Why did it take so long to get my DTV visa approved?

The main reason for the delay was that I’m the managing director of a foreign company (based in Latvia). Because of this, my business registration had to be certified by a notary, then legalized by the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and finally, the original documents had to be sent to the Thai Embassy in Stockholm, which is responsible for the Baltic region.

I personally live in Germany, which made the entire process even more complicated logistically.

The Thai Consulate in Frankfurt, however, was extremely unprofessional.

Instead of informing me upfront that they required three different layers of document legalization, they dragged out the process unnecessarily. Every four weeks, they came up with a new requirement, forcing me to hire yet another lawyer to handle the next round of certifications and translations.

After I had finally submitted all requested documents, I didn’t hear from them for six weeks. No confirmation, no updates – absolutely nothing. Then suddenly, the visa was approved “coincidentally” one week after the expiration of my 90-day visa extension, right at the point when I would have been forced to leave the country.

To me, this felt like an intentional delay – either due to incompetence or a flawed system. If you’re planning to apply for a DTV visa, be prepared for extensive bureaucracy, poor communication, and a lack of transparency – especially if your business is registered outside of Germany.