Applying for DTV in the UK

[Bobajob]

Okay, so I just want to post my experience of applying for a DTV through the e-visa system in the UK as requested by someone here. A bit of backstory: I lived in Thailand for around seven years on a non-O based on marriage. I had to come back to the UK for personal reasons. I've been back in this country for about 14 months. So my non-O expired, and then the news about the DTV came out, and I applied for it very quickly. The application process was fairly straightforward. When you submit your bank details, your statement, you can download it if you have online banking, but there needs to be your name and address at the top with a recent statement. I did it from my savings account attached to my main bank account. I also took a series of screenshots from the first page of my website from the top to the bottom with my name on it and what I do, a picture of myself, and reviews that I've received, and prices and stuff like that, and then I put those pictures in a PDF file. But you can't make it too big because there's a limited size that they will tell you on the application part, but if you turn it into a PDF, they can view more because otherwise, you can only send in one single screenshot. So you will be asked for your travel dates, but you can just put in any date that you want to within three months. Then when it says the flight number, just put in the standard, I think it's TG910 if you want to put in a Thai Airways flight, and an address. So I assume that a hotel is fine, I've actually got an address in Thailand, so I put that one in, and then I paid the fee, which was £300, and I submitted. The visa was issued the next day. I should add of course this was for digital work. I can't answer any questions based on cooking classes or Muay Thai, but I'll be happy to help the best way I can if anybody has any questions about the application process.

Edited August 10 by Bobajob

[DrJack54]

Thanks very much. No time to digest this now however on face value will help many. 🙏

[Seppius]

30 minutes ago, Bobajob said:

Okay, so I just want to post my experience of applying for a DTV through the e-visa system in the UK as requested by someone here. A bit of backstory: I lived in Thailand for around seven years on a non-O based on marriage. I had to come back to the UK for personal reasons. I've been back in this country for about 14 months. So my non-O expired, and then the news about the DTV came out, and I applied for it very quickly. The application process was fairly straightforward. When you submit your bank details, your statement, you can download it if you have online banking, but there needs to be your name and address at the top with a recent statement. I did it from my savings account attached to my main bank account. I also took a series of screenshots from the first page of my website from the top to the bottom with my name on it and what I do, a picture of myself, and reviews that I've received, and prices and stuff like that, and then I put those pictures in a PDF file. But you can't make it too big because there's a limited size that they will tell you on the application part, but if you turn it into a PDF, they can view more because otherwise, you can only send in one single screenshot. So you will be asked for your travel dates, but you can just put in any date that you want to within three months. Then when it says the flight number, just put in the standard, I think it's TG910 if you want to put in a Thai Airways flight, and an address. So I assume that a hotel is fine, I've actually got an address in Thailand, so I put that one in, and then I paid the fee, which was £300, and I submitted. The visa was issued the next day. I should add of course this was for digital work. I can't answer any questions based on cooking classes or Muay Thai, but I'll be happy to help the best way I can if anybody has any questions about the application process.

Thanks, think my friend application will be fine after reading that

[Pickwick]

2 hours ago, Bobajob said:

When you submit your bank details, your statement, you can download it if you have online banking, but there needs to be your name and address at the top with a recent statement.

Would you be kind enough to confirm the statement was just to show balance of 500,000 at time of application (not six months worth of statements as has been reported elsewhere)? Also, I assume when you said you used 'the e-visa system in the UK' - did you mean the general Thai immigration website or via the UK embassy in London (I can't connect to their site to view, perhaps as I'm currently not in the UK).

 

(Sorry if the questions have been asked before - I gave up on the other DTV thread as it had descended into petty bickering about tax, the LTR visa and visa exempt entries.)

