I got my DTV in 3,5 hours!

Yes you read that right. 3 hours and 23 minutes to honor my German friends here.

So I’m gonna share my story to contribute to this amazing group that helped me a lot in the past days 🙏🏼

I arrived in Manila yesterday night, checked in at my hotel and went straight to bed. Today I finished my documents and at 11:57am I submitted my documents online - already mentally and emotionally prepared for two long weeks of waiting.

So I went out for lunch, had coffee, contemplated what to do with my life in a concrete jungle… and when boredom kicked in I checked my emails. 15:20h … Mail from the embassy … You’re visa is approved.

Wtf.

Straight back time travel to the feeling when I caught Mewtu for the first time in Gameboy Pokémon Blue Edition.

So here‘s exactly what to do:

Preparation is everything (life lesson in here)

- If you’re a business owner, get your documents ready:

1)Certificate of active Status of your company

2) Document proving you’re the owner of the company

- Prepare your employment contract, indicating you employed yourself as a managing director for your company. You must add the following benefit: 100% remote work

- Write yourself a „letter of authorization“ that you authorize yourself 100% remote work. You will find templates and tutorials for this document on YouTube as I did

- Make a nice presentation (I did it with Canva) in which you explain in detail (!) what you do:

1) Add your website and your LinkedIn Profile

2) Explain your services/products and proof your successful business with data/pictures/numbers/metrics // if you are a freelancer show 3 of your projects/clients and explain exactly what you do for them

3) Add invoices, then add the bank statement where this money came into your business bank account and finally add another bank statement from your private account which shows you actually received this money

—> Remember: The better you prepare this presentation, the faster you will be. My presentation was around 18 pages long and took me 4 hours of focused work.

- Have your private bank statements of your last 3 months ready. The front page should indicate the current balance of at least 500.000,- Baht.

- Merge the following documents into 1 PDF (you can use a free tool like „ilovepdf“ for merging pdfs - just google it):

1) Proof of your location: Use the receipt of your hotel booking

2) Picture of your Philippines visa stamp in your passport

3) Passport sized picture (should be exactly measured based on the given size on the Thai website)

4) Booking confirmation of your flight to the Philippines

What else do you need to know?

- eTravel Visa for the Philippines: When you enter the country you are required to show the eTravel document. Be careful: there are services online that charge more than a 100€ while on the official website it is for free I assume. Why I know that some charge over 100€? Don’t ask… 😂🤦🏻‍♂️

- When entering the Philippines you must present a return flight ticket. So have that in mind.

- Don’t book your hotel for too long in advance - you might not need it.

Remember:

- Preparation is everything. The better you prepare, the faster the process will be.

- Make it easy for those who are reading the documents.

- Be kind and friendly in your words, they are still humans.

3 hours 23 minutes - I hereby require my official entry in the Guiness book.

See you in paradise 🏝️

PS: If someone of the honorable team of the royal Thai embassy is reading this post - thank you! You did an amazing job 🙏🏼

Hi friends,

I am currently in Thailand and want to apply for a Non-B visa soon, so I need to leave the country and go to a Thai embassy somewhere else for the application. 👉 Do you know where is the most convenient to go to (in terms of cost, easy process with the embassy and time it takes to get the visa)?

Grateful for your advice and experience! 🙏🙏

Hii has anyone applied DTV from Spain? I see everyone is applying from border countries and I am not sure if my chances of being approved are lower from here. This is my choice. Soft muay thai course 1 month tiger eye gym Bangkok. Any advice is appreciated thanks 👍👍

Is there any visa recommendations for thai citizen shengen visa ?

Approved! Applied online with the embassy in Ottawa, Canada. It took one week. Self-employed remote worker and volunteer director of a small online non-profit. I provided a cover letter explaining my income stream and what I do, as well as letters from 2 clients and 1 colleague confirming we meet exclusively on Zoom, and 6 months of bank statements with client etransfers. They asked for further documentation including tax info for my company and a website or youtube channel where I promote my services.

I got lots of ideas from this group about what to provide. So just paying it forward here. Happy to answer any questions.

Documents check - pending approval does somebody know the meaning of these statuses?

Is pending approval just the signature of the embassy officer needed after all documents are declared sufficient?

What is your knowledge?

SHARE: Jakarta, Indonesia Embassy

Family of three from New Zealand. (Me as lead, husband as spouse and daughter 12 as dependJonny Greenert)

18th November 2024.

Applied this morning.

Hubby Jonny got short straw and went to wait at Embassy early am. He was there by 6.15am and was 10th in the queue. Probably about 100 people behind us by the time the doors opened.

In and out by 10am. The Embassy Team were super helpful all around from security to the team accepting your documents and payment. - gave back any docs not needed, took payment and gave slip to come back on Thursday to collect passports after lunch.

Applied under Remote Worker / Digital Nomad

We have two companies in NZ - one tourism, one business coaching. We choose to apply under the business coaching business cause client contracts, income and portfolio was easiest to create.

Provided the following:

For me as “DTV” remote worker

Bank account with NZ $66k at ending balance (about 1.3m baht) gave six months balance fluctuates from $2k through to the $66k throughout that period.

Investments of approx $80k at ending balance (approx 1.6m baht) kinda liquid - added just in case.

Company registration in NZ plus NZBN registration, plus companies office extract which shows the two of us as sole shareholders of business with our trust - which on the extract shows our names and my Mum’s as our third trustee. My husband and I are the two directors of the company.

Stripe report showing subscription payments of approximately NZ$300k over 12 months - didn’t bother giving Xero invoices and payments to bank as it felt excessive. I also printed out all existing client contracts but they didn’t want those. For all financials we put into xe.com to exchange and screenshot and added to application.

Letter from my husband and I saying I can work remotely.

Employment Contract showing I can work remotely and remuneration is dependent on profit of company.

Screenshot on PDf of my website, social channels and podcast.

Rental agreement for house in Thailand

Airbnb printout for Jakarta

Flight details for Friday this week.

For Jonny

Marriage certificate.

Sponsorship letter saying I am responsible for him financially and he will follow all the rules in Thailand. While educating our daughter in the rich Thai culture.

Copies of bank statements / financials.

Copy of my passport and his.

For daughter

Birth certificate

Sponsorship letter saying same as above and that Jonny would homeschool.

Copie of bank statements / financials.

Copy of my passport and hers

Three yellow envelopes of cash each with $5.6m rupiah.

Stuff to think about:

ATMs in Jakarta seem to have upper limit of $2.5m per withdrawal. So you’ll need to do three even if there is just one of you. We had to do 7 withdrawals.

Accommodation and flights to and from Jakarta from NZ to Thailand afterwards were all still cheaper than applying in NZ.

Now we wait - will update on Thursday when we pick up passports - or earlier if they ask/need further information from me.

Been in and out of Thailand since June 2024 - both Jonny and I have left for work and our all extensions done for our daughter.

Any questions hit us up below. Aside from the early start very smooth easy process. Huge thanks to this community for all the tips.

Someone just told me it’s not possible to do the dtv application at the embassy in Jakarta, it needs to be done online. I cannot find anything about this. Does anyone know?🙏✨

So I've decided to go with a Muay Thai DTV. I've found a gym in Bangkok and have all my requirements in order. My nearest embassy is in Washington DC but I also plan on traveling in Asia a bit before heading to Thailand. Is there an advantage in applying in your home country or elsewhere? I'm going to be in Manila and Jakarta anyway so thinking about applying there.

Applying to the thai embassy in London my question:

with the section download document to confirm location,so has anyone used there UK driving licence ?

it has your photo and address so I think should be ok ?

Thanks for your help