# My Experience Obtaining the Digital Thailand Visa (DTV) Under the Workcation Category in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Hi everyone,

I recently went through the process of obtaining the Digital Thailand Visa (DTV) under the "Workcation - Business Owner" category. I wanted to share my experience to help others. For privacy reasons, I won't mention specific dates, but this was a recent experience.

## Timeline

* Before Departure:

Prepared all documents and filled out the eVisa application up to the point of needing to verify my current address.

* Day 1:

Went to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam to complete my DTV application.

* Upon Arrival in Vietnam: Took a picture of my passport with the hotel welcome letter in the background.

Then I took a picture of the Vietnam entry stamp in my passport with the same background.

Printed out the hotel booking confirmation as a PDF.

Merged these pictures and documents into one PDF as the 'Document Indicating Current Location' and uploaded it.

* Day 3:

Received my DTV approval in my email late evening, which was surprising because that day it was a public holiday in Thailand.

* Day 4:

Returned to Thailand holding an active Non-B multiple entry visa. Immigration officers were initially confused, sent me around different booths and took about 20 minutes to figure out what to do.

They said something about cancelling my Non-B re-entry on the spot and stamped me in under the DTV.

They called my previous employer to confirm my status, and I assured them I would properly cancel everything related to my previous visa after entering Thailand.

(the reason why I kept my Non-B visa active as a backup in case my DTV wasn’t approved)

## Documents I Provided

1. Cover Letter:Introduced myself and my business.

Explained my purpose of staying in Thailand and my appreciation for Thai culture.

Stated my commitment to comply with all Thai laws and not engage in local employment.

Listed all supporting documents and their purpose included in the application.

2. Proof of Self-Employment and Business Ownership: Official Document from Government: Obtained an officially recognized confirmation from my government verifying my business and ownership status.

Company Registration Lookup: I gave them a printout of the official government homepage and wrote a few sentences about how they can verify it themself.

Employment Contract: I set up a contract between my company and myself confirming my role as the business owner. (seems unnecessary since it's a sole proprietorship but I just did it as many people recommended it)

3. Professional Portfolio: Detailed professional experience, key projects, and clients.

Highlighted that all work is conducted remotely for clients based in other countries.

4. Service Agreement with a Client: Provided a service agreement with a client in my home country, demonstrating ongoing work and active business operations.

5. Financial Evidence:Official Financial Statement:

Showed a maintained balance exceeding the required 500,000 THB (equivalent in local currency) over the past 6 months. This bank statement was from my private account, not my companies account.

I also added last years tax statement that showed my income.

6. Accommodation Proof: Provided a rental contract confirming accommodation in Thailand.

Remark: I translated all government papers and bank statements through a translation service. I didn't notarize it but they all had a stamp of the translation company on it.

## Key Points from My Experience

* Verify All Passport Details Carefully:

The eVisa system may auto-fill your information after uploading your passport, but it can sometimes contain errors, especially with dates. So be careful and review every single field.

* **Double and triple check everything

**I can't stress this enough. It took me a few days to prepare everything and I intensively used the search in this group to be up to date on how others organized their application. In the end they didn't request any additional infos and everything went very smooth. If you have any questions almost everything is covered already in this group so make the best out of that

* Application Completion Before Departure:

You can fill out most of the eVisa application before leaving your country, except for the 'Current Address Verification Document'.

After arriving in the country where you're applying, just take pictures of stamp and the hotel you're staying at, merge it into a PDF, upload and done.

* PDF Handling and Compression:

The eVisa system has a maximum upload size of 3 MB per file.

My initial PDF containing the cover letter, portfolio, and confirmations was over 40 MB.

Standard compression tools like Adobe Acrobat and Preview on Mac sometimes resulted in empty pages.

I successfully compressed my PDFs using a tool called Ghostscript. Moral of the story if you run into the same issue just try different tools until something works

* **If you go to Vietnam, make sure you have a Visa if you need one

**I only realized a few days before my flight that I need a visa for Vietnam but luckily I somehow managed to get it just in time.

Final Thoughts

The entire process was surprisingly smooth, and I owe a lot of it to all the information shared in this Facebook group. The tips and experiences posted here helped me a lot to prepare all the documents. So I'm hoping I can give something back with my summary

Safe travels and good luck!

Hello, I would like to apply for the DTV online, from Italy for the category workcation (remote worker).

I work as a professor at university and I can work remotely, apart from the months I have teaching duties in Italy.

I have a few questions related to the employment contract. Beside the fact the contract has to be in English, should it be authenticated by the Thai embassy? Should it explicitly mention that I can work remotely?

