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. 🙏

Just a quick update for Re-Entry on DTV:

Spent 179 days of my first DTV entry my history of entry is : in 2024 I only spent maybe 10 days out of Thailand and I’m here since May 2023 on TR ED TR ED again

So I would be the best person to be questioned by the immigration despite having the visa ( all the fear mongering post I see here)after all on my first exit on ED visa I got a interview in Thai so why not again

So what did I do?

Left from DMK to Kuala Lumpur, arrive at midnight and take the first flight back. So my Thai exit is 19 entry in Malaysia 20 exit 20 and entry Thailand 20

No question asked, stamp stamp check all good

Round two in October, just be nice smile and do what they ask it’s not rocket science

Hi There,

1. I am looking at heading to Chiang Mai/ Thailand for 3 months in a month and wanting to apply for a Digital Nomad Visa. I'd love some tips on where to apply and get approval within the next month please?

1. Also, can you get a Digital Nomad Visa with a Multiple Entry option?

Hi everyone, Hope you are having a good day.

Has anyone recently applied for the DTV visa in any of the neighboring countries around Thailand?

I would love to hear about your experiences and any tips that might help as I want to apply for it soon.

I've got 2 months left on my current visa so I'm not in a rush.

Thanks for reading.

Got the VISA from Bangladesh as a Freelancer

* Application Date: 11th February

* Visa Received on: 7th April

Documents Submitted:

* Freelancer.com Profile Screenshot

* Transaction History from Freelancer.com

* Proof of Income and Agreement with my full-time client from Canada

* Proof of Income from my client in Australia

* Payoneer Statement (Payment gateway)

* Remittance Certificate from my bank (showing remittance received over the last year)

During the interview, they asked a lot of questions about my clients, but they were very helpful.

Mistakes Made:

* I mistakenly used a ChatGPT-generated template for my agreement with my Australian client, leaving a placeholder [Enter your client's company address here:] which I forgot to change. They pointed it out during the interview and allowed me to correct it with a laugh.

* I mistakenly submitted 5 months and 27 days of statements instead of the required 6 months. They mentioned they would reopen the statement field for me to re-upload the correct document.

Part 3/3—

DTV Extension SUCCESS at Old Town Phuket for myself and my wife (Remote Worker / Digital Nomad)

First, a Note (for the 100th time)—— there's literally no need to tell me "it would've been easier if you would've just boarded an airplane." Busy family of 5 with three young kids— it would've been more expensive, more chaotic, and potentially more risky in our case. PLUS— I care about other people having access to this process. I'm happy to do it for science so people can have a little more clarity.

if you're somehow disgruntled about my doing this extension in this way, then why are you even in the group?

Timeline—

1st Day— Went to Immigration at Old Town Phuket. See previous posts about what I brought. Went through two or three rounds of varying degrees of checks. The Immigration officer was actually very kind, and let us know we needed: a *bank statement* for the *current* month. We also needed a *more recent* remote work authorization letter than the one I originally applied for the DTV with (Even though it's my own company— me authorizing myself).

2nd Day— Waited for my bank to auto-generate a bank statement for Feb-March (brought Jan-Feb, too). Wrote myself a new auth letter. Brought it all in. Waited my turn (very quick), the officer remembered us, quckly flipped through the documents and asked: "These are the new ones, right?" (he remembered us). Took our passports, docs, and money (1900THB each) gave us a little slip of paper telling us to pick up our passports on Friday (submitted on Monday).

3rd Day — Brough paper straight to Desk 5, they brought our passports out with a receipt and an extension stamp. Did our second 90-day check-in on the spot.

Tips / Takeaways :

- We were a primary holder + 1 follower. We have a shared bank account that has at 500,000 THB in it, but not much more than that. Our statements did not show that amount going below 500k at any point. There didn't seem to be concern about needing 500k per person.

- We kept all of our documents in order from the time we initially applied for the visa in Jakarta, Indonesia. This made it very easy to apply for an extension. All I had to change were the bank statements and authorization letter.

- Applying for an extension in Phuket took longer than applying for the visa in Jakarta. We submitted the application on Monday, picked up Friday (submitted on Monday, picked up Wednesday in Jakarta).

- The officers and staff, while they didn't talk much (likely because they're very busy), were very helpful and kind. Any anxiety and pressure I felt was put on myself, and never came from the staff or officers.

10/10 would do it again (but can't)