Success story from Hanoi. Figured I should write one of these because I found it helpful reading others' accounts when I was planning things out. (Thanks!)

I applied for a Workation visa. I'm a freelancer with a sole-proprietorship from the US. Previously, I've stayed in Thailand for over five years on Tourist visas and Education visas.

I supplied all the required information and put "Freelancer" for occupation instead of "Business Owner". The tricky part is the PDFs it asks you to upload to prove everything. I suggest getting AS MUCH information as possible. Err on the side of providing TOO MUCH rather than too little. I was never asked for any additional documents or for an interview.

For documents indicating current location (merge all into a single PDF, plenty of tools to do this online):

1. Photo of entry slip to Vietnam

2. Hotel reservation PDF

3. Plane ticket PDF

4. Photo of Vietnam visa stamp in passport

5. Vietnam e-visa PDF

6. Photo of hotel key with the name of the hotel in my reservation

Financial documents:

1. Balance letter from my bank indicating current balance (created on the day I applied)

2. Screenshot of bank app from the day I applied (from the web as my phone app did not allow screenshots)

3. 6 months of bank statements (reverse chronological order, I had the 500,000 baht in my checking account for only the past 3 months)

4. Screenshot of exchange rate from the day I applied (Google or any other exchange rate website are fine, put 500,000 baht in so they can see how much it's worth in your currency)

Employment contract or proof showing I'm a remote worker or freelancer:

1. Proof of employment document (I'm self-employed, so I wrote a letter explaining that I'm a freelancer, have a sole-proprietorship, the work I do, how I do it, and that I will not take any Thai clients. Put my name and contact info, signed and dated with a PDF signing service)

2. Contracts with two of my clients (I had no formal contracts with them, so I drafted up a simple, two-page document for each explaining the work I do, how long I've been working with them, how I am paid, explaining that I can work from anywhere remotely, including Thailand, and sent it to them with Dropbox Sign for their signature and date, and sent them a polite email explaining it's for a visa)

3. 5 invoices from recent months sent with my invoicing software

4. Screenshot of Stripe's transactions page, which I use to accept payments, showing the last few months of transactions

I stayed in Hanoi the entire time as I knew I could be called for an interview any time. I arrived on April 17th, applied on the 18th, got my status changed to "Pending Approval" on the 21st, sent an email to the embassy on the 29th asking for a status update, and got approved on May 1st. It was a bit longer than most stories here (9 working days), but patience is a virtue, I guess. My stay in Vietnam is until May 14th, which may or may not have had an effect on the processing speed.

Hope this helps anyone else planning a trip to Vietnam. All in all, it was a pretty easy process, but it was a bit nerve-racking with it taking so long. I would recommend quadruple-checking all of your info before you submit it. I spent nearly an entire day just filling out the application (about 6 hours of work compiling and checking all the info as well as formatting PDFs). Good luck!

Sharing my DTV approval experience as contribution to this group which helped a lot.

Workation (remote worker), Russian nationality. Provided all necessary bunch of documents combined in one PDF for every section, every PDF started with cover letter explains what and where there.

Applied in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam on February 8th (Saturday).

On February 11th (Tuesday) was requested additional documents:

- Financial evidence: amount of no less than 500,000 THB, e.g. bank statements, sponsorship letter : Please arrange your document in order.

- Other request documents: Provide a company profile that includes details about its history, vision, mission, products, and achievements.

- Other request documents: Provide details about your current role, including your CV/portfolio, and any relevant documents. Additionally, if you have work examples or supporting materials that demonstrate your experience and qualifications, it's recommended to provide.

- Other request documents: Provide the salary slips for the past 6 months, please highlight them in your transaction records.

All documents were sent originally so at the same day I sent them again just in different order.

After that my application was on pending documents check status until yesterday, February 17th, it switched to pending approval.

Today, February 18th, the visa was approved. So after additional documents request it took 5 working days to issue the visa.

Would like to thank all who shared their experiences!

I have a few questions regarding the 1 yr Extension for the Non O marriage visa.

- based in BKK, so I will go to CW. I read that the under consideration period is 21 days there and that I can apply from -45days onwards. If I go early, let’s say 40 days before, is the under consideration period still 21 days or the full 40 days?

- in regard to the bank letter with the 400k. I assume this is just the print out of all the past transactions + the signature of the branch manager right?

- those 6 pictures of me together with my wife have to be taken at specific locations within and in front of our condo?

Thanks a lot

Hanoi DTV approved.

Submit 26th November 17.00

Approved 3.December 10.00

Medical/dental

Supplied 2 bank statements of November from a German bank and an English statement from my country of residence both showing each well over 500k baht.

Current location input hotel booking Hanoi and stamp.

Home country not my passport country but country of residence.

What else to say ? I was a bit concerned as others got approved earlier by a day or two.