How quickly can you get a Non-O visa approved from the Thai consulate in Kuala Lumpur?

@Srey ******

Nice try. Partially true, yet in other parts oversimplified to inaccurate. But I don’t want to spend more time on this now. And don’t worry about me. I am all set and always find my way to get where I need to be despite the Thai deficiencies In bureaucracy.

@Frank-Steven **********

you don't understand what the DTV is and Thai law.

The DTV was codified by a Ministry of Interior Announcement in the Thai Royal Gazette. It's governed by the Immigration Act.

The announcement provides the very basic list of requirements.

Because the DTV is processed by embassies/consulates, under Thai law, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs grants sovereign discretion to each embassy. This means they have the legal authority under Thai law to determine the specific rules by which they approve applications at their embassy.

Section 35 of the immigration act specifically gives administrative authorities to dictate individual compliance terms for a visa as they see fit.

Immigration is not a right. You are legally not entitled to equal treatment when applying for a visa.

So yeah, if they question whether someone is really a remote worker, can support themselves, etc. Thai immigration law explicitly gives the authorities the ability to do what they're doing.

If you don't like it good luck finding a country that will let you provide whatever documents you think are good enough

@Srey ******

You are right, getting a DTV visa should not be rocket science, no. Checking if someone has the equivalent of 500k THB in savings + being free to work remotely / or partake in some soft power course should be easily and quickly established.

And yes, different individual circumstances might require different individual documents – to a degree.

But that should not lead to embassies having vastly inconsistent and partly excessive requirements in general, as in:

- Generally asking for notarized / legalized / apostilled documents that are almost impossible to obtain that way.

- Asking for savings / funds to be seasoned for 3 or even 6 months (no such requirement by the underlying legal texts).

- Asking people for any threshold of regular monthly income in the form of pay slips / or worse, for tax declarations (no such requirement in the underlying legal texts).

And even if some embassies (maybe with a particular reason) need to deviate from the legal texts and approach of other embassies, the least they should do is clearly communicate the required documents beforehand – and not just swamp people with surprising / impossible requests after they already took their money or cancel without even asking for additional documents and all the negative likes reported all too often.

The same circumstances need to lead to the same outcome. It should not make a difference what embassy to apply with. There should not be such vast differences causing people to shop around for more favorable embassies.

Anyways, I think I made my point. I am out of here.

@Frank-Steven **********

this isn't rocket science. There are requirements. To establish that you meet them they have the right to ask for documents.

There isn't one set of documents that is applicable to every person in every country

Even with the LTR, different applicants may be asked for different supporting documents

@Frank-Steven **********

Comparing getting a drivers licence with applying for a visa is comparing apples with oranges.

For a visa application, it is important to get a picture of the applicant, whereas for a driver's license, it is solely about skills.

I do not see any reason why each embassy have same requirements. each country is different.

As far as I know the final approval for all visa is with MFA in Bangkok.

@Luit ****************

Come to think of it, they should have organized the DTV like the LTR, and have the decision made centrally, and only the mere act of issuing the DTV given to the individual embassies.

@Luit ****************

I had a feeling such comment would be coming from you. To each their own opinion. Fact is: getting the same visa should have the same requirements no matter what embassy to apply with. Same for getting a Thai drivers license or anything else requiring Thai bureaucracy. They are just not precessional enough to achieve that. Maybe they don’t want to be - as it would take away power from small sheriffs in power.

@Frank-Steven **********

The law describes who is eligible for the visa, the embassy decides how you have to prove this, that is also why the evisa site gives examples how you might prove you comply with requirements.

Just compare this when you apply for a job, complying with all job requirements does not guarantee you get the job.

@Frank-Steven **********

exactly..this cat and mouse games about where to apply best is proof the system is rigged

Base requirements should be the same for every DTV application

If you have all requirements then why some places ask 99x more questions.