DTV Cooking - Approved in Vientiane Laos!

Timeline:

* Landed April 8 Wednesday afternoon, uploaded final docs (visa stamp in passport and visa) and submitted online

* April 9 Thursday - Went to Vientiane Laos embassy at 9am, paid 10,000 THB in person

* April 10 Friday - Nothing

* Songkran Holiday 13 Monday to 15 Wednesday

* 15 Wednesday - Got an email for interview

* 22 Wednesday 10am - Interview. Where is your cooking school? Where will you stay nearby the school (show hotel booking, can book and cancel if needed)? Open your banking app -- BE AWARE they scroll through it and click on it themselves, so no hiding anything or deceit. What will do you after your course is finished (take another course)?

* 22 Wednesday 12pm - DTV sent in my email! Printed out at my guesthouse

* 23 Thursday - Flight to Don Mueng Airport, showed them the DTV paper, I looked in my passport to make sure they stamp correctly. Took less than 30 seconds with the immigration agent (go to one with a man, they go fast and don't ask questions).

Cooking course: Bangkok Thai Cooking Academy They were soooo helpful, fast, responsive. If you get rejected for DTV, they give partial refund.

Agent: Yes, I did use an agent. I used an agent that has a full money-back guarantee, INCLUDING the Visa fee. Message me for their details.

hi guys, i would like some advice regarding my dtv visa application which has been approved as METV instead for 6 months only. I applied frm my home country, indonesia through 6 months cooking school. What should i do now ? Can someone please suggest any highly recommended agent that can solve this problem ? Thank you so much

Hey everyone! I just got denied after 4 days in Hanoi. Every requiremet met. I had 500k over 4months, soft power cooking class for 6months. I just also read that its happening to more people applying in Hanoi. What is my best route now, re apply in a different country? I suspect they might be rejecting due to a high volume of applicants…

Approved DTV (Soft Power – Cooking School) from Kuala Lumpur Thai Embassy🇹🇭

First of all, thank you to everyone in this group for the advice shared, it really helped!!! But I would advise everyone to just apply elsewhere to save you from all the anxiety and stress. Even though I’m Malaysian, I have learned my lesson not to apply from KL again 🤣🤣

KL embassy requested an additional document: an acceptance letter issued by the Thai government. Many suggested reapplying elsewhere or notarising documents, but since most DTV cooking schools are privately owned and cannot issue such letters, I decided to explain the situation instead.

Huge thanks to Cookventure for providing a cover letter explaining they are a private cooking school and emailing the embassy directly, along with my own explanation that this is an industry-wide limitation. If anyone is looking for a cooking school in Chiang Mai, they’re a great option! Thankfully, the embassy accepted this and my visa was approved. My takeaway: if a requirement feels unreasonable, it’s okay to explain logically, politely, and respectfully.

My processing time was longer than usual. Despite advice not to follow up, I did so respectfully when it felt delayed. Email didn’t work, but the embassy’s official Facebook page did (“กงสุลไทย กัวลาลัมเปอร์“) (Not sure if all embassies have their own Fb page tho, might worth checking out!). They replied the next day both times (for document clarification and status update). Just be polite and give them time!

Timeline:

• Applied: 12 Dec

• Additional documents requested: 17 Dec (submitted 18 Dec)

• Follow-up with embassy: 29 Dec

• Pending approval: 30 Dec (morning)

• Approved: 30 Dec (afternoon)

Not sure if following up helped speeding things up or if it was coincidence, but it didn’t hurt 🤣🤣

Lastly, like many people here said, don’t let negative experiences stress you out too much. Even if they’re real, wait until you actually get rejected before panicking (just kidding 🤣). You won’t if you have all the documents they need!

Now I’m back in BKK! And no questions asked from officer as what many ppl here experienced as well. Happy new year everyone! ❤️❤️

I would like to share my experience. I have received the approval for DTV Soft Power in September from the Thai Embassy in Paris (I am French).

I have applied with Arun Cooking School for their 6 months course. The application was prepared with the help of a visa agency in Bangkok.

Visa was approved by the Embassy. However when entering Thailand to activate it this weekend, they were reluctant at first because I had already spent some time as a tourist before during the year.

Immigration officers in Suvarnabhumi were super nice and calm during the whole process. I had to wait a bit for an 'interview' with them. They were surprised that I was granted DTV for cooking school, and were wondering if I should have an education visa instead...

In the end, they stamped me for 180 days and told me they were going to notify the Embassy about their feedback. I find it weird because they are the one to set the rules for DTV anyway and visa was granted already.

So a bit of a stressful experience but it ended well!

I wonder what will happen in May 2026 when I want to stamp another 180days! Especially if I have not extended my cooking lessons (not sure if I will, I would like to try something else)

Hello Group,

For some reason my earlier post about my getting my DTV soft power was rejected so i try again! :-D

Just got my DTV soft power activities approved from the Royal Thai Embassy in Jakarta through a Thai culinairy training with House of Taste cooking in Bangkok. Highly recommended, applied for it on 6th of august and it was granted today!

For Hong Kong applicants:

Before applying, many people said Hong Kong was difficult to apply to, and even the cooking schools asked me to avoid it.

However, if you're a Hong Kong resident, don't hesitate to apply there. It will just take longer, about a month. There's no need to apply in other countries, as flights and hotels also cost money.

The visa fee for Hong Kong is 3,000 HKD.

Cooking school: 19,000 + B.

That's about 8,000 HKD for a 5-year visa.

Even with Soft Power, the application process in Hong Kong can still be slow. It took me about a month.

Just got approved for my DTV visa for soft power (cooking school) through the Los Angeles consulate in UNDER AN HOUR (~45 minutes)!!!!

I was so stressed while doing the application because I was worried about making a stupid mistake that would get my application rejected instantly. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw the first and only status update was to approved.

If you are trying to get a DTV through the LA embassy now seems to be a good time because they seem to be moving fast!

I tried to get a DTV from a cooking school in Korea, but I was rejected. In this case, it would be meaningless to supplement the documents and put them back in Korea, right?

Anyone been approved recently or rejected from Hanoi doing softpowers?