What the DTV is
A five year, multiple entry visa for remote workers, freelancers and people coming for a recognised Thai activity. You get up to 180 days per entryOFFICIAL on each arrival. Leave and come back, the clock resets. Stay put and you can file one extension: one extension per entry, up to 180 more daysOFFICIAL .
It is not a work permit for the Thai job market and it is not residency. It is permission to be here for a long time while your income comes from somewhere else.
Three ways in
three filing categories: workcation, Thai soft power activities, and dependantsOFFICIAL Pick the one your evidence is strongest for, not the one that sounds best.
Remote employees, freelancers and company owners working for clients outside Thailand. London files this one as DTV1 and names four profiles: digital nomad, remote worker, foreign talent, freelancer.
Your file has to show two things at once: the work is real, and it is not Thai. Whatever proves that in your case, a contract, an employment letter, a portfolio of foreign clients, is what belongs in the pack.
Muay Thai, Thai cooking, medical treatment and other recognised programs. soft power programs under 3 months are usually turned downPRACTICE , so a two week course is the wrong thing to build a case on.
spouse and unmarried children under 20 apply as dependentsOFFICIAL Each one is a separate application with its own fee and its own paperwork.
The money bar
One number carries this visa: 500,000 THB as the ending balanceOFFICIAL , shown across 3 months of statementsOFFICIAL . Read that carefully. The rule names an ending balance, not an average and not a lock.
we ask for a balance that has been sitting there across all 3 statements, not parked days before filingOUR TAKE That is our own standard, not a published rule, and we label it that way everywhere it appears.
Your document packet
Tick these off as you go. Nothing leaves your browser, so you can close the tab and come back to it tomorrow.
How filing works
Filing happens through the official e-Visa portal, thaievisa.go.thOFFICIAL . Everything is uploaded, everything comes back by email, and there is no counter to argue at.
- 01 Pick the post you will file through and read its own page.
- 02 Build the packet, in the format that post accepts.
- 03 File through the portal and pay the local fee.
- 04 Answer any document request fast. The clock pauses while they wait on you.
- 05 Visa arrives by email. Check every field before you book anything.
The fee follows the post rather than the visa: GBP 300 at the London embassyOFFICIAL , SGD 500 at the Singapore embassyOFFICIAL . Check the tariff on the page of the post you are actually using, because the number you saw on a forum was probably somebody else's country.
Recent cases land at roughly 2 to 4 weeks in recent cases, depending on the postPRACTICE . Treat that as weather, not a timetable: nobody can promise you a date.
What it does not do
The honest part. light on paper, stricter at the counter since 2025PRACTICE , which is why a file that would have sailed through in 2024 gets questions now.
It is not a work permit. The route exists for income that comes from outside Thailand, and the category you file under is the promise you are making about where your work lives.
Two limits people ask about constantly, tax residency once you spend long enough here in a calendar year, and whether Thai banks will open an account for a DTV holder, are not settled by the visa page. We are sourcing both from the Revenue Department and from the banks themselves, and we would rather leave a gap here than hand you a number from a forum.
Questions people actually ask
01 Can I apply for the DTV while I am already in Thailand
No. Applications run through the official portal from outside the country, so a border run to a neighbouring post is the normal move for people already on the ground.
02 Does the money have to sit in a Thai bank
Nothing in the checklists we have read asks for a Thai account. Applicants show statements from their own bank, in their own name. Confirm the format with the post you file through, because some want the statement stamped or issued as a bank letter.
03 What happens at the end of five years
You apply again. We have not found an official page describing a renewal shortcut, so plan for a fresh application rather than a rollover, and ask your post before the visa runs out.