What is the process for obtaining a DTV Visa in Nepal for Muay Thai training?

DTV Visa - Soft Power Approval

Recently had a soft power DTV approval for Muay Thai at Kathmandu embassy and I have made it to Thailand, so I thought I’d share in case it’s helpful:

Where: Kathmandu, Nepal (arrived here from Thailand)

Timeline:

- Sunday 25th January: online visa form completed

- Monday 26th January: 11:40am payment submitted in-person at embassy (no online payment option). Visa application officially submitted.

- Tuesday 27th: 10:20am additional document request: round-trip flight ticket

- Wednesday 28th: 11:45am (bought +) submitted (refundable) round trip flight ticket for the first 180 days

- Thursday 29th: 9:50am additional document request: accommodation booking for the whole 180 days

- Thursday 29th: 10:30am submitted (cancellable, no pre-payment needed) accommodation booking for whole 180 days

- *called and emailed embassy repeatedly as they were silent for ages with no updates, very unhelpful*

- February 18th: interview requested for February 25th

- February 19th: interview cancelled with no warning and rescheduled for February 20th

- February 20th: had interview (details below)

- February 20th: a couple of hours later the approval came though

Total turnaround time:

- Jan 26th-Feb 20th: 25 days

Entry to Thailand:

- I just printed out the visa that the Nepali Thai Embassy had emailed me and presented it at immigration, she didn’t ask a single question or request anything else besides my passport and general that online form that everyone has to fill in, and gave me the DTV stamp

Documents I initially submitted:

- I was very comprehensive with everything I submitted across the 3 documents, details below

Document 1: Finances

- I included an overall cover letter at the start of this document

- Around 150,000 of the 500,000 baht savings had been transferred into one of my accounts only a couple of days before my application by someone else (even then, I only just met the threshold in time for me to print out the statements)

- The savings were spread across 4 accounts total (I provided 3 months of bank statements for each account ), I included the combined calculations and a currency conversion to Thai baht using Wise

Document 2: Gym/accommodation/flight

- Gym booking: I booked 6 months 2x per week as it was cheapest - I spoke to the gym and they said I could redeem the amount of money payed for the booking however I wanted. Eg. I could train twice daily for 1-2 months instead of twice weekly for 6 months

- Also included some cheeky pics of me doing Muay Thai, as I saw someone on here say they’d been asked for evidence of their interest in Muay Thai

Document 3: proof of location / address

- Proof of current location in Nepal (flight booking to Nepal, selfie outside my hostel in KTM with location visible), + proof of UK residency (front page of my bank statement)

About my interview:

- it was very casual, he didn’t even seem to know I was arriving and had no questions/documents with him in preparation, just a little empty notebook which he wrote about 6 words in lol

He asked:

- What is your name?

- Where are you from?

- Were you born there?

- How long have you been in Nepal?

- Where are you staying in Nepal?

- Tell me about your employment situation

- He said so your parents will sponsor your trip - I said they may contribute but the savings I’m living off are my own earnings not from my parents

- How often do you travel to/in Thailand?

- How long do I want to be in Thailand?

- Asked if I have mobile banking proof and I said are hard copies okay - he said yes and glanced at them briefly

- He said roughly how much money do you have all together? And a rough guess is fine because he will just check the submitted documents after

- Have you been travelling in Nepal alone?

- Will you be travelling in Thailand alone?

Then he said ‘you will receive the result today’, which I did

Hope this helps someone!