I (m) and my two teenage kids want to stay long-term in Thailand. I’m employed by a european company and work remotely. We had been in Thailand for over two years on education and guardian visas, but since my kids stopped going to school this term, we needed another solution.

In July/August 2025, I applied for the DTV visa in Vientiane, Laos - and got approved. I’m sharing our process here in the hope it might help someone going through the same.

* Day 1: Created an account on the DTV online platform and prepared my own visa application.

* Day 3: Flew to Vientiane on a Friday, added missing information (proof of location), submitted the form.

* Day 6: Monday, paid the 10'000 THB fee in person at the embassy (cannot be paid online in Laos). Bring the printout with the QR code - it will be stamped.

* Day 9: Received email for an in-person interview in two weeks. They said to bring all original documents and that they would review online banking. (Note: everyone applying for a DTV visa is interviewed according to an information at the embassy.)

* Day 23: Attended the interview. Basic questions about my job, then I had to log in to my online bank to show recent salary payments and my WISE account. My Bangkok Bank account was not of interest.

* Day 23: Got email with approval notice and visa (PDF).

* Day 24: Flew to Bangkok to activate my visa. Prepared dependent visas for my kids.

* Day 25: Returned to Vientiane with my kids and submitted their applications (dependend DTV visa).

* Day 26: Paid 10,000 THB each. One visa approved by noon; the other was canceled because I had selected the wrong country in one of the form field.

* Day 26: Resubmitted the canceled application.

* Day 27: Paid the fee again. Embassy requested an English version of the birth certificate (it was already multilingual). I re-uploaded the same document but highlighted the English labels.

* Day 28: Visa approved.

* Day 29: Flew to Bangkok, showed the visa at immigration, and got the passport stamp.

I'm thinking of using the issacompass see vice to verify and submit my documents, does anyone have any experience with them.

I would like to ask the people who uploaded the bank statement if this one from my bank can be approbed? It has more than 500k for more than a year and below it says was created today 8-7-2025.

Is from my bank in Spain, but I need to know if this is how it should look like or is there any information missing.. Can be translated from an online PDF platform ???

Thanks...

Hi everyone,

Has anyone encountered this message when applying for the DTV after uploading their passport scan?

“Biodata page of travel document – We are unable to retrieve data from the MRZ. Please enter your travel document’s biographic information manually.”

Does this mean my passport scan isn’t clear enough? I used a scanner, and it looks clear to me and has high definition even after zooming in so I wonder why it couldn’t read the information from it 🙏🏻

Hello,

I have been in Thailand for almost 60 days and need to start the visa application process for the DTV.

Which surrounding country has quick turn around times and good pricing? I would appreciate any help, thank you!

⚠️ Warning

Passport Type: USA

I’m having to leave Thailand because my Non-B visa couldn’t be transferred in time due to a missing document from my employer. While still in Thailand, immigration told me I had to leave the country to do a border run and return on a tourist visa to restart the Non-B visa process.

This will be my first time entering Thailand on a tourist visa exempt on arrival, as I haven’t used one this year. Today, I’m flying from Thailand to Vientiane, Laos (VTE airport) via Lao Airlines. I had everything prepared for the visa on arrival: 2,000 baht in cash and a passport photo, ready before check-in at the airline counter.

However, Lao Airlines refused to issue my already paid-for ticket unless I showed them an additional 10,000 baht in cash. I’ve never heard of this requirement before.

I’m scheduled to return to Thailand on the same airline from VTE. Has anyone experienced this before? Has anyone had problems flying back to Thailand from VTE with Lao Airlines?

Question about pick up date for under consideration stamp. I’m going to apply for extension next month so just trying to plan a little bit if possible.

30 days from my current stamp falls on a Sunday. Do you think Immigration will have the pick up date for the remaining 11 months be on Friday or on Monday? Does anybody have experience with this? That would be extremely helpful and I am aware that it will ultimately just come down to Immigration‘s decision.

The reason I’m asking is because I am hoping to take a flight on that Saturday out of the country. So ideally, I would like to pick it up on Friday if possible and I will ask Immigration to do that. Just looking for anyone’s previous experience. Thank you. 

Hello everyone i submit my all documents 10 day ago than they required additional document again I submit now they invite me for interview. I apply DTV visa from Malaysia Kualalampur anyone can help me where I go for interview It is Online or I want to go embassy? what kind of document they again ask for interview please help me. 

Approved for DTV (workcation) in under 24 hours. Thanks to everyone here sharing 😃

I don’t post much in this group, but I’ve been reading everything for the past month or so—and I just want to say thank you to the community.

I finally got my DTVI. I flew into Hanoi on July 8th and got the visa on July 18th.

No extra documents were requested. Here’s what I submitted ahead of time:

* Hotel confirmation

* Entry stamp

* Cash App statements from the last three months

* Business registration

* EIN

* Articles of organization

* Receipt from registering my business

* Client portfolio showing the actual work I do

* A work letter from myself, since I own Tony Destin LLC (to be honest, I had ChatGPT help write it)

That’s it.

I know a lot of people have been trying to go the Muay Thai visa route, but I avoided that since there’s been a bunch of issues with it lately. I came in on the workation path, and it ended up being pretty straightforward.