What is the process and timeline for applying for the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) under the old rules?

DTV APPROVED – Ho Chi Minh City 🇹🇭🎉 | Our timeline & experience

IMPORTANT: We applied under the OLD DTV rules.

Our applications were submitted on 29 August 2026, before the new rules/requirements came into effect. So please keep in mind that the requirements for new applications may now be different.

Just sharing our experience in case it helps anyone who is currently waiting or who applied under the same rules.

We are a married Dutch couple and both applied for the DTV under the Workcation / remote worker category. We were staying in Thailand and travelled to Da Nang, Vietnam to submit our applications through the Thai Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City.

What we thought would be a relatively quick visa trip turned into a slightly longer adventure… 😂

🇻🇳 29 August – Arrived in Da Nang, Vietnam

💻 29 August – Submitted both DTV applications

We submitted separate applications and paid the visa fees. Both applications were based on remote work for a Dutch company.

⏳ Early September – Waiting…

No decision yet, so we extended our hotel stay.

And then extended it again. 😅

At some point our short visa trip started to feel suspiciously like we had moved to Vietnam. 😂

📩 Mid-September – Additional documents requested

This was where things got interesting.

The Consulate requested quite a lot of additional information from us. The requests were also not exactly the same for both applicants.

Between the two of us, we were asked for things including:

• Full copies of our passports, including all blank pages

• Six months of bank statements

• Proof of funds and source of funds

• Company registration documents

• A detailed company profile

• Information about our plans in Thailand

• Estimated monthly living expenses and how we would support ourselves

• Details of ALL accommodation during our current stay in Vietnam

• Hotel bookings/invoices

• Temporary residence confirmation from the hotel/local authorities

• Additional information about our work and remote-working arrangements

• Examples showing how the work is actually performed and how we work with clients/other departments

One of us was also specifically asked for information about qualifications, a Bachelor’s degree and related certificates.

In our case there was no completed Bachelor’s degree, so rather than trying to make the situation look different, we simply explained it truthfully and provided the education, qualifications and work experience that were available.

We were also asked to demonstrate the source of our funds. A substantial part of our savings came from the recent sale of our house in the Netherlands, so we provided the notarial settlement documentation together with the corresponding bank transactions.

And then came one of our favourite surprises:

Maximum upload size: 3 MB per file. 🤣

Some of our supporting PDFs were considerably larger than that, so everything had to be organised and compressed while making sure passports, bank transactions, immigration stamps and official documents remained readable.

Our hotel room basically became a document-processing office for a couple of days. 😂

🗂️ 16 September – All requested additional documents submitted

Shortly afterwards, both applications changed to:

PENDING APPROVAL

This is apparently the stage where otherwise perfectly normal adults develop an uncontrollable desire to refresh the Thai e-Visa website every few minutes.

*Refresh.*

Still Pending Approval.

*Refresh.*

Still Pending Approval.

“Maybe now?”

*Refresh.*

Nope. 😂

We can therefore confirm that refreshing the website approximately 86 times per day does not speed up the approval process. We tested this extensively. 🤣

🎉 21 September – BOTH DTVs APPROVED!

Both visas were issued by Ho Chi Minh City as 5-year, multiple-entry Destination Thailand Visas, valid from 21 September 2026 until 20 September 2031.

And because they were valid immediately…

✈️ 21 September – We flew back to Thailand that same evening. 🇹🇭❤️

Our complete timeline:

🇻🇳 29 August – Arrived in Vietnam

💻 29 August – Submitted DTV applications

⏳ Early September – Waiting and extending hotels

📩 Mid-September – Additional documents requested

📚 15–16 September – Collecting, organising and compressing a mountain of documents

✅ 16 September – All additional documents submitted

😬 16–21 September – Pending Approval + obsessive refreshing

🎉 21 September – BOTH APPROVED

✈️ 21 September – Flew back to Thailand

Total time from application to approval: 23 days.

From submitting the requested additional documents to approval: 5 days.

A few things we learned:

Don’t immediately panic if you receive a request for additional documents. In our case, it simply meant we needed to provide much more detailed evidence.

Answer exactly what they ask for. Keep everything organised and make sure names, passport numbers, dates and financial information are consistent throughout your documents.

If you are applying from Vietnam, keep everything relating to your accommodation. Hotel bookings, invoices, immigration stamps and temporary residence confirmations all became important in our case.

And be prepared that two people applying together can still receive different requests for additional information.

Most importantly: our experience relates to applications submitted under the OLD DTV rules. Requirements have since changed, so please check the current requirements rather than using our document list as a checklist for a new application.

After three weeks in Vietnam, several hotel extensions, a mountain of PDFs, a 3 MB file-size battle and considerably more stress than originally planned…

we are finally back home in Thailand with two approved DTVs. 🇹🇭🥹❤️

Good luck to everyone still waiting — especially those staring at Pending Approval right now. We know exactly how you feel! 😂🤞🇹🇭