hunglol.

[blissful crown]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[heavy karma]

something happens, not someone.

Therefore the correct translation for "what's happening to you?" is "Que t'arrive-t-il ?"

"Qui t'arrive-t-il ?" would mean "Who's happening to you?", which doesn't make much sense.

[sharp tendon]

but isn't it qu'est-ce qui t'arrive?

then if i remove the est-ce que, it becomes qui t'arrive?

[barren nebula]

That's the neutral variant

Certain impersonals have sort of two neutral variations. Originally, you would write « Qu'est-ce qu'il arrive ? » because the verb is « il arrive », impersonal. However, there also exists a more familiar version, « Qu'est-ce qui arrive ». This phenomenon also happens with « manquer (qu'est-ce qu'il manque / qu'est-ce qui manque), rester (qu'est-ce qu'il reste / qu'est-ce qui reste), se passer (qu'est-ce qu'il se passe / qu'est-ce qui se passe) ».

This is not a generalised thing; you can't say « *Qu'est-ce qui y a » or « *Qu'est-ce qui faut », for example. I believe that the variants mentioned in the message above work because their verbs can also be used personally whereas the verbs mentioned here are ONLY used impersonally. You only see « il y a / il faut », never « *je faux, *nous fallons » but you do see « tu me manques, elle reste ici, cette histoire se passe ».

[barren nebula]

It would require inversion :
« Que t'arrive-t-il ? »
The usage of « est-ce que » forbids inversion, it's either this or inversion. The reason is because « est-ce que » already acts (grammatically) as an inversion so inverting again would just be wrong.

« Qui t'arrive » sounds like someone asking who is coming to you

[heavy karma]

• Qu'est-ce qui t'arrive ?
• Que t'arrive-t-il ?
  In both variants, the question word is the same: it's "que" meaning "what".

The "qui" in "qu'est-ce qui t'arrive ?" is not a question word, it's a relative pronoun that means "that".
Litereally, "What is it that is happening to you?"