What was the application process timeline and requirements for a Soft Power visa through Issa Compass?

Approved in Manila in 9 business days

I thought I’d make a post about my application process since this group has been really helpful in my application journey!

I applied soft power with Arun Thai Cooking School and used Issa Compass as the agent. Arun Thai was great- they sent the full packet of documents over within 24 hours of paying and the embassy never had any questions. Looking forward to the classes!

Timeline:

Applied January 13

Further documents requested January 19

Further documents requested January 21

Approved January 26

Since Issa Compass handled everything, I don’t know exactly how this was collated and what sorts of cover letters they added.

Documents:

- 6 months of bank statements (last three have balance over 500k, first three balances were between 400k and 500k)

- Contract for my freelance client

- 4 months of invoices

- Passport photo page

- All passport pages that had Thai entry/exit stamps (5 months of visa exemptions/extension from August until January)

- Passport page with Philippines entry stamps

- Booking receipt for an Airbnb in the Philippines for one week (Cebu not Manila)

- Booking receipt for an Airbnb for 1 month in Bangkok

- Photo of me in a thai cooking class earlier this year

First round of additional documents:

- They requested a new bank statement which was not yet available

- They requested a letter from my client that said I still worked for them. This wasn’t possible to get so I instead submitted the invoices from the weeks since submitting and another contract I had started in that time

Second round of additional documents:

- They requested proof of income tax, I sent my previous year’s tax return

- They requested my registration as an independent contractor. The US doesn’t really register independent contractors like this so I had nothing to provide.

Despite not having some of these documents, I got my approval today! One disappointing thing is that they put a note on my visa that it’s soft power/cooking class. Hopefully this won’t be a problem with immigration in the future 🤞🤞

I did get the visa so can’t really complain but I will say that contacting Issa Compass could be difficult at times. They would often not get back to me for hours or even days. They also apply for you through their own email so I never got any notice directly from the embassy. Not sure if this is normal for agents but I didn’t like it. Regardless though, they know what they’re doing and I’m glad I had support.