Just entered Phuket today after getting approved in HCMC last week. Printed out the visa PDF they sent me just in time. The immigration lady did have to call her colleagues over with some back and forth between them, but no questions were asked and I got the stamp for the first time.

Hello. Has anyone tried to get the DTV while in Hoi An? Or do you have to apply only in HCMC or Hanoi? Thank you.

I want to go to and apply from HCMC in the coming days. I believe I have to show proof that I’m staying in the country. Ideally I want an Airbnb for two weeks, but when I asked chatgpt, it said that’s not really proof of longer term stay, like a rental agreement. Has anyone experience with this? Any recommendations?

Approved HCMC Vietnam as an employee. Applied Monday 3rd March, request additional documents Tuesday 4th, pending approval Wednesday 5th, approved Wednesday 12th.

Instead of providing details about my application I will give some brief points about what I learned.

Many people have speculated that the time to approval depends on the date you're going back. I provided March 17th as my return date, which might have delayed my application. I didn't want to provide an earlier date, because it might have passed before approval. This is only a theory, but I would advise to supply a return date within a week (at your own risk).

I provided a separate bank statement in my initial application with only my salary payments, but I was still requested to provide another bank statement with salary payments highlighted. So don't get creative, was my takeaway.

Web services that help with pdf editing harvest your data. So be careful about what documents you upload online.

The bank statement needs to contain your name and the currency, if it's not a Thai account. I supplied my bank statement in Swedish, not English or Thai. I also read about others supplying it in other languages. So I did not need to get the statement translated.

When you create your application, it tells you which regions of the county belong to reach embassy/consulate. I was initially going to go to HCMC, but someone in this group recommended me to go to Da Nang instead.

Da Nang, and neighboring Hoi An, are some of the best (and cheapest) places in the world to wait out your application. Fantastic weather, cheaper than Thailand, great people, less smog, great western and local food. I totally recommend going there. The only downside is that the Hanoi consulate seems to process applications quicker, and according to some they are less stringent.

Even though I'm an employee and not a freelancer, I was asked to provide my CV. So it's probably a good idea to do that initially.

When submitting applications for DTV soft power in HCMC, has the embassy ever requested applicants to provide payslips and bank statements?

Sharing my DTV approval for HCMC soft power cooking.

Fri Jan 31.

Applied with passport pic, copy of passport biometric page, cooking documents provided by Bangkok Thai Cooking Academy, entry stamp into HCMC, VN hotel booking and 3 months of bank statement over 500k.

Feb 5.

Further documentations requested. They wanted 6 months of bank statements, employment certificate and income proof.

On the application I wrote that I was unemployed, as I quit my job recently. I gave them my tax return, a couple of pay slips and an end of service letter that my HR provided me when I left. I wrote a short letter explaining I currently do not have a job as I moved to Thailand recently and taking a career break (I have been living here for a month on a tourist exempt visa).

Feb 10.

Further documentations requested. They wanted more information on the school.

I emailed the school who helped me with some pictures. I took screenshots of their website and resubmitted all documentations that I had already given them (receipt, cooking timetable, acceptance letter, business registration, director ID).

Feb 17.

Approved.

Flew back to Thailand today with a print out of my dtv into Bangkok. No issues.

I did extensive research in this group before my application so I was quite surprised being asked for extra documents twice. I think the HCMC embassy is starting to get more critical on soft power and the process took 2 weeks for me because I had to supply more documents.

The Bangkok Cooking Academy was very helpful with my application, I recommend them.

Sharing my DTV Journey so far + Question:

I submitted on 2/10 in HCMC.

2/14 status changed to "Pending approval" and now 2/17 it is back to Pending document check.

Has anyone experienced this?

UPDATE: 7 PM Visa approved

Any approvals in HCMC in the past few days ? Im "pending approval" since 5th february (remote work)

Hey everyone, I want to share my DTV process

Soft Power ( for Me-Muy Thai) gym in Bkk

(My partner-Thai cooking classes)

No agent needed

My partner and I applied at HCMC on Jan 29 with a return ticket to Thailand on Feb 10 😳 We didn’t realize that offices would be closed for the Lunar New Year Holiday and would reopen on Feb 3.

This posed an obvious issue

1. When applying for a Vietnam Visa we used our flight dates expecting to leave on the 10th.

After reading comments in the group, we accepted the fact that a possible delay would cause us to extend our visas in Vietnam and possibly purchase additional flights back to Thailand at a later date.

We remained hopeful and watched our status daily.

Timeline:

Jan 29th -Applications submitted

Feb 5th - I was approved at 2:50pm with no request for additional documents

However my partner needed to submit additional documents (6 months of bank statements, which was already submitted originally) sometimes this happens, just resubmit

Documents re-submitted same day

After submitting additional statements

Feb 6th- my partner receive “pending approval“ then later approved

This process took 3 business days! 🙌🏾

Thank you for all the information/support in this group!

ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS:

HCMC and Hanoi Thai consulates closed until Feb 3rd

With the Viet New Year holiday coming up, the consulates will be closed starting Saturday and remaining closed until Monday Feb 3rd

It is doubtful any online eVisas will be processed by the consulates during that time.

So if you're going to use either consulate in Vietnam DO NOT GO next week :P

Wait until they re-open (or plan on camping out in Vietnam for a good while) ;)