DTV WORKACTION APPROVED - SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP LLC GUIDE - VISUAL MEDIA FREELANCERS

I would like to thank everyone in this group for contributing in my DTV visa process. This was an invaluable source of quality information and I would not have been able to do it right without you.

Special thanks to Dragiša Dobić, Johan De Reiziger and Benjie Thomas from this group for giving me very specific information I needed to make this successful on the first attempt.

I would like to contribute by making this specific guide for all people applying with sole proprietor LLC route. The information publicly available in this group regarding this specific route was not clear enough to me, and left me with many questions (yes, I am probably stupid). I hope that this post will address these gaps for everyone interested.

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Embassy: Hanoi

DTV type: Workation

Nationality: USA

Company's field of work: Video and Film production

Personal Bank Statements: 3 months (most recent)

Date applied: October 22, 2025

Status changed to "Pending Approval": October 24, 2025

Date approved: October 29, 2025

Total - 1 week

NO ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS REQUESTED

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In the attached images you will find:

1. Content page, listing the exact organization of the supporting PDF document. This is usually your Field 5 in the application.

2. Proof of location setup + an ADDITIONAL TIP about this section will be provided below. This is usually your Field 4 in the application.

3. Cover page with a table for the personal bank statements section (proof of funds). This is usually your Field 3 in the application.

4. Cover page which explains the relationship between your business account and your personal account. This was inside the supporting PDF document of Field 5 (page 42 of my Content page attached).

5. Portfolio page. I work with videos, so I provided links to each of these listed projects.

You can mimic the structure of the Content page for your application and edit sections as you see fit. However, I highly suggest that you keep Cover Letter, Employment Contract and No Objection Letter at the top of the document, right after your content page.

For these 3, you can get some assistance from chatGPT.

Example of the prompt would be: "Please write me a No Objection letter for DTV Thailand visa application, addressed to the embassy, which states clearly that I am allowed to work remotely". Done.

As a sole proprietor, you will be writing letters addressed FROM YOUR COMPANY TO YOURSELF, even though you are the only member of the company. This was a confusing part for me, but it is the correct way to do it. Do not overthink it. It might make no sense, but they just need paperwork confirming that you can take care of yourself.

Sign them all please.

All the other sections, tailor as you see fit.

For example, I included my IMDb page, instead you can include your LinkedIN, Instragram page, Facebook page, or similar.

Make sure that you SCREENSHOT everything and include the screen grabs in the application. They will not bother visiting your links. Make it easy for the embassy staff.

Portfolio - see attached. Make your links clickable, and double check all the links before submitting. If your work is images or some similar creative field, attach as many as you can in your application. The stronger your portfolio is the better. Again, do not assume that they will visit your links.

Business section - You can see the breakdown of the documents I submitted for my LLC in the Content Page. The summary is:

* Articles of Organization *(if your company is U.S. based, you can download this online from the STATE where you incorporated. Most states have these available online for free).*

* Business Bank Statements - 3 months

* 2024 Tax Filing - Schedule C only (hide your SSN)

* Highlighted Statements proving relationship between business and personal bank accounts - I made a landscape oriented image, placed 1 page of my business statement on the left side and 1 page of my personal statement on the right side. I highlighted the salary transaction on both and connected them with an arrow. Whatever you do, make it simple to understand. Also, I included a cover page for this section, explaining exactly how this transaction happens. I have attached this cover page in this post

* Invoices Sent out for the past month (1 month)

* Screenshots of my company's Web Page, with a clickable link to my webpage. Please make the screenshots.

The last page of this document was my flight ticket to Thailand. It was a return ticket within 180 days.

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PROOF OF LOCATION

See the attached cover letter for this section and use it as a template.

* IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL TIP: *

Initially, I tried to include ALL my passport pages in the main supporting PDF document (Field 5 of your application).

I quickly realized that after compressing over 70 pages to under 3MB that most JPEGS were completely unreadable. In order to mitigate this issue, I INCLUDED THE SCANS OF ALL MY PASSPORT PAGES IN THE PROOF OF LOCATION SECTION. I just appended them at the end of my Proof of Location document, with a cover page explaining that this is what I'm including.

It worked, and most importantly it made a DRASTIC DIFFERENCE in the readability and clarity of my heavily compressed supporting PDF file.

The embassy never requested me to attach my passport pages again. You can save yourself a lot of headache by doing so. And if you are feeling lazy - Yes, you need to include ALL your passport pages!

PDF COMPRESSION TOOLS

This has been discussed many times before in this group, but let's be thorough. I recommend 2 options:

smallpdf.com

ilovepdf.com

Both will give you good results, but in my case the readability of the final document was much better with SMALLPDF.

DESIGN TOOLS

You can use Canva to make your documents look more professional. They offer free trials, and it will vastly improve the overall look of your application.

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Feel free to DM me with specific questions that are not covered in this guide.

Yes, the process is stressful, but my advice is to include as much as possible in your application so that you don't get additional request for documents.

It will move your application quicker and give you less stress in the long run.

Good luck to you all!