[Huaidan]

2 hours ago, Bobajob said:

Okay, so I just want to post my experience of applying for a DTV through the e-visa system in the UK as requested by someone here. A bit of backstory: I lived in Thailand for around seven years on a non-O based on marriage. I had to come back to the UK for personal reasons. I've been back in this country for about 14 months. So my non-O expired, and then the news about the DTV came out, and I applied for it very quickly. The application process was fairly straightforward. When you submit your bank details, your statement, you can download it if you have online banking, but there needs to be your name and address at the top with a recent statement. I did it from my savings account attached to my main bank account. I also took a series of screenshots from the first page of my website from the top to the bottom with my name on it and what I do, a picture of myself, and reviews that I've received, and prices and stuff like that, and then I put those pictures in a PDF file. But you can't make it too big because there's a limited size that they will tell you on the application part, but if you turn it into a PDF, they can view more because otherwise, you can only send in one single screenshot. So you will be asked for your travel dates, but you can just put in any date that you want to within three months. Then when it says the flight number, just put in the standard, I think it's TG910 if you want to put in a Thai Airways flight, and an address. So I assume that a hotel is fine, I've actually got an address in Thailand, so I put that one in, and then I paid the fee, which was £300, and I submitted. The visa was issued the next day. I should add of course this was for digital work. I can't answer any questions based on cooking classes or Muay Thai, but I'll be happy to help the best way I can if anybody has any questions about the application process.

Did you have to provide any tax info?

[Upnotover]

4 minutes ago, Pickwick said:

Also, I assume when you said you used 'the e-visa system in the UK' - did you mean the general Thai immigration website or via the UK embassy in London (I can't connect to their site to view, perhaps as I'm currently not in the UK).

All e-visa applications are made through the same portal, but the individual country embassies review the applications and approve or reject them, and often ask for additional information to suit their own interpretation of the requirements.

[Bobajob]

1 hour ago, Pickwick said:

Would you be kind enough to confirm the statement was just to show balance of 500,000 at time of application (not six months worth of statements as has been reported elsewhere)? Also, I assume when you said you used 'the e-visa system in the UK' - did you mean the general Thai immigration website or via the UK embassy in London (I can't connect to their site to view, perhaps as I'm currently not in the UK).

 

(Sorry if the questions have been asked before - I gave up on the other DTV thread as it had descended into petty bickering about tax, the LTR visa and visa exempt entries.)

Hi, yeah, sorry, the same e-visa system that everybody uses. I should have made that clearer. I didn't need to show six months of bank statements, just the balance as of July.

[Bobajob]

1 hour ago, Huaidan said:

Did you have to provide any tax info?

Not in my application. All the information I gave is mentioned in my original post. 

[DCXMX]

5 hours ago, Bobajob said:

Okay, so I just want to post my experience of applying for a DTV through the e-visa system in the UK as requested by someone here. A bit of backstory: I lived in Thailand for around seven years on a non-O based on marriage. I had to come back to the UK for personal reasons. I've been back in this country for about 14 months. So my non-O expired, and then the news about the DTV came out, and I applied for it very quickly. The application process was fairly straightforward. When you submit your bank details, your statement, you can download it if you have online banking, but there needs to be your name and address at the top with a recent statement. I did it from my savings account attached to my main bank account. I also took a series of screenshots from the first page of my website from the top to the bottom with my name on it and what I do, a picture of myself, and reviews that I've received, and prices and stuff like that, and then I put those pictures in a PDF file. But you can't make it too big because there's a limited size that they will tell you on the application part, but if you turn it into a PDF, they can view more because otherwise, you can only send in one single screenshot. So you will be asked for your travel dates, but you can just put in any date that you want to within three months. Then when it says the flight number, just put in the standard, I think it's TG910 if you want to put in a Thai Airways flight, and an address. So I assume that a hotel is fine, I've actually got an address in Thailand, so I put that one in, and then I paid the fee, which was £300, and I submitted. The visa was issued the next day. I should add of course this was for digital work. I can't answer any questions based on cooking classes or Muay Thai, but I'll be happy to help the best way I can if anybody has any questions about the application process.

