Will the DTV Visa be cancelled in the future due to recent changes?

With all the recent changes to DTV Visa, will DTV eventually get cancelled in the future?

From our perspective as a Muay Thai gym in Thailand, and also from a Thai point of view, I really don’t think DTV will be cancelled.

Once a visa policy has already been introduced, the Thai government normally does not completely remove it. What usually happens is they just raise the bar by asking for more documents, increasing the financial requirement, or checking applicants more carefully.

ED Visa is a good example. It has been abused for many years and some schools were even raided by immigration, but the visa is still here. The government just became more strict.

What I think will happen more often is that embassies may issue another visa instead of DTV if they are not fully convinced that your application is genuine.

I have actually seen this firsthand. We had applicants with very similar profiles, similar amounts of money in the bank, and similar supporting documents, but different nationalities.

One got a 5-year DTV with us, while another only got a 6-month METV. So nationality and how the embassy looks at the risk of each applicant can definitely make a difference.

For Soft Power applications like Muay Thai, showing genuine interest also helps. Photos of training, gym receipts, previous Muay Thai classes, or attending Muay Thai events can make your application stronger.

You don’t need to be a fighter, but it helps to show that Muay Thai is something you are genuinely interested in and not something you suddenly chose just for visa purposes.

I also believe embassies will care more about your overall plan in Thailand in the future. Where will you stay? Where will you train? How will you support yourself? Where does the money in your bank account come from? Your whole story should make sense.

From a Thai perspective, DTV is good for the economy.

Foreigners staying longer means more money being spent on accommodation, restaurants, gyms, transportation, and local businesses. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been very supportive of DTV as a way to attract foreigners to stay in Thailand longer.

So I believe DTV will be here for a long time. My suggestion to everyone in this group is that you don’t need to rush to apply just because you are afraid DTV might disappear.

Build your financial history, take Muay Thai classes at a local gym, and collect some evidence that you actually train. Once your profile is strong, then fly back to your home country and apply for DTV.

However, if you have already spent a lot of time in Thailand and immigration has warned you that you may have problems entering again, a 2-month single can be a good short-term option. The METV fee is around 1,000 THB. You can also take the overnight train from Bangkok to Vientiane, Laos, apply there, and the round-trip train ticket can be around 1,500 THB depending on the class you choose.(I edit out metv as of now only Laos resident can get METV)

This can give you more time to build stronger financial evidence, continue training, and prepare a better DTV application later.

The main point is: don’t rush to apply for DTV because you are afraid it will disappear. It will probably be here for a long time, but the requirements will likely become stricter.