How can EU citizens apply for a Thai DTV without a registered residence in their home country?

DTV approved in Athens in less than a week 🎉

I wanted to share my experience because my situation might be helpful for other EU citizens who no longer live in their home country.

I’m an Austrian citizen, but I no longer have a registered residence in Austria and haven't lived there for over 4 years now. I currently live and work seasonally in Greece and have a Greek tax number.

Because of the recent changes regarding where DTV applications can be submitted, I contacted the Thai Embassy in Athens before applying and explained my situation. They confirmed that I could apply in Athens as long as I could provide a Temporary Residence Certificate for EU Citizens as proof of my residence/status in Greece.

I therefore applied for this certificate specifically for my DTV application. I did not already have it, and the process took almost two weeks until I received it.

I then applied for the DTV under the Soft Power category (Muay Thai).

These are the documents I submitted:

- My complete passport, including all pages

- Current passport photo

- Temporary Residence Certificate for EU Citizens

- Proof of my current address/accommodation in Greece

- Greek tax number

- My seasonal employment contract in Greece and supporting employment documents

- Greek criminal record certificate + English translation

- Bank statements for the last three months, showing the required funds of at least 500,000 THB

- Documents/confirmation from the Muay Thai gym for my 9-month course

- Flight/travel information

- Cover letters explaining my situation and the different sets of documents

I also have quite a lot of Thai entry/exit stamps in my passport, so I explained those in my cover letter as well. Many of them are from the COVID period, when I was stuck in Thailand and my stay was extended during that time.

I tried to make the whole application as clear and easy to review as possible. I explained each set of documents in my cover letters and highlighted the most important information, both in the cover letters and directly on the supporting documents, so that important dates and details could be found quickly.

For reference, I did not submit any payslips, and regarding the criminal record certificate, I submitted only my Greek one with an English translation, not an Austrian one.

My DTV was approved in less than one week and without any request for additional documents. 🎉

I was honestly expecting that they might ask for something else because of my slightly unusual residence situation, but there were no questions or additional document requests at all.

Of course, this is only my personal experience, and every application can be assessed individually, but hopefully this helps someone in a similar situation. 😊