Arriving at Dhaka airport, step by step

Arrival steps

1. Step 1 of 7

   Before you leave the aircraft

   • Cabin crew usually hand out any arrival paperwork in flight. Fill it in then, while you still have a table and a working pen — the queue moves while you write.
   • Keep your passport, and the passports of everyone travelling with you, in a pocket or a small bag you keep with you. Not in a bag in the overhead locker.
   • On a foreign passport, keep your visa or NVR endorsement with them.
   • Write down the address in Bangladesh where you will be staying. You will be asked for it, and “my uncle’s house in Uttara” is not an address.
   • Carry a pen. Genuinely.

2. Step 2 of 7

   Immigration

   • You walk from the aircraft to immigration. Follow the signage and the crowd from your flight; when several long-haul services land together, the hall is busy.
   • There are separate queues for Bangladeshi passport holders and for foreign passport holders. If your family is split across both — common, with children born abroad — decide who goes with whom before you reach the barrier.
   • The questions at the desk are routine: where you have come from, how long you are staying, where you will be. Answer plainly. Biometric capture at the desk is normal.
   • On a foreign passport with an NVR endorsement, have the page open so the officer can see it easily.

3. Step 3 of 7

   Baggage reclaim

   • Check the screens for your flight’s belt. Take a trolley before you get to the belt rather than after — they disappear when a big flight lands.
   • Check the tag before you walk away with a case. Half the suitcases in the hall look like yours.
   • If a bag does not appear, do not leave the baggage area. Find the airline’s baggage desk and file the claim before you clear customs; sorting it out afterwards is considerably harder.
   • Porters are available if you have a lot of luggage. Agree what you are doing before they take your bags, not after.

4. Step 4 of 7

   Choosing your customs channel

   • This is the only part of the arrival where a wrong choice has consequences, and it is decided before you get there rather than at the line.
   • Green is for a traveller carrying nothing dutiable and nothing that has to be declared. Red is for anything you do have to declare — gold, cash above the threshold, commercial quantities, or anything you are unsure about.
   • The allowances themselves live in exactly one place on this site, because they are regulated figures and they are revised with the budget cycle. Read them before you fly, then put what you are actually carrying through the calculator rather than working from memory.

   Read before you fly

   • Duty-free baggage allowance for Bangladesh (65 kg)
   • How much gold can I bring to Bangladesh from the USA?
   • Cash limit at Dhaka airport — when must I declare?
   • Duty calculator

5. Step 5 of 7

   Walking through the channel

   • Declaring something that turns out to be duty-free costs you ten minutes. Failing to declare something dutiable is a different category of problem entirely.
   • If you are genuinely uncertain, the red channel is the safe choice, and using it is routine rather than an admission of anything.
   • Bags may be scanned in either channel. That is normal and is not a signal that something is wrong.

   Read before you fly

   • Dhaka airport green vs red channel — a walkthrough
   • What you must declare at Bangladesh customs

6. Step 6 of 7

   The arrivals hall and the kerb

   • Past customs you come out into the arrivals hall, which is usually crowded — this is a country where whole families come to meet a flight.
   • Agree a meeting point in advance. Phone networks and the sheer crush make “I will find you” unreliable, so name a specific spot.
   • Have a working phone from the moment you land if you can. This is exactly the moment it pays for itself.
   • Arrange transport before you arrive if anyone in the family can. Accepting the first offer from someone who approaches you in the hall is how tired travellers overpay.
   • Keep your documents on you until you are in the vehicle. Do not pack the passport away in a case that has just gone into a boot.

   Read before you fly

   • eSIM, roaming, or a local SIM in Bangladesh?

7. Step 7 of 7

   If something goes wrong

   • Missing bag: the airline baggage desk, before customs.
   • Document problem: ask at the immigration desk rather than stepping away from it.
   • A customs question you did not expect: stay polite, stay calm, and answer accurately. The officers deal with confused arrivals all day and a straightforward exchange is normal.

That is the arrival, from the aircraft door to the kerb.