My first DTV experience was a positive one. No questions stamp and go. Flying in from LHR to BKK.

My Softpower DTV (Cooking) was just approved in Jakarta:

Timeline

* Aug 15 (Thursday) night: Arrived in Bali

* Aug 16 (Friday) 1:00 am: Submitted application

* Aug 19 (Tuesday) 12:15 pm: Request for additional documents

* Aug 19 (Tuesday) 2:15 pm: Submitted documents

* Aug 19 (Tuesday) 5:40 pm: Approved

Documents

* School’s packet with cover letter, copy of owner’s ID, copy of passport, receipt, photos of the school, and class schedule; mentioned enrollment for six months, no details on number of classes

* Photo of the biopage of passport

* Photo taken on iPhone (background removed using remove.bg)

* Presence documents: flight booking, hotel bookings, photo of Indonesian visa stamp (I couldn’t use the e-gates because I declared a cough on the entry card)

* Financial documents: cover letter, 3 bank statements (only 2 showing 500k), brokerage statement showing more than 500k

Additional document request

They asked for a passport photo without glasses and every page of my passport. I went to a local photographer who took new pictures and scanned my passport for me for about 80k IDR (~160 THB).

Report from London.

Day 1 - Submitted all docs (soft power cooking course)

Day 2 - Asked to book a flight (I hadn't initially) and provide an eticket from the actual airline website

Day 3 - Status changed to pending approval

Day 4 - Visa issued

It was really simple. The main challenge for me was that you can only submit one pdf in each category which has a maximum size of 3mb. Collating and compressing pdfs (ilovepdf is a great help)

My experience was a really simple and positive one. Just followed the application process and was careful not to make typos.

Any Questions then ask away.

Well. Exhausted after another draining day at immigration. All in all im just tired of how ridiculous the marriage visa is. It also doesn't help we live about 2 hours from immigration. One small mistake and entire application in the garbage.

Also it's wild. They had one lady processing any and all of the long term visas. After waiting 5 hours I was only the 4th to be seen that day. In a que of 19...

Few points of advice. Avoid the marriage visa like the plague, book online appointments and dont move 2 hours from immigration haha.

Cheers I need a drink or 8 now.

Interesting, a retirement visa is required for a bank account, and a bank account is required for a retirement visa, go figure.

DTV Approval Post

Location: Jakarta

Type: Workcation

Applied: Friday, August 1st at 9 am

Status update: Tuesday August 5 at 3 pm, changed from "Processing Pending Document Check" to "Processing Pending Approval"

Approved: Wednesday August 6 at 1pm

No additional requests for documents, took less than 4 business days. US passport.

I submitted a cover letter using this template [members only] and added a complete description of all other files. I compressed all the files using [members only]/.

For location, since I am staying with family in Jakarta I included scans of my full passport including blank pages, a letter from a family member confirming that I'm staying with them & photos of us in front of the house.

For finances, I included a 6 month bank statement from Kasikorn Bank with an ending balance of over 500,000 baht, with the majority of it transferred in the last two weeks, but showing plenty of day to day activity.

For portfolio, I included my resume, portfolios, business cards and letters from each company I work for explicitly giving me authorization as a remote worker in Thailand, addressed to the Royal Thai Embassy of Jakarta. I'm a freelance consultant in multiple industries, so I explained my roles as simply as possible and used a lot of images to make it clear.

I have previously held 2 ED visas and had three visa free entries to Thailand, over the last three years.

Any other questions feel free to ask. Yes, I have printed out my visa, to the guy who always posts that in all caps in the comments haha.

Further to my post a few days ago relating to my Wise/Bangkok Bank experience, I now report on my experience at Chaengwatthana applying for extension of stay based on non-O (retirement) yesterday.

My appointment was for 10.00. I arrived at CW at 9:20 headed straight to the Bangkok Bank Passbook Update machine to get an entry for the day, then to the copy shop to copy the same page in the passbook.

Went into section L, to the "document check" booth, where the immigration officer went through all my submitted documents:-

- Completed TM7 form

- Bangkok Bank 12-month statement (obtained from the Bangkok Bank App)

- Photocopies of all Bank passbook pages

- Copy of my 12-month condo lease

- List of the 12 monthly 65,000 baht international transfers

Once these were checked, the immigration officer asked me to sign the standard forms relating to overstay and access to information, and told me to wait outside the booked appointments booth. Time was then 9:40

At 9:45 called into the booth (ahead of time), sat in front of immigration officer who thumbed through the documents, requested me to sign again the TM7 (probably wanted to make sure it was my signature), and asked me to wait outside again.

At 9:55 called over to the booth where I was given my passport back with a brand new 12-month extension of stay! Walked out of CW at 10:00. A total time of 40 minutes. Which goes to show if you've got everything in order there's no need for delays!

I also had with me (just in case) the 12 FETs for bank transfers, statement of my pension fund in Australia and the standard certification letter from Bangkok Bank (which it seems they seldom ask for with 65k per month process, but I always get just in case). None of these were requested.

Most importantly, I was not asked for any proof or documents relating to taxation!

Can Americans obtain background checks while residing in Thailand? My current background check is set to expire in five weeks, and I intend to apply for a different visa in Thailand. I believe it would be prudent to have more than a few weeks remaining on the background check, considering the unpredictable nature of the visa process, which could potentially take several weeks.

Hello I’m married and my wife is Thai . I am currently in the United States Army and recently heard of the Ucis Pip (parole in place) are me and my wife eligible for this to get her initial entry into America? As I am trying to avoid having to wait years for the marriage visa to be approved please let me know if anyone has information on this.

We just completed our first 90-day reporting under the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) at the Blue Tree Immigration Office in Phuket. The whole process took less than 5 minutes for both of us!

Received an acknowledgement receipt attached in the passport.

Here are a few useful things we discovered:

1️⃣ Documents Required:

They only checked our TM47 form, TM30 slip, and passport with the latest entry stamp. Super simple.

2️⃣ Child Verification Needed:

Our daughter was at school during the visit, but the officer insisted she must be present for verification. So we’ll need to make another trip with her during school hours.

3️⃣ Office Closure:

Heads up! The Blue Tree immigration office will be closed on Monday, July 28th (likely for a holiday).

4️⃣ DTV Extension:

If you’re planning to extend your Digital Nomad Visa, it can only be done at the main Immigration Office in Phuket Town – not at Blue Tree.

5️⃣ In-Person Visit Required:

Each applicant must be present in person for 90-day reporting or visa-related services – no exceptions.

We might do our next 90 days reporting in October or after 6 months. Depending on how our DTV extension goes.