LOS ANGELES THAI CONSULATE:

Applied March 6th. Submitted further documents March 25th. Have not heard back since. It is now April 14th 2025

I applied for the DTV Soft Power on May 6th with all required documents and triple checked all information was submitted correctly word for word.

13 days later (March 25th) I get an email asking to submit a bank statement requiring a MINIMUM of $17,000 USD, with my name clearly printed and it cannot be an investent profile. My name was CLEARLY PRINTED on my bank statement, it is a statement from a SAVINGS/ CHECKING ACCOUNT with my BANK which also has the banks name and address cleary printed on it. I submitted the statement with $15,300 USD AS THE E-VISA WEBSITE and every other resource available online stated the requirement was a minimim of $15,000. I could have submitted the statement with $17,000+ the first time if thats what made clear anywhere but it wasnt.

I resubmitted a new bank statement with $17,500 1 day of recieving that further documents requested email (March 27) and ever since status has been in "Processing Document Check (1) ". I underatand as of now it Songkran in Thailand, but that document was sumbitted way prior to the holiday.

I also submitted the documents for my finacé's DTV SoftPower on April 4th 2025 with all the same required documents except I made sure her bank statement has well over $17,000 USD. We applidd to the same consulate as me. Her status has been "Pending Payment" ever since. Its been 6 business days and no status change.

I'll continue my patience but wrote this out slight confusion & frustration.

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE THAI CONSULATE LOS ANGELES

If you want to use a cooking class for the soft power category for the DTV: does the cooking school have to be certified by the MOE (ministry of education) or is it enough to have a booking confirmation of a multi-week class and the payment slip for it (maybe id and business registration of the owner/company?)? anyone got any experiences with this? Any other documents needed in case of the cooking class route besides the financial proof? preferably applying via eVisa in germany but a thai neighboring country would also be an option. Thanks in advance.