Hi everyone and happy 2026 🙏

I want to apply for DTV myself online, freelance category and would appreciate some advice. I am 58 and hold dual citizenship (South Africa/Germany) with residency and tax registration in South Africa.

I have two properties outside of Thailand from which I receive a combined rental income of about 80k baht per month. Both have current one year tenancy contracts. In addition I have two separate bank accounts, each showing a balance of >800k baht continuously since September.

I realise that this would probably qualify me for a retirement visa but I do want to work too.

I retired from teaching in July 2025 and plan on doing online tutoring work. However, I don't have any company or official portfolio.

I have been doing this for the last 4 months (Sep-Dec) and earned 30000+ baht each month. All my clients are based in the UAE, so no Thai clients. Each of my clients I have taught previously and all clients are passed onto me by word of mouth. No company or website.

I did supply each client with an invoice for each month so I can provide invoices plus the bank statements showing each corresponding payment into my account.

Would this be sufficient information in my case for the freelancing?

I do not want to do (and pay for) muai thai, cooking or language courses.

I have heard quite a few people saying I should go for the retirement visa because no one will know about my online work, but this is not an option I'm willing to consider.

I will be applying through the embassy in Pretoria, South Africa.

Please only constructive advice and/or actual experience 🙏

Hello everyone,

I’m Canadian. I want to apply for my DTV (Digital Nomad Visa) as an online tutor. My embassy is the Royal Thai Embassy in Ottawa. Have any of you had experience with this embassy?

I’m wondering if it’s safer or faster to go directly to Ottawa to apply in person or if I should do it online. I’d like to get my visa as quickly and smoothly as possible.

I don’t have an employment contract or anything like that. I want to start as an online tutor (teaching languages). Is there a minimum salary requirement to show, and if so, for how long? I have the necessary funds (500,000 THB) in my account, but I’m worried about the job proof requirements. My client base isn’t stable yet - I’m still building it.

Thank you for your help - I really appreciate it.

Ok, adding my experience to be helpful, even though I'm sure I'll get plenty of snide comments for using a Visa company.

Have been on plenty of different visas over the years, as my situation has changed many times, and I've always done it myself, because it's just basic paperwork.

With this one, I have reasons for deciding to use these guys, especially with their money back guarantee, and I'm not going to get into the details about why.

I had my paperwork submitted by Issa Compass, and overall had a good experience with them.

My nationality: USA

Applied in: Jakarta

Date applied: May 17

Date approved: May 29

No additional paperwork requested. Applied as a freelancer. I'm an online tutor.

Papers I gave to Issa Compass:

-bio data and Thai related visa pages of passport.

-my address in Thailand

- my booking in Indonesia and my evisa confirmation from when I entered Indonesia

- 6 months of personal bank statements, where you can see deposits from my income and over 500k baht

- my resume, screenshots of my website, screenshot of my classroom software business account, in-class screenshot as an example of what I'm doing

-invoices to my clients for the past 3 months, pdfs of the money hitting my overseas payment service, transfers and receipts of the transfer service I use to convert the currently into USD (that correlate with my US bank records), and because there are so many steps to this.... I made a little info-graphic showing the payment process step by step, with currency conversions into baht on all the relevant payments highlighted.

- a cover letter explaining what I do, how I'm paid, and why I want to be in Thailand, thanking them for their consideration.

-the 1040 Tax return page of my 2024 taxes, showing my previous year income that is listed as freelance tutor work.

Any of the pdfs/images that could be bundled together, I merged as one PDF (money related, proving work related, location related, passport pages, etc), which can be done on websites for free.

I was thorough, I know, but Issa Compass was helpful in telling me what was safe and what was overkill, and verifying that all documents were organized and presented in the way the embassy likes. I got to ask them questions I wouldn't ask publically, and about things particular to my situation that I was worried about- and they let me know if it would affect my outcome. All was well.

They do tons of these, and have a money back guarantee, because they know that if it passes their test, it'll pass the test of the embassies they recommend. They submit for you, so you don't get to log on and check it every 5 seconds (as some of us would like to do), but whenever I messaged and asked how it was going, they got right back to me and assured me I was still in a reasonable timeline and not to worry.

You could totally do all of this yourself and be fine in most cases- but if you have reasons to worry that the stakes are higher for you for various reasons and you'd rather pay for the peace of mind, then I do recommend Issa Compass. They couldn't offer the govnt fees back to their customers (in case of rejection) without it being a terrible business model, if they didn't facilitate what they do with confidence and experience. Anyway, just wanted to share.

I got hit up by 2 or 3 people by DM asking if I actually was using them, after mentioning it in a comment, so I know people are weary of whether or not they're legit. Now that it's finally all done, I can say that they are 👍🏼

I'm giving them this big rundown and praise because before using them I searched for their name in these groups a TON to see if I could trust them, and a good amount of the praise was posted anonymously, or the poster got ripped apart being accused of working for them. So, I wanted to help contribute a real account of being their customer. Yeah, I wish the fee was less for sure- but compared to what I've paid over the years for visas, I'm still super happy with what it cost in the end for me to not stress on this crap for another 5 years 😁

Stay, work online, so I can be paying into the Thai economy. I'm really happy this visa option exists for us now ❤️ 🙏🏼

I don't think I left anything out, but if you have any questions I'm happy to share more details of my experience if it's helpful. I know I relied heavily on the experiences of others to make choices to prepare for this visa myself, so happy to pay it forward. 🫶🏼

PS- if you're staying on Java and don't want to be in Jakarta, but relatively close, I have a great recommendation for a place in Bandung. 30 minute whoosh train from Jakarta, and you're in a city that's way more interesting and is a jumping point for tons of activities. Out guesthouse arranged some amazing day trips for us at half the cost I'd seen advertised online, and they really changed our experience of this visa run from a hassle to amazing. 😊

I am a student here in bangkok. I need a job on site or remote. I have visa, i just need work if anybody can help me please let me know

hi does the London embassy require a minimum amount for proof of income each month? I’m planning to switch to remote work (currently full time employed in a job that wouldn’t allow this) and become a freelancer/online tutor in the near future once I have saved up the 500,000 THB from my current job but worried that my monthly income will be too low to begin with until I build up a clientele and I won’t have a convincing application. I was considering doing tutoring on the weekends but again this would only bring in a small amount of income per month until I can make it more of a full time thing.

Does anyone happens to know any English speaking teachers that would be able to provide online iGCSE maths / science tutoring / coaching please ?