 

For the employement contract did your contract state remote or did you need to attach a letter stating remote work is allowed. For example my contract is very old so it didnt even exist back then but I attached a letter signed from HR stating am able to remote work. I assume this will be fine , applying from uk too btw 🙂 but I will submit my application in around two weeks as I wont travel until October.

[Newdawn101]

I will add my experience of getting the DTV here in the UK. I have a online business which is a LTD Company which I'm the Director.

 

I applied on Monday 5 August, Tuesday they requested more information added below.

 

A page appeared on the application page to upload the requested docs. The below is from the email.

 

With regards to your e-Visa application, the Royal Thai Embassy/ The Royal Thai Consulate-General would like to request for additional documents as follows: 
 

• Other request documents: - A copy of your company House / Sole trader
• Other request documents: - Your Professional portfolio or Your company description or Employment contract / Contract agreement.
• Other request documents: - Your confirmation letter from your Accountant or Personal tax calculation or computation statement or any letter issue from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) concern your tax income.

 

I sent :

 

From Companies house the CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF A PRIVATE LIMITED COMPANY which shows me as the director

 

I sent my self assessment calculation to show I have paid tax in the UK, this showed my UTR Number and is an official HMRC document.

 

Finally.

 

A brief summary what the business does, I gave a 200 word summary of what I do with screen grabs of the website. I did send this initially with the application so not sure why they asked for it again.

 

I received the approved visa at 9pm on Wednesday 7

 

Hope this helps anyone going forward with an application.

 

Just to add everything else was filled in as required, flight number, date of arrival, they also ask for a departure date, I added a random date in January.

 

Bank account showing £11500 which was for the month of July. I put a hotel as the place of residence due to the condo where I'm staying not being available until a week or so after when I arrive.

 

Edited August 10 by Newdawn101

[JamesPhuket10]

6 hours ago, Bobajob said:

Okay, so I just want to post my experience of applying for a DTV through the e-visa system in the UK as requested by someone here. A bit of backstory: I lived in Thailand for around seven years on a non-O based on marriage. I had to come back to the UK for personal reasons. I've been back in this country for about 14 months. So my non-O expired, and then the news about the DTV came out, and I applied for it very quickly. The application process was fairly straightforward. When you submit your bank details, your statement, you can download it if you have online banking, but there needs to be your name and address at the top with a recent statement. I did it from my savings account attached to my main bank account. I also took a series of screenshots from the first page of my website from the top to the bottom with my name on it and what I do, a picture of myself, and reviews that I've received, and prices and stuff like that, and then I put those pictures in a PDF file. But you can't make it too big because there's a limited size that they will tell you on the application part, but if you turn it into a PDF, they can view more because otherwise, you can only send in one single screenshot. So you will be asked for your travel dates, but you can just put in any date that you want to within three months. Then when it says the flight number, just put in the standard, I think it's TG910 if you want to put in a Thai Airways flight, and an address. So I assume that a hotel is fine, I've actually got an address in Thailand, so I put that one in, and then I paid the fee, which was £300, and I submitted. The visa was issued the next day. I should add of course this was for digital work. I can't answer any questions based on cooking classes or Muay Thai, but I'll be happy to help the best way I can if anybody has any questions about the application process.

Thanks for your information. 

I am currently in Thailand on a non-O visa, I have been here for about 1.5 years and the next renewal for my so-called retirement extension will be in February 2025.

 

I had a look at the online UK visa application system and filled in some of my details for the DTV visa to see what questions they were going to ask.

 

When it came to the job type, there was "company owner", "Self Employed", "freelance", "contract" etc, and even one for "retired", so do you know if we can select retired?

 

I am a retired freelance software engineer and I am currently designing/coding/testing iPhone apps from my home office in Thailand, I have a full development system here, and if successful I will set up a LTD company in the UK, I suppose I could then say I am a "company owner".

 

What proof did they request from you to prove you are employed and proof of your income etc, I can easily show I have cash in the bank re the 500k Baht.. 

