bottom of the photo page, so spelling matters more than order.

Passport number

This is the single most common place for an error. Read the number from the passport itself, not from an old booking or a photo of a previous passport. Watch for the letter O against the number 0, and the letter I against the number 1. Do not add spaces.

Nationality

Choose the country that issued the passport you are travelling on. If you hold two passports, the nationality must match the passport number you entered, and that is the passport you should show on arrival.

Place of birth, date of birth and sex

Copy these from the passport. The date picker can be fiddly on phones, so check that the day and month have not been swapped.

Passport expiry date

Enter the expiry date shown in the passport. Malaysia generally expects your passport to be valid for at least six months from the day you arrive, so if the date you are typing is close, sort out the passport before you worry about the card.

Email and phone

The form asks for your email twice, so it can confirm you typed it the same way. This matters: the confirmation and the reference you may need later are sent here. Choose the country code for your phone number from the list and then type the rest of the number without the leading zero if your country uses one.

Section 2: travel details

The second part describes your trip. These fields are where dates and transport details need to line up with your bookings.

Date of arrival

This is the date you land or cross into Malaysia, in local Malaysian time. On overnight flights it is easy to pick the departure date instead. The form will not accept an arrival date more than three days ahead, which is why you cannot fill it in a week early.

Date of departure

The date you plan to leave Malaysia. If your plans are loose, give your best honest estimate based on your return or onward ticket.

Mode of travel

Pick how you arrive: by air, by land or by sea. Someone flying from London to Kuala Lumpur picks air. Someone taking a bus from Singapore to Johor Bahru picks land.

Last port of embarkation

This is the country you are travelling from immediately before you reach Malaysia, not necessarily where your trip began. If you fly from Sydney to Singapore, spend two nights there and then fly to Kuala Lumpur, the answer is Singapore.

Flight, vessel or vehicle number

Enter the number of the service that actually brings you into Malaysia. With connecting flights, that is the final flight that lands in Malaysia, not the first leg of the journey. A flight number is usually two letters and some digits, such as the code printed on your boarding pass.

Accommodation

Choose the type of place you are staying from the form's three options (a hotel, motel or rest house, the home of friends or relatives, or others), then type the address. Use the address of your first night. If you are staying with friends or family, use their home address. Fill in the state, city and postcode fields too; a hotel's booking confirmation or website usually lists all three.

Checking, submitting and the confirmation

Before you press submit, read every field once more against the passport and your bookings. The most useful habit is to check the passport number character by character.

The form uses a small verification puzzle to confirm you are a person, then sends an email. At the time of writing, that email comes from the Immigration Department's MDAC system and includes a PIN. The official site has a section for checking a registration, where you enter your passport number, nationality and that PIN to view your card. If the email does not arrive within a few minutes, look in your spam or junk folder before trying again.

Keep the confirmation. A screenshot on your phone is fine for most travellers, and a printed copy is a sensible backup if your phone battery tends to run low on long journeys.

Common traps

• Filling it in too early. The form will not let you submit more than three days before arrival. Set a reminder instead.
• Using a site that looks official but is not. The MDAC is free on the Immigration Department of Malaysia website. Paid helpers exist (we are an independent one), but none of them should pretend to be the government.
• Copying details from an old passport saved in a browser or a travel app.
• Typing the first flight number instead of the one that lands in Malaysia.
• Leaving it for the airport. Queues, weak Wi-Fi and a flat phone are a poor mix. Do it the evening before you fly.

We cover these and a few more in our guide to common MDAC mistakes. If you are filling in cards for children too, see MDAC for families and children.

Before you fly checklist

• The card is submitted within three days before your arrival date.
• The name and passport number match the passport you will carry.
• The arrival date matches the date you land in Malaysia.
• The flight or service number is the one that brings you into Malaysia.
• You can find the confirmation email, or you have a screenshot of it.
• Everyone in your group, including children, has their own card.

The official form is free and you can complete it yourself on the Immigration Department of Malaysia's MDAC website. If you would rather have help, our optional paid assistance is an independent service for that.

Last reviewed on 5 October 2026. Entry rules change, so always check the official MDAC website and the Immigration Department of Malaysia before you travel.