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, this is my DTV journey.

12 Jan , Submitted in Manila, Philippines

13 Jan, Additional Documents Requested

19 Jan, Additional Documents Requested

21 Jan, Additional Documents Requested

26 Jan, DTV Approved 🥳

Arun Thai Cooking School, they recommend me Issa Compass and I go with it. I did do my research a bit before making my decision.

Things I prepared.

1. Deposit funds into my K Bank account on first week of Oct.

2. Signed up for cooking class with Arun Thai in Dec.

3. Prepared letter of intent and how I will support myself while I am in Thailand. I ask my sister to write a sponsor letter for me because I am unemployed.

4. Booked flexible Manila to Bangkok air ticket since I am not sure of the results.

5. Bring all of my hard copy with me to Manila in case Embassy appoint me for interview, one dark color business casual outfit too 😅

I have great experience with Arun Thai and ISSA, Arun Thai provide necessary documents seamlessly and their class are super flexible in schedule. I will be very happy to attend all the classes.

Issa was very helpful too, although I can do the submission myself I choose third-party because I don't need to worry about formality in submission such as file size, name spacing, payment etc.

All in all, I have great experience. Had a great time in Manila too.

On 28 Jan, landed in DMK. The IO don't even look at my DTV print out and I got my first 6 month seal.

Im currently in Thailand on a DTV visa and for the soft power skill i chose the cooking school option, specifically Arun Thai Cooking School. Im very satisfied with them. The staff are extremely kind and helpfu, the classes are well structured, enjoyable and give real insight into Thai cuisine. The school is also easy to reach by MRT, which is a big plus.

If you’re looking for a cooking school for the DTV visa or simply a good cooking school in Bangkok, i think this is a great choice.

Approved!!

I submitted the application through the Los Angeles Consulate on November 13th & the next day I was asked to submit my flight itinerary & a better photo of myself. I received my approval email around 1 hour ago.

I will be attending Arun Thai Cooking School!

I found so much helpful information on this page. Thank you to everyone.

Update: I just wanted to say in case anyone is looking into it that so far Arun Thai has been very patient and accommodating with all my questions and concerns. I've emailed them a bunch just trying to clarify small things and they've been great. Once they received confirmation of enrollment they sent an email with class information and everything else I need to know. I'm happy to answer any questions.

I got approved for my DTV! Wonderful experience dealing with Arun Thai Cooking School to obtain my DTV visa. They were willing to work with me when I needed to adjust my start date of the course in order to get my DTV approved since I had my flight already booked which threw dates out of whack.

If anyone is thinking of getting their DTV visa via a soft power activity. I highly recommend Arun Thai Cooking School. They are amazing!

[HANOI -Soft Power APPROVED]

Hi everyone, just wanna spread the good news that my visa's been approved after 10 working days in Hanoi.

I went the Soft Power route with Arun Thai Cooking School. They were really helpful and provided all the school's document 1 day after the payment. I paid for 6-month course via WISE. I highly recommend the school if you plan to stay in BK and wanna do a cooking course.

My timeline and what I submitted:

28/8 - Application submitted (Pending Document Check)

* 3-month bank statements (May - June - July). I highlighted all important info eg., address, account holder's name, final monthly balance. I had about 350-400k THB for a long time but only had the full amount since July 23.

* Screenshot of my current balance on the day of submission on my bank app + Xe.com exchange rate VND to THB.

* My national ID card + Bank Letter as Proof of Address (as I'm a Vietnamese national)

* Intended date of arrival + Accommodation I just picked a random flight (which comes to 171-day stay) and a hotel I stayed before in BK. Didn't book anything.

29/8 - Pending Approval

15/9 - Approved! (No further document request).

My advice: Like a lot of people on the group already said, just familiarize yourself with the system. Double check all info. Write exactly as in your passport ie., place of issue I just wrote "Cuc Quan Ly Xuat Nhap Canh" in Vietnamse, no translation!

I don't know if I missed any other details on the post please comment if you wanna ask me something specific. Tysm for everyone's support on the group. It helped me have faith though I was a bit hopeless towards the end lol.

DTV Approved at HCM Vietnam

via Issa Compass under Soft Power @ Arun Thai Cooking School, Bangkok.

I would like to thank the School and the Agency for their highly efficient coordination and solid reliability. And a big thanks to the wonderful people of this community whose posts helped me make up my mind on how to do this, and kept me informed on what is to be expected.

I had previously held Non-IB visa for ~1yr, and two visa-exempt entries + 2 extensions. One of those was a border bounce. Also have a Thai bank account and condo rental for 1 year from my time working for a Thai company previously under the non-IB.

Timeline of the process (8 Working Days since application) -

Reached Da Nang 5th July

Document Setup 7th July

Applied 8th July to HCM

* Thai Bank Account 6-month statement with balance maintained > 500k THB, significant activity.

* Condo Rental Agreement

* Cooking school papers provided by Arun Thai School, Bangkok

* All Passport Stamps for Thailand

* Passport Bio Page

* Da Nang entry stamp

* Hotel Booking in Da Nang (Agoda)

Document Request 9th July

* All pages of passport including blanks - For this I took photograph side-by-side with my phone showing Vietnamese phone service and current date & time as proof. Additionally I took a photo of myself holding my passport bio page open in front of the hotel's signboard - after reading in the community that someone else did the same.

* Means to sustain yourself during stay - I read that you could resubmit the same 500k account statement for this, but I chose to include my bank account from my home country which also had 500k+ THB equivalent. However I did not share 6-months statement for this bank, only the last statement showing balance. Both bank accounts are in my name, and are savings accounts.

Pending Approval 10th July.

Approved on 17th July.

Questions are welcome :)

Has anyone here successfully applied for the DTV Soft Power visa through the Thai embassy in London?

I’m considering enrolling with Arun Thai Cooking School, which offers:

* 6-Month Program (8 Classes) – 18,900 THB

* Visa Support Package (Optional) – 18,000 THB

The visa support package includes the official embassy visa fee (13,000–14,000 THB) and claims to cover full application submission and embassy coordination. They also say there’s a money-back guarantee if the visa gets rejected.

I’m wondering if it’s smarter to go directly through them, or if it’s better to just take the course and use a more well-known visa agent like Issa Composs?

Has anyone here gone through either route? Would love to hear real experiences — success stories or warnings welcome.