How can a Chinese national successfully apply for a Thai visa from Vietnam?

# Visa approved - Chinese national applied via soft power in Ho Chi Minh City

I received the approval last night and wanted to share my experience as this group has been incredibley helpful!

Timeline:

* 27th July - submitted application online

* 3rd August - request for further documents

* 5th August - uploaded addtional docs

* 6th August - received approval email

I am a Chinese national living in the UK. Initially I wanted to apply in London, but the cooking school told me that they wouldn't recommend thjat as they ran into issues with London before, so I swtiched to Vietnam as I'm travelling there to see a friend anyway.

I wanted to use Issa Compass as I heard good things about them in this group, however they told me they stopped taking Chinese clients, as there have been a lot more issues. I was a bit panicking but decided to give it go myself.

I submitted docs requested from its website on 27th July, nothing extra. But I included a short cover letter for financial docs to explain my motives and told them I am a permenant resident in the UK and that's why my bank statements are from a UK bank.

Then the additonal request came on 3rd August, see picture below. All pretty straight forward, apart from the bank statements request - they wanted it "translated, noritised and legalised". I think it's a standard copy&paste requests, probably triggered by my Chinese passport, as my statements are already in English.

I decided to write a declaration basically swore that my bank statements are genuine and direct downloads from the banking app. I went to three different notary offices here in HCMC to get this declaration noritised, no luck as the officers bascially said they are not allowed to notorise anyting for Chinese nationals even the declaration itself is fine. I then quickly googled a law firm who is willing to be a witness and sign this declaration together with me. It looks a lot more legit and official. I uploaded this.

My understanding is that all 'official' docs in Vietnam would have a red chop, so seeing a pdf bank statement from a Chinese national may trigger alert.

After the new upload, my visa got approved within 24 hours. So don't panic as long as your documents are legit and try to put yourself in visa offciers shoe, even I couldn't meet the 'notorised & legalised' request, something with a stamp will still show that you are trying.

Good luck everyone, hope this experience is helpful!