DTV Journey - Da Nang (Ho Chi Minh Consulate)

Posting this a bit late because I have been a bit busy since returning to Thailand

Here are the details of my application journey, I hope this will help others in a similar situation

I applied using Issa Compass, UK passport as a business owner (I own a social media marketing company).

📅 Timeline:

17th Feb — 4:30pm Submitted application via Issa Compass from Da Nang. Arrived same day and provided photos of my passport including my Vietnam entry stamp. As I submitted after the consulate closing time, Day 1 of processing was effectively 18th February.

26th Feb — First Additional Document Request Around 3:44pm received a request from the embassy via Issa Compass for:

* Photos of ALL passport pages including blank pages, with a device showing the current date and time visible in the shot

* A selfie taken at a tourist attraction in Vietnam, again holding a device clearly showing the current date and time

* Income tax from the last 2 years

27th Feb — 11am Issa Compass reviewed and submitted additional documents to the embassy.

3rd March Public holiday in Thailand — Thai Consulate in HCMC was closed. This ate into processing time unexpectedly!

4th March — Second Additional Document Request Around 5:49pm received a second request from the embassy for:

* Company bank statements updated to include February

* Invoices for October and November

At this point I felt my application wasn't as comprehensive as it could be and didn't want to keep going back and forth. So in addition to what was requested I also proactively submitted:

* Further hotel bookings showing my extended stay in Da Nang

* Personal bank statement for February confirming over 500,000 THB equivalent and showing my money moving from business to personal account

* Business bank statements for February

* Client invoices for October, November, and February

* IRS tax form for my company

* Additional examples of work from February and 2026

* Fresh passport photos with device showing current date and time

* Photos of me holding my passport with current date and time visible

* Photos of me outside my hotel in Da Nang with date and time visible

* Receipts from recent purchases in Da Nang confirming my location

Same day ~6:48pm submitted everything to Issa Compass portal.

5th March — 12pm Issa Compass reviewed and submitted full second batch of documents to the embassy.

5th March — 6:13pm ✅ DTV APPROVED! 🎉🇹🇭

6th March - I flew back in to Bangkok at Suvarnabhumi Airport with zero questions. I printed out my E-VISA and gave to the officer, my TDAC was on my phone.

Key Takeaways for Anyone Applying:

⏳ Budget at least 2-3 weeks if you have a complex financial situation like myself

📋 Provide comprehensive financial evidence upfront — show the full money trail across all your accounts (business and personal)

📸 Location proof is important — passport photos and selfies must have a device clearly showing the current date and time (this was never asked by Issa Compass at the beginning but they do advise showing receipts at local restaurants/shops etc)

🏢 Issa Compass were helpful throughout — they reviewed everything before submitting and kept me updated. However their response time was quite bad, sometimes I wouldn’t get a reply for days but when they had something to update me on they did let me know immediately

If you gave any questions or need help please feel free to comment or message me 🙏🏼

Hello,

submitted my documents to Issa Compass and everything got reviewed, got my visa « submitted » 23rd February in Hanoi by Issa, right during Tet holidays, how much days should I expect to wait in Vietnam due to the holidays and the reopening only this Monday of the embassy ? Is there any other applicants in Hanoi waiting right now in Hanoi or got any answer ?

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.

Issa compass. I don't recommend this company's service. I uploaded all the documents they requested. They approved it all, then i paid in 8 jan. They kept delaying the application by asking some stupid and repetitive questions that's i answered before. They started the application in 13 jan. Now it is 28 jan (more than 2 weeks). i sent them a message in 27 jan, they said that the embassy didn't replied yet. In 28 jan i sent them again telling them that i have a flight in 31 jan, and i need to extend my visa here in bali. They replied that the embassy told them to upload all pages of my passport (even if it's blank) and the same with my old passport which i don't have. I will keep you updated what will happen next.

Approved in Manila in 9 business days

I thought I’d make a post about my application process since this group has been really helpful in my application journey!

I applied soft power with Arun Thai Cooking School and used Issa Compass as the agent. Arun Thai was great- they sent the full packet of documents over within 24 hours of paying and the embassy never had any questions. Looking forward to the classes!

Timeline:

Applied January 13

Further documents requested January 19

Further documents requested January 21

Approved January 26

Since Issa Compass handled everything, I don’t know exactly how this was collated and what sorts of cover letters they added.

Documents:

- 6 months of bank statements (last three have balance over 500k, first three balances were between 400k and 500k)

- Contract for my freelance client

- 4 months of invoices

- Passport photo page

- All passport pages that had Thai entry/exit stamps (5 months of visa exemptions/extension from August until January)

- Passport page with Philippines entry stamps

- Booking receipt for an Airbnb in the Philippines for one week (Cebu not Manila)

- Booking receipt for an Airbnb for 1 month in Bangkok

- Photo of me in a thai cooking class earlier this year

First round of additional documents:

- They requested a new bank statement which was not yet available

- They requested a letter from my client that said I still worked for them. This wasn’t possible to get so I instead submitted the invoices from the weeks since submitting and another contract I had started in that time

Second round of additional documents:

- They requested proof of income tax, I sent my previous year’s tax return

- They requested my registration as an independent contractor. The US doesn’t really register independent contractors like this so I had nothing to provide.

Despite not having some of these documents, I got my approval today! One disappointing thing is that they put a note on my visa that it’s soft power/cooking class. Hopefully this won’t be a problem with immigration in the future 🤞🤞

I did get the visa so can’t really complain but I will say that contacting Issa Compass could be difficult at times. They would often not get back to me for hours or even days. They also apply for you through their own email so I never got any notice directly from the embassy. Not sure if this is normal for agents but I didn’t like it. Regardless though, they know what they’re doing and I’m glad I had support.

I'm looking for a company that can handle my whole DTV application and the whole process. I'm planning on moving to Thailand in May or June. Please message me if you can help... Yes, I have reached out to a few in the past and never got any response.

I know most people say you should do your DTV without an agent. But someone recommended Issa Compass to me, saying he had a good experience, and what sealed the deal for him is their money-back guarantee if you don't get approved. Does anyone else have experience with this agency?

DTV Approved!

Big shoutout to Arun Thai CookArun Thai Cookinge entire process so seamless. We paid our fees, got connected with their partner visa agency Issa Compass and we had our DTVs approved within 3-weeks from Washinton DC embasssy from start to finish! If anyone is looking for a cooking school that makes the entire process stress-free, definitely reccomend!

Hi, my DTV just got approved in Hanoi as remote work, after 8 days of wait.

I worked with ISSA Compass and the service has been great from beginning to end. It’s definitely worth using an agent I reckon, it’s expensive to wait in a random city for up to two weeks so I wouldn’t take the risk to mess up the application for a silly mistake after waiting 10 days in a hotel somewhere. A bit different if you doing it from your home town I guess.

Besides, they offer full refund in case your application is rejected, not to mention that 18 000 thb for a 5 year visa isn’t exactly expensive, that’s 9$ a month 😭. It’s no brainer.

Just saying this because of the amount of stress and anxiety I got from this group, which I understand as I’d be the same if I did it by myself, but just saying, please use professionals and chill out.