The Laos departure form is a second filing.
The form you completed before entering the country recorded your arrival, and it is finished. Laos keeps a separate register for people leaving, on the same government portal, and it opens only three days before you cross the border — which falls in the middle of your trip, when nobody is thinking about paperwork. We file it inside that window and send the completed form back one to two days before you travel.
Have the departure form filed for you
We check your exit crossing and the timing, file the register inside its three-day window, and send the completed form back one to two days before you leave — by email and on WhatsApp. After paying you fill in a secure form and attach a photo of your passport page. If you have not entered Laos yet, choose both forms instead.
Three days, counted backwards from your crossing.
The portal opens the exit register three days before you leave Laos and closes it the day before your crossing. It will not accept the form earlier, and on the day itself it is too late. Those three days are fixed to your own departure date rather than to any date on a calendar, which is why the deadline cannot be looked up and why it is met late so often.
For most travellers the window opens while they are somewhere in the north, several days into a trip and a long way from the documents they were holding when they planned it. Ourdate calculator turns your departure date into the exact days the window is open, runs entirely in your browser, and is free to use whether or not you buy anything here.
Laos is still extending these registers to new crossings. Confirm the crossing that applies to you on the official portal before you travel.
Shorter than the form you filed on the way in.
The exit register repeats your passport and personal details and adds four things about the crossing itself. Every field has to match your passport and your ticket exactly, which is the other place this goes wrong when it is done in a hurry at a hotel desk.
- Departure checkpoint and date
- How you are leaving and the flight or vehicle number
- Your last address in Laos
- The same passport and personal details as the arrival register
- A photo of your passport page
Departure form FAQ
When the window opens, which crossings keep the register, and what we do with what you send us.
When does the Laos departure form open?
Three days before you leave the country. The portal will not accept it earlier, and the last day it can be filed is the day before your crossing, so the window is three calendar days wide and shuts at midnight before you travel. Counting from your own departure date is the whole of the rule, and our date calculator does that arithmetic in your browser.
Is the departure card the same thing as the departure form?
Yes, and the several names are the reason people arrive here worried they have missed a second requirement. The official portal titles its own pages "Submit Arrival or Departure Digital Card" and "Immigration Departure Register". Most travellers say departure form, and news coverage tends to say departure card. There is one exit filing, and those are all names for it.
I already filed the arrival form. Does that cover my departure?
No. Laos keeps two registers and they are two separate submissions on the same government portal. The entry register recorded you coming in and is now closed. The exit register is a new filing with its own three-day window, counted from the day you leave, and nothing you submitted on the way in carries across to it.
Which checkpoints accept the Lao departure form?
Four, spelled the way the portal spells them: WATTAY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, LUANGPRABANG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, PAKSE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT and FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE 1. This is the same closed list the arrival register uses, and it is shorter than the list of ports that accept the Lao eVisa. The payment step above asks which crossing you are leaving from and does not take an order for any other.
I am leaving Laos at a crossing that is not on that list.
Then there is no departure form in existence for your crossing, and there is nothing here for you to buy. The declaration is handled at the barrier itself, on the day. The payment step above tells you this rather than taking the money, which is the reason it asks for the crossing by name before it asks for anything else.
Can I file the departure form early, before I fly to Laos?
No. The window is counted backwards from the day you leave the country, not from the day you enter it, so for most travellers it opens after they have already arrived. That is what makes this the register people miss: it comes due in the middle of a trip, when the paperwork is the last thing on anyone’s mind.
What does it cost to have the Lao departure form filed?
US$7 per traveller, which is the price shown in the payment step above. The government charges nothing for the form itself and the official portal is open to anyone. What the fee buys is that the filing happens on the correct day without you tracking it from the road.
I have not entered Laos yet and need both forms.
Then the pair is the cheaper purchase, at US$10 per traveller for both registers rather than each on its own. Our border forms page covers the two of them together, and you enter your details once for both filings.
How late can I order the departure form?
A register has to be filed the day before the crossing at the latest, so the payment step does not accept an order for a crossing today. If you leave tomorrow the form can still be filed, and the sooner your details reach us the better: we file nothing until the secure form is complete and the photo of your passport page is attached.
How do I send you the passport photograph from inside Laos?
You attach it to the secure form after paying. A clear photograph of the bio page taken on a telephone is enough, and it is the only document needed. If the upload gives you trouble on a hotel connection, send it to us on WhatsApp instead, on +856 20 98 839 690. If anything about your exit needs clarifying we write to you rather than filing a form with a detail we had to guess.
How long do you keep my details after I have left?
One week after the last travel date in your file, and no longer. The whole file, your details and the passport image together, is then deleted automatically. It runs on its own every day, so neither of us has to remember it. If you want it removed sooner, write to us with your reference.
Both registers, filed on their own days.
If your arrival is still ahead of you, the pair costs less than the two filings bought separately, and you enter your details once for both. Each register is still filed inside its own three-day window, weeks apart.