How long did it take to get my DTV visa approved in Thailand after submission?

DTV Soft Power (cooking) — Ottawa Canada — APPROVED in 19 days 🇹🇭

Headline number first: 19 days from submission to approval. But here's the honest breakdown — I spent maybe 6 hours total actually doing things. Everything else was waiting.

THE TIMELINE — doing vs. waiting

🟢 Sep 14 — DOING (~1 hr): Submitted RCMP fingerprint check in person ($90 CAD). Start here: [members only]

⏳ Sep 14–22 — WAITING (8 days): for the criminal clearance letter to arrive by mail.

While waiting, gathered everything onto a Google Drive (a few hours, spread over days): 6 months bank statements (only 3 required — I did extra), passport bio page scan, driver's licence + utility bill scans, passport-style photo.

🟢 Sep 22–26 — DOING (4 days, unhurried): finalizing which school. I had a Zoom call with ISSA and spoke to House of Thai (HoT) via WhatsApp — both came up in this group, thanks! Chose HoT in the end, but ISSA really impressed me (very organized — watch their YouTube vids). Sent HoT my Google Drive link for document review, got their okay.

🟢 Sep 26, ~10pm–2am EST — DOING (2–3 hrs, the whole submission): one WhatsApp session with HoT:

Paid HoT (course + their very reasonably priced assistance package) via Wise — saved me ~$100 CAD over other payment options

Filled their questionnaire (personal / employment / travel info) so they could complete thaievisa.go.th

They uploaded my documents to the visa portal

I paid the $650 CAD application fee

Status flipped to "Pending Document Check"

⏳ Sep 26 – Oct 15 — WAITING (19 days): on the embassy.

🟢 Oct 13 — DOING (5 min): grew impatient, asked HoT to email the embassy for a status nudge.

🟢 Oct 15 — APPROVED 🎉: visa arrived by email as PDF.

My takeaways:

Pay for the assistance package. I'm pretty organized and it was still worth it — they know the portal quirks and document expectations, and it made the whole thing smoother than doing it alone.

[members only]/

The RCMP check is the long pole — start it first; everything else happens while you wait.

Total active effort: ~6 hours across 31 days. The rest was mailbox-watching.