 

I understand the visa is for six months and can then be extended while in Thailand for another six months, but I am assuming when that second six months expires we have to go back to the UK and get a brand new DTV visa?

[Bobajob]

I didn't give a work contract because I'm a freelancer. I uploaded screenshots in a PDF file of my website and contact information, so it was clear from the PDF the work that I did, but it's me stating that I do that work. But maybe if you're going along the lines of working for a company or, as the poster above stated, that you have your own business, maybe more documentation is needed.

40 minutes ago, DCXMX said:

 

For the employement contract did your contract state remote or did you need to attach a letter stating remote work is allowed. For example my contract is very old so it didnt even exist back then but I attached a letter signed from HR stating am able to remote work. I assume this will be fine , applying from uk too btw 🙂 but I will submit my application in around two weeks as I wont travel until October.

 

[Bobajob]

It could be because you're a business owner; you've got your own company, so maybe more proof is required if people apply that way. Or maybe the requirements have changed; it's difficult to know until more people post about their experiences of how they got their DTV.

19 minutes ago, Newdawn101 said:

I will add my experience of getting the DTV here in the UK. I have a online business which is a LTD Company which I'm the Director.

 

I applied on Monday 5 August, Tuesday they requested more information added below.

 

A page appeared on the application page to upload the requested docs. The below is from the email.

 

With regards to your e-Visa application, the Royal Thai Embassy/ The Royal Thai Consulate-General would like to request for additional documents as follows: 
 

• Other request documents: - A copy of your company House / Sole trader
• Other request documents: - Your Professional portfolio or Your company description or Employment contract / Contract agreement.
• Other request documents: - Your confirmation letter from your Accountant or Personal tax calculation or computation statement or any letter issue from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) concern your tax income.

 

I sent :

 

From Companies house the CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF A PRIVATE LIMITED COMPANY which shows me as the director

 

I sent my self assessment calculation to show I have paid tax in the UK, this showed my UTR Number and is an official HMRC document.

 

Finally.

 

A brief summary what the business does, I gave a 200 word summary of what I do with screen grabs of the website.

 

I received the approved visa at 9pm on Wednesday 7

 

Hope this helps anyone going forward with an application.

 

 

[Bobajob]

One would assume if you selected "retired," that would be to apply for the soft skills rather than the online working visa. You need to apply outside of Thailand for it, and I mean, you could put yourself down as a freelancer. If you get any questions, you could suggest that you have come out of retirement. The evidence I gave, as I mentioned in the original post, is just screenshots of a website turned into a PDF file. My proof of finances was a bank statement, as already mentioned. The visa itself currently is for five years, so the current rules mean it's 180 days per entry, and then it is possible to extend as long as you meet the requirements, which nobody is particularly sure about at the moment. Then you can extend for another 180 days; then you need to leave the country for at least one day,

11 minutes ago, JamesPhuket10 said:

Thanks for your information. 

I am currently in Thailand on a non-O visa, I have been here for about 1.5 years and the next renewal for my so-called retirement extension will be in February 2025.

 

I had a look at the online UK visa application system and filled in some of my details for the DTV visa to see what questions they were going to ask.

 

When it came to the job type, there was "company owner", "Self Employed", "freelance", "contract" etc, and even one for "retired", so do you know if we can select retired?

 

I am a retired freelance software engineer and I am currently designing/coding/testing iPhone apps from my home office in Thailand, I have a full development system here, and if successful I will set up a LTD company in the UK, I suppose I could then say I am a "company owner".

 

What proof did they request from you to prove you are employed and proof of your income etc, I can easily show I have cash in the bank re the 500k Baht.. 

 

I understand the visa is for six months and can then be extended while in Thailand for another six months, but I am assuming when that second six months expires we have to go back to the UK and get a brand new DTV visa?

come back in, and you can repeat. If you leave the country, upon re-entry to Thailand, your 180 days starts again, and at the moment, you can repeat that for the length of your visa.

