Has anybody here done border run in Lao on DTV? Any experiences or tips? Thank you🙏

The DTV application process is a SCAM.

US Passport

Soft Power Muay Thai

Rejected then approved.

I applied in Hanoi 22 June and was rejected 25 June for Soft Power. No additional documents were requested. I went to the Thai embassy and asked why my application was rejected. The nice, but clueless, lady at the counter looked up my application and said that my "documents did not qualify". She could not specify which documents did not qualify but she encouraged me to apply again. Such BS.

So i applied again on 26 June with the EXACT same documents but this time I highlighted my name, ending balance, and account numbers in my Bank statements and pay slips. Visa was approved 4 business days later on 1 July.

Documents submitted:

Proof of location:

-Boarding pass

-Passport entry stamp

-Hotel booking

Proof of funds:

-Bank balance screenshot day of submission with 1M+ baht

-Bank statements showing over 1M baht (6 months)

-Pay slips (6 months)

Soft Power documents supplied by Muay Thai school

Cross your fingers if you decide to apply at Hanoi. They WILL randomly reject your application and encourage you to pay again. SCAMMERS

Has anyone applied for the DTV in Ho Chi Minh through soft power activities? I am currently preparing my documents now and would really appreciate any tips on making the entire application process smoother (Eg. Converting the bank account statements to Thai Baht, cover letter to explain how i can sustain expenses in Thailand.) Thank you in advance!

It helps to answer interview in Thai 💕 officer will be nicer 💕 first applied last year in my home country, confident with bank account n yearly income but was met with (we don't have bilateral agreements with Thai govt so we don't know what to charge)

So to rush to get in I did ED visa which helped me to learn Thai เรียนภาษาไทย but 😩 unable to travel out. So I took the plunge & one way ticket out. Lesson learnt to check on bank holidays it was a grueling 18 days wait with just an appointment date. But I think 2 points to learn from this

1) Glad I got an agent, pay 100USD to save on headache, help me check on docs & even advise me retaking photo showing my ears and no teeth to prevent rejection. They help to push along documents.

2) Sometimes you just have to push through, follow instructions, be there early not on time, before office opens (everyone had appointment at 9.30am) what a cute arrangement 😂 just persevere. Be prepared for the weather (correction : thks for helping below, so I be sure not to miss deadline reporting save fine money 😊)

DTV approved in Penang, Malaysia 🇲🇾

This has been a battle folks but we did it!!!

First I will say do not plan coming this place it has been classified as the hardest and longest to get approved and the process is so tiring. I arrived here April 29 and the approval went through today May 29 so total of 30 days wild. I went with an agency which be honest was good idea cause they literally helped call the embassy and push my interview due to Penang can’t go the embassy anymore they have to request for interview. I have 3 weeks of them requesting my 3 months documents in a row ridiculous honestly but in the end it was approved. Please do research and go somewhere else they have a 50% chance here if you get approved or not.

Relieved to report I got my soft power DTV through from HCMC yesterday finally. Application submitted 24th April, pending approval 25th April, approved 10th May.

3 points of note from my experience:

Hanoi seems to be much quicker at processing the applications within Vietnam at the moment if you are considering an application in the country.

HCMC approved my application on a Saturday evening - this is the first report I have seen of "out of hours" approvals from this embassy.

I had an active METV in place at the point of approval of my DTV. A caveat to this is that I got a new passport in between the METV and DTV being granted.

This group has been invaluable to me so hopefully this information helps someone else.

My Experience with DTV (Workstation)

It took me almost two months to get approved in the U.S. The main reason for the delay seemed to be that resubmitted documents are not checked regularly.

However, as soon as I emailed them, they responded and approved my DTV the same day.

So, if you haven't heard back from them in a while—send a follow-up email!

It was in LA

Hello everyone. Just wanted to say a big thank you to this amazing group and everyone who has shared such helpful information here.

We successfully got our DTV approved through the Soft Power Muay Thai application.

We applied in Hanoi, and the whole process took about a week. To our surprise, we even received the approval email on Sunday.

Really appreciate all the tips and support from this community. Thank you so much!

Hong Kong passport holder

20th Apply in Hanoi

21st pending documents check

22nd pending approval

27th Approved

Another success story from Hanoi - after 2 years on ED visa I was a bit worried, but I got my DTV and entered succesfully through DMK in Bangkok - no question asked. This group helped me a lot applying for my DTV visa, so I too want to contribute. Below are all the details:

Embassy: Hanoi

Category: Workcation (sorry, I forgot which subcategory I picked, not sure if freelancer or company - but my company is registered in my country as Sole proprietorship = 1 person "company")

Time: 7 days = 5 working days

Timeline:

20th April (late night): Applied & paid

21st April: Pending document check

22nd April: Pending Approval

27th April (evening): Approved

> NOTE: I got approved on Sunday, and since there were numerous similar reports (some even mentioned they received visas on official holidays), it seems like the embassy is working also on weekends, and probably also during holidays in some limited mode. So don’t lose hope, you really can receive your visa anytime.

Documents:

1. Proof of current location: 3-page PDF:

- booking of hotel in Vietnam (for 5 nights)

- stamp from Viet immigration

- my Viet e-visa

2. Financial evidence: 10-page PDF:

- last 6 months of bank statements

- also added a screenshot from the current (unfinished) month of April, as I've applied ~ 20th

> NOTE1: I had ~ 600k on my bank account for around 3 months, not 6

> NOTE2: I did not translate stataments to English, as that would be an enormous amount of work (translating 20+ pages of PDF, without breaking layout is not fun…), but it didn’t matter. All I did was highlight the ENDING monthly balance + my monthly paycheck.

3. Portfolio: 16-page PDF:

- Portfolio: 3 pages, just screenshots from my (web) portfolio

- Payslips for the last 6 months: 6 pages

- Proof of my company/business registration: 2 pages

> NOTE: I did translate this one, as it’s quite important, and attached BOTH the original and translated versions.

- Letter to allow myself to work remotely from TH: 1 page

> NOTE: Since my company is a Sole proprietorship, I wrote myself a generic letter that I allow myself to work remotely, my role is this and that, and that if there are more questions, you can contact me any time at a@b.c. There are many examples, so just search this group

- CV: 2 pages

- Screenshots from LinkedIn: 2 pages

Summary:

I made sure all the documents looks nice + I also added a little table of content at the beginning of each document - I think it's quite useful, if you have 10+ pages. I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. It was quite exhausting, and I’m glad it’s over, but it paid off ;)

Useful tools: Use smallpdf.com for merging and editing PDFs. It's not perfect, but I didn't find anything better.

IMPORTANT: Double, triple, quadruple-check your application with fresh eyes before submitting! It’s a lot of documents, a lot of work, mistakes can happen. For instance, I discovered a tiny mistake on my 3rd and final check, so just to be sure, I made a 4th one again lol.

FOR NON-ENGLISH SPEAKERS: Looks like you don’t need to translate everything to English. I only translated my business license, and that was enough. I’d go crazy if I had to translate, let alone notarize, all 30+ pages of financial evidence and portfolio!

Good luck to everybody!

My DTV was rejected with no explanation.

I submitted on 21st April and on 22nd it was pending approval. It got rejected on the 28th April. There was no explanation for rejection either. They never asked any supporting documents and I submitted everything I can for freelance remote DTV.

Any advice would be much appreciated. 🙏