Thank you very much in advance to anyone that will help me.

I wanted to share my experience in getting my DTV (workcation category) in Taipei, Taiwan (ROC).

I treated this visa application like a job application - I actually enjoyed the process of preparing the documents!

I supplied:

Work contract and employment certificate from one company

Contract (signed and stamped by company director) from a second company in the same line of business as the first company

Company registrations from both companies (both translated into English and notarized)

All invoices/salary payments since the start of 2024

Some invoices/salary payments dating back to early 2020 (returned to me, since they were considered "too old")

Accompanying Australian bank statements showing where the funds were paid

An Australian savings account (different bank) showing savings equivalent to several hundred thousand Baht (though less than 500K)

Thai bank statement (6 months) showing savings well above 500K Baht

Myanmar bank account showing salary payment from second company (returned to me)

Most recent salary slip from second company (returned to me)

Samples of work performed for first company / website etc.

I was told since I meet the requirements just from company A, there's no need to supply additional documents from other sources, hence why a lot of documents were returned to me.

I was asked to come in again on the second day and prove how the funds in my Thai account arrived there as they were a bit confused. I wrote in pencil, explaining nearly every transaction and also printed out a 12-month WISE statement proving that most of these funds were in fact transferred in from abroad. This may not have been necessary if Thai banks could provide detailed account statements, like banks in Australia, the USA, Europe and other countries do (all of which I hold bank accounts in).

I also explained that some of these funds were old, as in going back to 2020, 2021 etc. and that I don't normally store lots of money in my Thai account as the interest rate isn't good etc. and consequently only transferred the funds to that account for the purposes of applying for this visa (which they understood very well).

I also explained how due to tax reasons, I decided to transfer funds to my wife's account first, after reaching the top of the tax-free threshold for transfers to my account. She would then transfer these funds to my account afterwards.

I finally received my visa on the 3rd business day in the afternoon after applying. If you need to come in to show additional documents, that resets the processing time. They don't account for the fact that they've already sighted most of your documents, it's basically like starting from scratch.

The Taiwanese staff and I communicated almost entirely in Chinese. They were very friendly and even joked that I would need to pay 1000 TWD more for arriving "late" as they put it, to find out my result on day 2 (I passed) where I paid the fee. LOL.

Situation:

Visa: DTV1 Workcation (remote worker)

Home country Germany with double taxation agreement

Centre of life Thailand (significantly more than 180 days per year)

According to the double taxation agreement, Thailand is entitled to income tax. However, in practice, the employer in my home country pays income tax as if I were staying in my home country, right? If I file my tax return in Thailand, I only pay the tax difference, right?

What about social security contributions? In my opinion, there is no longer an obligation to pay social security contributions (statement valid for Germany), so no such contributions are paid. At the same time, of course, I take out health insurance and pension policies myself on a private basis.

Everything correct or any objections?

**DTV Visa Approved in Hanoi

**Our Thailand DTV's have been approved. As South Africans applying at the Hanoi Consulate, here’s a timeline of our journey:

Main Applicant - South African

* Application Submitted: Wednesday, 16th October 2024, at 11 pm (just after landing in Vietnam, selecting the Hanoi Consulate), have my own business therefore selected Visa type "Workcation".

* Status Update: Application status changed from "Document Check" to "Pending Approval" on Thursday, 17th October, around 10 am.

* Approval Received: Monday, 21st October 2024, at 10 am.

Documents Submitted for Main Applicant

* Bank Statements: Approximately two months’ worth of statements from three separate accounts (savings account

holding required funds and my cheque account where my salary is paid into).

* Employment Documentation: Employment contract and supporting company documents to prove ownership of the business.

* Current Location Verification: Photo of the Vietnam visa as proof of presence in Vietnam.

* Identification: Biodata page of passport or travel document.

* Recent Photograph: Taken within the last six months.

Dependent Visa - South African

* Application Submitted: Monday, 21st October 2024, around 12 pm.

* Status Update: Documents reviewed, and status changed to "Pending Approval" by end of the day on 21st October.

* Approval Received: Tuesday, 29th October 2024, at 12:23 pm.

Documents Submitted for Dependent Visa - 2 separate applications for 2 children

* Bank Statements: Three months' worth from three different accounts (main applicant only).

* Current Location Verification: Photo of the Vietnam visa as proof of being present in Vietnam (for each dependent).

* Identification: Biodata page of passport or travel document (for each dependent).

* Recent Photograph: Taken within the last six months.

* Unabridged Birth Certificate: Includes both parent details, matching main applicant’s passport information.

* Main Applicant’s Approved Visa: Provided as proof of connection to the dependent.

