My fiancé and I recently went through the process of getting the DTV and moving to Thailand (home country: USA). Thought I'd share our story beginning-to-end in case it's helpful for anyone else just starting out.

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We knew we wanted to get a Soft Power DTV by attending a cooking school.

After looking into many different cooking school options, we found Arun Thai Cooking on YouTube. Their reviews were positive and we felt we were able to get a feel for the friendliness and professionalism of the staff via their Instagram stories.

We ended up purchasing their 6-month DTV visa package, and added on optional visa support (with Issa Compass).

The Issa Compass team was incredibly helpful and quick. Here’s our timeline:

Oct 14: paid for Arun Thai cooking school + visa support package

Oct 16: Introduced to Issa Compass team

Oct 17: Issa Compass set us up with their online portal and detailed descriptions of all the information we needed to submit as part of the DTV

Oct 19: We gather and upload all information

Oct 21: Issa Compass team reviews documents. Had some back-and-forth clarifications around lodging address when we first get to Thailand and uploading better quality passport photos.

Oct 27: Visa application submitted

Oct 30: Visa approved!

Mid-Jan: moved to Thailand ✈️ and had no issues getting into the country with our new DTV visa

I know it’s a luxury, but I was grateful to have the support of a visa agency to ensure we submitted everything properly. Felt like a justifiable expense considering how much we were uprooting our lives to make this move.

Everyone at Arun Thai Cooking School and Issa Compass were SO helpful in answering all our questions and giving us peace of mind throughout the process. We experience the famous Thai hospitality before we even set foot in the country. 💖

We’ve enjoyed exploring Bangkok so far, had a seamless experience finding a condo, and are excited to start our cooking classes in a few weeks.

Hope this overview of our journey might help someone. Let me know if you have any questions or if I can help in any way!

Hello everyone! i’m currently in thailand and planning to apply for DTV on the freelancer track. I do know I need to leave the country to apply. I’m making this post looking for anyone with a similar work situation who applied as I’m finding lots of conflicting information about what documents will be sufficient and how likely I am to be approved. I am from the US if country of origin is important.

I am a contract data analyst and right now I’m working for just one client (on a contract basis but more or less full time work). I have a contract with this company and a few months history of invoices and matching deposits in my bank account. I’m not registered as a business so one of my concerns is that they’ll ask for some proof of incorporation. I also saw one post here where they requested 6 months of invoices but I currently have only 3 months with this client. Do you think that will be sufficient? Is it worthwhile to hire a law firm to file the application for me?

I’m also considering getting my divemaster soon-ish so if you don’t think my work situation will pan out, I would go for the soft-power scheme (which it seems is less complicated?) Any advice on that track?

Another question I have is which country would be best to apply from? I’ve seen some posts here of people applying from Vietnam but Americans don’t get visa on arrival for Vietnam so that may complicate things. Are Laos or Cambodia good options?

Thank you so much in advance for reading and sharing your knowledge 🙏🏼🙏🏼☺️

Has anybody from the US applied for a DTV using their investment accounts?

[Expired VOA]

Hello everyone. So, I recently lost my bag with my passport in it. I needed to get a fresh stamp on Dec 16, but I was without my passport. I filed a police report and planned to start the process a-new.

Unbelievably, I found my bag and my passport was still in it. I can't really find anything but basic descriptions on the embassy site..

So, does anyone know or have any suggestions as to how to navigate this situation? Really stressed that this is going to get me kicked out or pay a ton, or both 😓

Is there such a thing as a medical extension for a visitor from the US? I'm awaiting test results to see if I might need to have a surgical procedure done that, with recovery and follow-up, could run over both our 45-day visitor entry (expiring Nov 27) and the normal 30-day extension (would expire ~Dec 27).

I’m hoping to get some help on the Covid insurance required to enter Thailand. My parents are from the USA and have Kaiser insurance. They are coming to Thailand in April. They called Kaiser and explained that they needed to show proof of Covid insurance with at least $20,000 coverage (but maybe it’s $50,000 because some websites say $20k and some say $50k... it's confusing). Kaiser said they are fully covered outside of the USA for accidents as well as Covid-19 treatment and this document is what Kaiser sent them back. I’m pretty sure this won’t work, since it doesn’t show any numbers of the coverage amounts. Am I correct, and if so is there any specific name for the document they need to show that we can ask Kaiser for? Also, the Kaiser paper says if my parents require Covid treatment in Thailand, they will need to pay for the treatment themselves and then file a reimbursement claim. I’m thinking that might not be the type of insurance that’s required to enter Thailand. If someone could please help clear up some of this we would really appreciate it!