How to Apply for the Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC): Step-by-Step (2026)

Applying, in one paragraph

Open imigresen-online.imi.gov.my within 3 days before your arrival, select Registration, fill in travel document details, personal information, travel details, and your address in Malaysia, and submit. The portal emails a confirmation with a unique PIN; you check the registration with your passport number, nationality, and that PIN, then download the MDAC PDF. The whole process is free and takes about five minutes per traveler. If you would rather we do it, we are an independent application service: $15, confirmation within 24 hours, full refund if we fail to deliver.

What each field should contain, and the preparation that prevents refiling, is covered in our MDAC requirements guide. This page is the procedure itself, in the order the portal presents it.

Before you start

Two gates to pass first. One: the submission window. The portal only accepts filings within 3 days before the arrival date; in the official example, arriving 12 August means submitting between 8 and 11 August 2026. Filing the day you book flights, weeks out, fails. Two: your details should be final. The form asks for your flight number and your address in Malaysia, so wait until both are locked, ideally one or two days before departure. That timing also means the confirmation email arrives before check-in, where airline staff sometimes ask to see it.

Step 1: open the official portal

Go to imigresen-online.imi.gov.my, the Immigration Department of Malaysia's MDAC portal. The landing page carries the system's menu: Registration, Check Registration, Check Visit Pass, and the e-gate eligibility check. Choose Registration to begin a new card. The form works on a phone browser; nothing needs to be installed. If the URL you are on is not this domain, stop: lookalike sites charge for a form that is free, a problem we break down in MDAC fees and processing time.

Step 2: travel document details

Enter the passport number, full name as printed on the biodata page, nationality, and date of birth of the traveler the card is for. Match the passport character for character, including middle names. This block is what the counter and the autogate match against, so a single mistyped digit is the error that strands people at immigration. One registration covers one traveler; a family of four files four cards, which an adult can do in one sitting from the same device.

Step 3: personal information

Enter contact details and the email address for the confirmation. Double-check the email: the confirmation carries the PIN you will use for the status check, and a typo sends it to a stranger or to nowhere. One email can serve a whole family's filings, putting every PIN in one inbox, which is how we recommend doing groups.

Step 4: travel details

Select your mode of travel, air, land, or sea. Enter the flight or vessel number of the service that physically arrives in Malaysia, connecting travelers using the final leg's number. Enter your arrival and departure dates. Then the field everyone gets wrong: last port of embarkation. It is the last place you depart from before Malaysia, not your trip origin. Madrid to Dubai to Kuala Lumpur means Dubai. Singapore to Kuala Lumpur means Singapore. The form offers a country list for this field, so select the country of your final departure point.

Step 5: accommodation

Enter the name and address of where you will stay in Malaysia: your hotel from the booking confirmation, or the residential address hosting you. First-night hotel for tour travelers, first confirmed address for anyone moving between places. The form wants a real, reachable address, not a landmark.

Step 6: submit and save the PIN

Review every field against the passport and bookings, then submit. The portal emails a confirmation that includes your unique PIN. Save that email for the whole trip: the PIN is your key for the status check, and the confirmation is your proof if the immigration system is slow to find your record. No payment screen exists in the official flow; if you meet one, you are on the wrong site.

Step 7: check your registration

For certainty before you fly, return to the portal and choose Check Registration. Enter the passport number, the nationality, and the PIN from the confirmation email. The system returns your registration status. This step takes one minute and settles the did-it-go-through question, which is worth it the night before an overnight flight. The same portal menu includes the e-gate eligibility check, useful if you plan to use the autogates at KLIA and want to know your document qualifies.

Step 8: download the MDAC PDF

Download the MDAC PDF from the portal and keep it on your phone. The document is your portable copy of the registration: show it if asked at check-in, and at the counter if the system lookup stalls. Printing is optional. At the e-gate, the machine matches your face and passport to the record your submission created; the PDF is the backup, the registration is the thing.

Fixing mistakes

The MDAC system has no update button. If you catch a wrong flight number or a changed hotel, the route is a fresh submission with the corrected details; the newest registration is the one on record. If the error is in the passport fields themselves, the same rule applies, and the fix matters more, because that is the block immigration matches. After refiling, run Check Registration with the new PIN to confirm the correct card is the live one. Deeper background on every field is in the MDAC requirements guide, and the who-needs-one question is answered in do I need a Malaysia arrival card.

Airlines rebooking you is the classic trigger: the flight changes the day before departure, and now the card names a flight you are no longer on. The two-minute fix is to refile with the new flight number inside the same window and keep both confirmation emails until you land. Immigration matches the newest record, and the old card does not count against you; it simply stops being the live one. The mistake that has no fix at all is none: arriving with no registration on file is the only outcome of the process you cannot repair from the departure lounge.

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