*As a single parent traveling with my kids, it was interesting to note that no consent documents were required from their father.*

Additional Follow-Ups for Dependent Visa:

* Since dependent Visa approval seemed to take longer than mine, I made daily calls to the consulate from 24th October, during which I was advised that the processing time for a dependent visa is typically five business days.

* Messages Sent: Contacted the Hanoi Consulate via Facebook on Friday, 25th October, and received a reply confirming the five-day processing time for dependent visas. 23rd was a public holiday and was noted counted.

* Emails Sent: Attempted contact with thaiembassy.han@mfa.go.th (no response) and later to consular.han@mfa.go.th on 28th October.

* Consulate Response: Received an email from consular.han@mfa.go.th on 29th October at 8:49 am, they confirmed the main visa was approved. I responded promptly to request an update on the pending dependent visas.

* Final Approval: Dependent visas granted at 12:23 pm on 29th October.

Thank you to everyone in this group for the support, the information, responses queries etc. made all the difference!

Hi All,

For those who applied for the Workcation remote work, did the company receive any calls or emails from the Thai embassy confirming your remote work?

Thank you!

Approved in 3 days by the Los Angeles Embassy! 🎉

I applied online for the workcation visa and I'm shocked it was approved so quickly! I'm a business owner/remote worker so here's what I provided in case anyone needs guidance:

* Personal bank account balance summary (stamped at a local branch): I did not need to submit a 3 or 6 month statement, the summary only had one page of my most recent transactions totaling over 500,000 THB

* Additional personal bank account balance summary (just to prove I had additional funds just in case)

* Employment contract: as I own my own business, I made a letter stating I am the full owner, have no employees or business operations physically present in Thailand, and additional information about the formation of my business

* EIN Letter: official documentation showing the registration of my business in the United States

* Evidence of current location: 2 electric/gas utility bills from my home

* Portfolio: 3 most recent income invoices and screenshots of my business's social media pages

* Passport scan and current photo

Because I've seen a hundred people experience this, if you update your passport scan after filling in the form fields, make sure your passport information is correct unless you want to lose another $400

So relieved and thrilled to be returning to my favorite place in the world! Good luck to everyone ❤️

Hello,

I've been preparing the necessary documents because I'll be flying to Vietnam next week to apply for the DTV under the Workcation category.

Please may someone kindly look over the list below and let me know if I'm missing anything? It would be most appreciated, as getting approved for this visa is very important to me.

Workation related documents:

- Introduction cover letter explaining what I do online (with company letterhead).

- Company registration papers showing myself as a director.

- 2 separate contracts with clients of said company detailing various services provided.

- 2 recent invoices for clients.

- A PDF of screenshots of my company's website that will show in detail the range of online services that I provide in the digital marketing space.

Other supporting documents:

- 6 month bank statement from Wise showing over 500,000 THB equivalent in balance (with official Wise verification stamp and signature included on the statement).

- 1 year lease contract for Thai apartment in Chiang Mai (the contract is from October 2024 and lasts until next October 2025).

- Hotel booking for stay whilst in Vietnam (for proof of Vietnamese address).

- Ticket for flight out of Vietnam.

One month for approval for DTV (workcation) at USA - LA Consulate.

I wrote a brief letter to support my application as an online stock trader for my own personal brokerage investment accounts. I included the first page (summary) from my most recent account statement. About 2 weeks after my submission, I was asked for my most recent income tax statement (I uploaded only the first page of my 1040 Fed). About 1.5 weeks later, they asked again for my income tax and this time I uploaded state and federal (including all pages of 1040.) They also asked for proof of 17k USD. My initial application showed a balance of ~16k in a bank money market savings. The next day they further clarified that money market accounts do not qualify so I transfered it to a non money market savings account. There might be some misunderstanding that a bank money market savings is an investment account. A couple days later, approved! Well worth $400 for a 5 year visa.

Approved for DTV for hubby, son (Spanish) and myself (Singaporean) 2 days before flying out. We almost gave up after many documents requested and submitted. Applied in Mexico.

On the day it was approved, we had an interview with the consul. She was very nice and friendly and asked many questions to verify all of the submitted documents. Basically she wanted to make sure that we are financially covered for the duration of the 5 years DTV visa.

The appt. was at 11.30am and we got the visa at 4pm. We started the process in July but because it took us quite a while to get the information it dragged on until yesterday when we had the interview. Made a mistake first by dropping by the embassy thinking we can walk in but requires an appt.

Anyway, we applied as workcation through the company that was registered in Singapore. Finally do happy I can post the good news here!!!

Good luck to all those applying and grateful it came out just after we decided to move to Thailand!