I thought I’d share this banking experience, just in case it could help someone. Background: I have a newer US Passport, the one with the weird patterned photos that make you look like a criminal. Anyway, I’m at the K-Bank at Central, on Beach Road in Pattaya. I have all my docs in order and we’re flying along in the process when it comes time to A) take my picture, and B)take a picture of my passport photo. The K-Bank system rejected multiple attempts by their rep, each time saying the photos do not look like the same person. By the way, at K-Bank they use their iPads to take the photos - I wonder if they should upgrade that process. The rep tried and tried with no success, finally telling to go home and make my beard shorter. That night, I followed this advice and the next day went to the K-Bank located in the Big C Super Center on Central Road. Same sh!t. Just when the rep and I were wondering what to do next, another rep who had been following along at a distance ran over, saw that I have a new US passport and started shouting, “no, no, no! US Passport! US Passport!”. He grabbed it and with a big smile told me he was going to make this work. He went to a remote corner of the small branch and took photos of the passport at a weird angle. He came back laughing and gave everything to my rep saying, “go ahead, it will work now”. And just like that, when the rep took my like 20th photo….voila! it matched with the passport photo, and we sailed through the rest of the process. So if anyone has this problem at a bank, I recommend you ask the rep to call their home office and check on the best practices for taking a photo of the new USPassport.

Vientiane, Laos DTV Approved Workation

Applied & Paid 4/1

Additional Document Request 4/3 - Job description & March checking statement, which wasn’t available at the time of application. A balance letter was provided instead

Pending approval 4/6

Request Interview 4/8 - Job Description

Interview 4/9

Approved 4/9 - One hour later

Provided documents:

- i9 which is a legal document showing authorization to work in the United States (switched to 1099 later on, same position).

- 5 month checking statements. Funds held at 18k usd with excess being thrown into a brokerage account. Account was created and then the threshold funds were deposited.

- 5 months Brokerage statement detailing 154k usd of securities at the time of application

- 1099 composite from Schwab

Key Interview Questions:

- Employee or Employer. Legally I am an employer for my own LLC which executes b2b contracts but I stated employee.

- Payment schedule. I outlined which deposits were from my contract employer.

Interview Outfit (saw a bunch of people dressing like they’re homeless, appearance before the final judge matters a lot. Especially in Asia)

- Polo shirt and jeans

- 1 baht chain

- Apple Watch

Approved today – Vientiane DTV (“Soft Power”) processing time: 3 working days.

📌No interview

📌No agency

Below is my full timeline:

5 April: Arrived in Laos late at night and submitted the required documents.

6 April: holiday.

7 April: Payment completed.

9 April: Application approved.

Hello , I need to mak my one year extension of my yearly spoos-marry visa. How many copys of each document is needed? One or two?

Hello. Does anyone know how to submit an application for a two-year-old child? What documents are needed and what are the fees?

Nearly 2 weeks waiting for non O-visa approval in Sydney based on retirement (not marriage).

On arrival to Phuket I’ll try opening a bank account. To open the account, I have a dtac Thai mobile number and I live with my wifes family in their home.

Do I need to get something from dtac proving it’s my mobile number?

…and what would I need to get from my wifes family as evidence I’m living there. Would I ned a certificate of residence from immigration?

Thanks.

Went to bank today for visa renewal paperwork, showed them last years letters so they would know exactly what I wanted. Got something similar-ish and was assured this was fine, I wasn't 100% but thought I'd give it a go. Immigration asked me to go back to the bank because it was incorrect. The same lady said 'you got the wrong information from us because you asked me for a year, not 12 months! 🤔🤔

My DTV just got approved from Jakarta.

Total application time: 23 days. No interview. 3 additional document requests.

Type: Workation. I work remotely for a company.

Applied on 2nd March. Uploaded 3 months proof of funds, proof I'm in Indonesia, a letter from my employer stating remote work capability and salary.

10th march - request proof I'm still in Indonesia, and upload all pages of passport.

16th march - request proof of company registration and 3 months bank statement that salary was paid into.

17th march - request 3 months bank statement with salary paid into with salary payments highlighted.

25th march - visa approved.

Hi All,

Category: Workcation (Remote Worker)

Embassy: London

Applied: 19/03/26

Additional Docs Requested: 20/03/26

Additional Docs Submitted: 21/03/26

Let's see what happens now..

Additional Docs:

* New Photo

* New Scan of British Passport

* Consent Letter - Remote Working Only

* Consent Letter - Will stay in the UK until processing is complete (as I planned the trip for Songkran)

* Some official history from HMRC account

* Bank statements - 3 months income transactions

* Bank statements - £11,000 held for 10 days in the last 15 days

I have submitted the bank statements earlier but they asked me to highlight the transactions, so I did.

In June I will have a had my retirement visa for one year and will need another year extension. In Jomtien Beach. Does anyone have the official list of documents I need to do that in June? I was at immigration for a 90 Day check in and the line at information was 2 hours to get it. Can’t find it online.

PS I did the 800,000 for the first year, but have been doing the 65,000+ transfers every month to convert to that so I can get my 800,000 back.

Thanks for your help.