A freelancer wanting to apply for DTV

I am not employed by a company and do not have a registered buisness, can I still apply for the dtv as a freelancer?

Has anyone done the DTV visa from Belgium as a freelancer? What additional documents could they ask for. I have gotten all the basic ones required. I have over 500,000 THB but some of it was in stocks so I’ve put them on my savings now. Should that make a problem with the 3 months thing? Also I’m a recent freelancer so don’t have any tax proof yet.

Success story from Hanoi. Figured I should write one of these because I found it helpful reading others' accounts when I was planning things out. (Thanks!)

I applied for a Workation visa. I'm a freelancer with a sole-proprietorship from the US. Previously, I've stayed in Thailand for over five years on Tourist visas and Education visas.

I supplied all the required information and put "Freelancer" for occupation instead of "Business Owner". The tricky part is the PDFs it asks you to upload to prove everything. I suggest getting AS MUCH information as possible. Err on the side of providing TOO MUCH rather than too little. I was never asked for any additional documents or for an interview.

For documents indicating current location (merge all into a single PDF, plenty of tools to do this online):

1. Photo of entry slip to Vietnam

2. Hotel reservation PDF

3. Plane ticket PDF

4. Photo of Vietnam visa stamp in passport

5. Vietnam e-visa PDF

6. Photo of hotel key with the name of the hotel in my reservation

Financial documents:

1. Balance letter from my bank indicating current balance (created on the day I applied)

2. Screenshot of bank app from the day I applied (from the web as my phone app did not allow screenshots)

3. 6 months of bank statements (reverse chronological order, I had the 500,000 baht in my checking account for only the past 3 months)

4. Screenshot of exchange rate from the day I applied (Google or any other exchange rate website are fine, put 500,000 baht in so they can see how much it's worth in your currency)

Employment contract or proof showing I'm a remote worker or freelancer:

1. Proof of employment document (I'm self-employed, so I wrote a letter explaining that I'm a freelancer, have a sole-proprietorship, the work I do, how I do it, and that I will not take any Thai clients. Put my name and contact info, signed and dated with a PDF signing service)

2. Contracts with two of my clients (I had no formal contracts with them, so I drafted up a simple, two-page document for each explaining the work I do, how long I've been working with them, how I am paid, explaining that I can work from anywhere remotely, including Thailand, and sent it to them with Dropbox Sign for their signature and date, and sent them a polite email explaining it's for a visa)

3. 5 invoices from recent months sent with my invoicing software

4. Screenshot of Stripe's transactions page, which I use to accept payments, showing the last few months of transactions

I stayed in Hanoi the entire time as I knew I could be called for an interview any time. I arrived on April 17th, applied on the 18th, got my status changed to "Pending Approval" on the 21st, sent an email to the embassy on the 29th asking for a status update, and got approved on May 1st. It was a bit longer than most stories here (9 working days), but patience is a virtue, I guess. My stay in Vietnam is until May 14th, which may or may not have had an effect on the processing speed.

Hope this helps anyone else planning a trip to Vietnam. All in all, it was a pretty easy process, but it was a bit nerve-racking with it taking so long. I would recommend quadruple-checking all of your info before you submit it. I spent nearly an entire day just filling out the application (about 6 hours of work compiling and checking all the info as well as formatting PDFs). Good luck!

Do freelancers have to pay tax if they stay with DTV visa ? I will leave before 180 days to visa extend. I am worried that I will be asked again if I return after 2 weeks after leaving the country. If you know the rates to pay, please let me know 🙏

If I come back with DTV for the second time, do I have to show the show money 500,000 baht again? How much should I show 🙏 I don't have a Thai bank account because it's difficult to open a Thai bank with DTV.

Hey everyone! Just sharing for freelancers who are unsure of what to submit for the financial supporting documents. Besides the normal requirements along with my portfolio (PDF with tearsheets/photos), I submitted:

1. A few bank statements showing over the 500k (or more! As much as you can, I guess) sitting in the account for more than 3 months -- I highlighted the amount and the months to prove that.

2. Invoices to clients with screenshots of the bank showing the money being paid.

Applied online from Cambodia on Oct 28th, received approval this morning (Nov 11).

Took a while, but it all went through.

Good luck and thanks for the support!

Have any freelancers successfully gotten the DTV visa with just their portfolio and not current contracts with clients?

Provided they meet all the other requirements.

Edit: I plan to apply in Taipei in the next two weeks

Hello, I am a self-employed freelancer - will showing my online portfolio of work be sufficient to fulfill the employment part of the DTV application?

A question about DTV for a business owner. Let's say that you are the sole owner of a private company.

So you own all the money from this company but you send every month the money on your personal bank account that only have the money from the month expenses.

In these cases, what you can do? They say that the money should be in your personal bank account for 3 months in some embassies, did somebody manage to have accepted the money in the company bank account or that the money was sended in the personal bank account before the request of DTV?

I'd like to try to ask in Jakarta or in Phnom Penh soon about the DTV for freelancers, wondering if somebody had the same issue and resolved it.

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