It is a chance for them to ask questions, get clarification or otherwise evaluate your application. It is better than being denied without a chance to clarify.

As mentioned by Brandon, the extension process isn't yet known.

The way around this is to leave the country briefly and then re-enter and get another 180 day stamp. No paperwork, fees, etc. Just the cost of the travel. Can do this as many times as you want during the 5 year visa validity.

@Nigel *****

what? I don't need any help. I was answering the OP question...

The DTV is valid for 5 years from the date approved. Your first entry can be at any time within that 5 years.

You can enter as,many times as you want within that 5 years. Each time you enter you will receive a 180 day entry stamp.

You can go anywhere outside of Thailand, return to Thailand and get a new 180 day entry stamp each time. No additional paperwork, bank statements or anything. Just walk through immigration the same as any other time. Inform them of your DTV and show printed copy of the PDF letter (if you don't have the sticker).

Watch as they stamp it to make sure they put the 180 days and not accidentally 60.

@Sab ****

a lot of this depends on which country their tax basis is.

I do agree that getting approved for the DTV would be easier if he had an LLC.

And, at least in USA, it wouldn't change their taxes at all if set up as a single member LLC either. But we don't know where their home country is so that might not be true in their home country.

Anonymous participant my understanding is that it isn't clearly defined yet... which is crazy because the year is over but what I've heard is that it is based on the income that was actually brought into Thailand with the exception of countries that have taxation treaties. Each country is different for this. Some allow a Thai tax deduction for the amount of taxes paid in other jurisdictions

It doesn't matter if it is the DTV or another visa. Tax residency is based on how long you're in the country

Total cost is a one time fee of approximately 10,000 baht ( the actual cost depends on the embassy through which you apply).

If you decide to do any extensions that is an additional cost. But if you do border runs or leave the country occasionally then the one time application fee is the total cost.

@Andi **********

I posted about my experience in early October.

Overall it was a decent experience. Mine took two days because they wanted a supervisor to review my documents that afternoon before they took the fee. And I had to do a little interview to explain some things.

My company in USA is a C-Corp and I provided EIN doc, Articles of Incorporation, etc but no city business license. Had to walk them through that as they seem to prefer city biz license and weren't familiar with the state and federal level documents.

Bank docs were easy. We looked up the exchange rate and wrote the Thai baht equivalent next to the USD balances.

They did look at the bank statements to see income coming in. I wrote a letter from my company to the embassy about my work and allowed to work remotely

I had an METV when I went. They asked if I flew to Taipei specifically to apply for the DTV and I said yes.

One note - the printing services at FamilyMart and 7-11 are great! Very convenient and inexpensive