I got approved for a 5 year DTV (workcation) at HCMC. I'm leaving this info to help anyone.

First off a big thanks to all the helpful people who gave me advice here!

I applied on March 6th, got approved on Mar 24th. I do freelance tutoring for international students looking to study in the USA/UK and have a different set up than other teachers here. I had to provide...

A demonstration on Zoom how I teach (screenshots of how I set up my lessons)

Two different bank accounts (3 months worth), one of them highlighted showing the cash in USD (foreign and my USA account)

My schedule, Zoom logs, correspondence with students/clients

My freelance profiles

My bank only releases a statement once a month, which I was worried about since I need to leave Vietnam by April 4th, but they accepted a web print off for March. The statement still hasn't been published for March by my bank and probably won't be till the 30th.

They came back to me twice asking for documents. The first time was the one which required a whole afternoon to assemble. The second time was just asking for corrections with my highlights (probably so it was clearer and easier to read since there was some overlaps in data) of my US bank statements.

This is a big relief for me since I thought I may not get it in time.

The consulate site says 4-5 business days for processing but it takes longer. I would budget minimum a month for this if you consider yourself clever enough to assemble all the documents (you merge them on ilovepdf).

There isn't really any reason to pay anyone to do this since you would be doing 85% of the work yourself gathering documents. The only reason to hire an agent is if you are so loaded that you care about the afternoon of work it will save you and concentration you need to give to it.

I used Claude AI to organize everything and assist me which was great, just check for typos and errors.

*DTV VISA EXTENSION - UDON THANI*

Hey folks, here's the lowdown on my successful DTV extension and how it worked.

Chapter 1 - Preparation

Bureaucrats love papers, right? As such, I painstakingly prepared a portfolio of 48 pages. It included:

-A table of contents

-An explanation of my work/income sources as a freelancer and my situation working from Thailand

-Screenshots of recent payouts and invoices

-My Upwork profile page for content writing + teaching profile from two platforms I teach on

-A freelance contract with one of the companies I work with

-3 months of bank statements

-An invitation letter from my accommodation

-My accommodation owner's ID copy and house book copy

-Published writing samples (as more evidence of freelance work)

After carefully preparing the portfolio, making the long journey from the countryside to the city, printing the portfolio, and running across the city to the immigration, I marched in, sure that imminent victory was mine.

"Passport please", requested the smiling officer at the info desk.

Guess who was so caught up in preparing the portfolio that she didn't even think of bringing her passport? Yep, that's right.

So, two days later, I came back, portfolio AND passport in hand. First at the info desk, the staff called over some other colleagues to talk with, probably because DTV is not a common visa class around here.

One of the staff members asked me why I don't just leave the country and then come back and get another 180 days. I briefly explained why it's much more convenient for me to extend. That seemed to satisfy her.

The staff at the info desk looked through my portfolio, but they were only interested in:

-The bank statements

-The accommodation docs (invitation letter, owner ID, house book)

After awhile, they sent me to sit down and wait. I waited for around an hour or an hour and a half, then they called me up to a.) sign my name on every single page of my portfolio, plus a few other documents (wow, I haven't practiced my signature this much since about first grade) and b.) pay. And that was that! They granted me a 6-month extension of DTV.

I'm sharing this here because lots of people who try to extend in Chiang Mai are denied, and I'm not sure how the situation is in other cities. So, if your city makes it more difficult, maybe Udon Thani can be an alternative for those who don't fancy a trip to Laos.

I'm sure that this has been asked but... I got the tdv last year.. Came back to Canada in April, will return to Thailand end of October. Is there anything that I need to do or am I just good to go?

Has anyone had experience reapplying for a visa in Vietnam, but in a different embassy?

I was rejected once in Hanoi and am now planning to reapply with a new set of documents in HCMC. For instance, if my first application as a freelance digital nomad was denied, do I have a better shot this time applying as the contract worker for own company? It’s a small one-person startup so I wasn’t confident in applying with this initially. 😅

Thanks in advance!

Hi

Employment details,

I run my business in the uk at a tattoost , I have a limited company in my tattoo business name

I have my payments for my online nutrition coaching going in to my tattoo business

Will this be ok ?

Occupation I’ve put business owner

Company I’ve added ,my tattoo business details

Is this correct?

Or do I need to add my nutrition coaching details?

And change occupation to free freelance?

Many thanks

🥳 DTV Approved: Phnom Penh Embassy

Thought I'd share exactly what I did since these posts really saved me when applying myself!

Submitted: Jan 8th (2am)

Approved: Jan 23rd (5pm)

Type: Workation (freelancer)

Total time: 16 days (11 working days, not including date submitted)

Nationality: UK

Pending Approval: 8th Jan

- no extra documents requested.

Here's everything I submitted.

Proof of funds:

* 6 months bank statements.

* Final balance of B500K+

* Final transferred from other personal account

* I did not have B500K+ for every month

Proof of location:

* Hotel receipt in Siem Reap

* Photo of entry stamp into Cambodia

Work Portfolio:

* Motivation Letter

- this stated exactly what I do for work and why I wanted to stay in Thailand to work remotely. I also mentioned what they'll find in the next few pages.

* Screenshot of my LinkedIn profile

* Screenshots of my website with work examples

* 2 x signed contracts (with sensitive information redacted)

* Letter from a client confirming when we started working together and the ability to conduct work from anywhere

Honestly, it was a long wait in Cambodia. But I'm so glad to finally have it and get back to Thailand!

Now hoping for a smooth immigration process 🤞 (touch wood)

Hi ,

I just retired @65

I have a Thai partner (living together in Europe for last 3 years , will marry sometime this year ) , I also have a freelance job working 2 months on 2 months off which visa should I apply for ?

Got my first dtv stamp today from BKK airport.

Process pretty simple from Vancouver, Canada. My proof of work was just a freelancer website certificate of earnings. Cost was 650$ CAD (~17K BAHT).

Immigration officer actually had to call another one over during the stamping process as she hadn't seen one before. Asked me if I was working (said yes, online). Asked me how long I was planning on staying, I had to book a flight out for visa requirements so used that date 63 days out.

As far as I know, just have to leave for one day and can come back on the same visa, right? Until expiry? And can extend it once for 10k baht? So I'll just have to keep showing this e-visa for 5 years?