[Newdawn101]

I would say you would put freelance and upload a PDF of what you do, all they would need is a description and screenshots like the op did with his application. 

 

If you put company owner you may get a request to supply all that I had to send which you don't have at the moment.

 

 

13 minutes ago, JamesPhuket10 said:

Thanks for your information. 

I am currently in Thailand on a non-O visa, I have been here for about 1.5 years and the next renewal for my so-called retirement extension will be in February 2025.

 

I had a look at the online UK visa application system and filled in some of my details for the DTV visa to see what questions they were going to ask.

 

When it came to the job type, there was "company owner", "Self Employed", "freelance", "contract" etc, and even one for "retired", so do you know if we can select retired?

 

I am a retired freelance software engineer and I am currently designing/coding/testing iPhone apps from my home office in Thailand, I have a full development system here, and if successful I will set up a LTD company in the UK, I suppose I could then say I am a "company owner".

 

What proof did they request from you to prove you are employed and proof of your income etc, I can easily show I have cash in the bank re the 500k Baht.. 

 

I understand the visa is for six months and can then be extended while in Thailand for another six months, but I am assuming when that second six months expires we have to go back to the UK and get a brand new DTV visa?

 

[Chalky0w]

Hi,

 

Thanks for sharing!

Was money in account just shown via a monthly statement or longer? 

[Bobajob]

Hi, I went onto my bank and clicked on my messages to get the most recent statement from my savings account. Above this would have my name, address, and account number, and a little bit of money that I've blanked out for obvious reasons. I should also mention that I don't think they like screenshots, so you might need to download it as a file and then upload that file during your application.

2 hours ago, Chalky0w said:

Hi,

 

Thanks for sharing!

Was money in account just shown via a monthly statement or longer? 

 

[Chalky0w]

6 hours ago, Bobajob said:

Hi, I went onto my bank and clicked on my messages to get the most recent statement from my savings account. Above this would have my name, address, and account number, and a little bit of money that I've blanked out for obvious reasons. I should also mention that I don't think they like screenshots, so you might need to download it as a file and then upload that file during your application.

 

Thanks for sharing. Indicates a yearly statement. 
 

My problem is that my main cash savings account is fixed term and doesn’t do online statements. I’ve got more than £12k in other accounts but don’t know how long you need to have maintained the balance over £12k.

[Bobajob]

2 minutes ago, Bobajob said:

1 hour ago, Chalky0w said:

Thanks for sharing. Indicates a yearly statement. 
 

My problem is that my main cash savings account is fixed term and doesn’t do online statements. I’ve got more than £12k in other accounts but don’t know how long you need to have maintained the balance over £12k.

 

Hi, it does have two dates suggesting that, but the first balance a year ago was way under the required amount to apply for the visa, and there's nothing to show when the money was deposited throughout the year, so the final balance submitted could have been deposited in May.

[HauptmannUK]

I think some applicants are making heavy weather of the DTV process in London.

There is no requirement to have the 500k THB (£11k) 'seasoned'. They just want to see something showing £11k in your name at the time of application. There is no requirement to show an income either. 

In my case I simply wrote a letter with our Limited Company logo and address. I headed it 'Confirmation of Employment'. 'To who it may concern. I can confirm that Mr Joe Bloggs has been an employee of this company since xx.xx.20xx.'  Then I signed it. No mention of remote working, or any other details.

Finances were a screenshot of a YBS account balance showing my name and address and over £11k on the day of application.

Location dealt with by sending a recent energy bill.

I got the visa 30 hours later.

I doubt there is much, if any, checking being done at the moment. That might change of course....

[sustainableseth]

Does the 500,000baht need to be on Thai bank account or can it be equivalent? 

[Rob Browder]

30 minutes ago, sustainableseth said:

Does the 500,000baht need to be on Thai bank account or can it be equivalent? 

The 500K Baht worth of money can be in a foreign-bank, per previous success-reports.