How did I successfully apply for a DTV visa through a cooking school in Vietnam?

I just got approved for my DTV using soft power (cooking school) in Hanoi in 5 business days, so I'm sharing what I did in full detail in case it's helpful to anyone else.

PREPARATION:

US citizen with a US passport. I was already staying in Thailand visa exempt for just over 60 days (I got the 30 day extension in Phuket). I did the majority of my DTV application online before I left Thailand and saved it so I didn't have much to complete when I got to Vietnam.

Once my Vietnam e-visa was approved I booked a plane ticket to Hanoi for the next day and a hotel for 1 week. I ended up extending my stay for 1 extra day since I didn't get my visa yet at the end of my reservation. My room was still available so it wasn't an issue, but there are so many hotels in the Old Quarter where I stayed that it wouldn't have been difficult to get another hotel for a night or two if necessary (idk if this would still be true during major holidays like Tet that's coming up).

APPLICATION:

I submitted 6 months worth of bank statements in reverse chronological order so that the most recent statement (Dec) was the first one they would see. I specifically waited to apply until I had 3 months of statements over the 500k THB minimum. I used ilovepdf . com to merge everything into 1 compressed PDF file. I did not redact anything.

I again used ilovepdf . com to merge all of the documents that I received from the cooking school and submitted those.

For proof of my location outside of Thailand I used a pic of my passport BioData page and the Vietnam visa stamp (my friend who applied in HCMC said they asked for all pages of her passport, even the blank ones but I just did those 2 pages), my Vietnam e-visa, and my receipt for my hotel. I used ilovepdf . com to convert the jpg to pdf then again to merge all 4 documents into one compressed file.

Remember that the photo that you upload will be permanently on your visa, so choose wisely 😁

For the part of the application that wanted my arrival flight into Thailand I chose a flight scheduled for a few days after I expected/hoped to get approved (1/16 was business day #1 so I chose a flight on 1/24). I did not purchase the ticket and they did not ask for it. If they had asked for proof I would have purchased it with the cancel protection so I could change it if necessary.

If you need to compress any of your files, smallpdf . com is good for that.

I had some difficulties editing/changing the documents after I uploaded them. Not sure if it was the bad wifi or an issue with the site. It didn't look like the documents had changed when I tried to replace them, but when I reviewed it before I submitted, they were in fact the new documents that I uploaded.

Also be mindful because the emails were going to my spam initially.

*I submitted and paid late Wed Jan 15.

*The status said "processing pending document review" for a couple days.

*On Monday the status changed to "processing pending approval".

*On Wed Jan 21 at 3:50 pm I got an email telling me my Thai e-visa was approved.

*Total 5 business days*

RETURN THROUGH IMMIGRATION:

Once I got the visa approval I booked a one way ticket back to Phuket for the next day, connecting in DMK, and completed the TDAC online. I did not print out any documents, I just had everything ready and available on my phone. I got to the Hanoi airport 3 hours early as was suggested online and I practically walked through immigration and security and got to my gate with almost 2.5 hours until boarding.

Upon arrival at DMK, if I was staying on the same airline (I only saw booths for Air Asia and Thai Lion Air) then I could have gone through the smaller, separate immigration line, but since I was switching airlines I had to go through the main immigration line and through security again. Still, the whole process was super easy and only took about 20 minutes to get through the line and get my stamp.

I gave her my passport, scanned my fingerprints, and she looked me up. She said "You have the DTV. Can I see?" So I showed it to her on my phone and she looked through whatever, gave it back to me, and stamped my passport. I double checked it before I walked away and it said DTV with an expiration 6 months from now. Never asked for the TDAC or to show cash or any other questions.

I took another maybe 20 minutes to walk and get through security, so from getting off the plane and through immigration/security it was approximately 45 minutes total. I scheduled a 4.5 hour layover because I was worried about how long everything might take, so now I have 3 hours to kill for my connecting flight to Phuket.

COOKING CLASS:

I only found 2 DTV cooking schools in Phuket and after talking with both I chose Phuket Thai Cooking Academy. So far they've been communicative, accommodating, patient, quick to respond to questions. They were flexible on my start date based on the timeline of my DTV approval and I'm looking forward to starting classes with them next month. I wasn't a fan of how the other school told me they conducted their business, but I can't fault them too much for adjusting their business practice to cater specifically to the DTV; but it wasn't what I wanted.