How I Successfully Extended My DTV Visa

So you’re looking to extend your Destination Thailand Visa (DTV). Firstly, we’re sorry for the quagmire of trolls and negativity that you had to wade through to get here.

We’re going to assume a couple things about you:

• You already know that you can do a border run, but you’d rather extend it at Immigration.
• You’ve already got a DTV, or you’re considering getting one and looking at the “down-the-line” implications of the visa.

We’re going to focus on the workation category as this is where I can speak from experience. If you’re under the soft power category I’m sure that you’ll still get a lot of insight from this article.

What you need to know

Firstly, you can book your DTV extension online on Thai Immigration’s website. Just choose the most relevant category and book within either 45 or 30 days of your visa’s expiry date (Bangkok allows extensions up to 45 days out, many provinces only allow for 30).

Extending does indeed require extensive documentation. You more or less need the same documentation that you applied for the visa with.

Remember that it was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) that approved the visa, but the Department of Immigration who will consider the extension.

With this in mind, consider that these departments have different objectives. MFA wants to bring more people to the country, whereas Immigration functions more in the nature of a police organisation whose objective is to curb illegal immigration and work.

Therefore, from my experience Immigration were more concerned with who I was working for and where they were from when I went for my visa extension.

Permitting that you have 500,000 Thai Baht (or equivalent in another currency) in a single bank account with a statement printed on the day of application, the financial element of your visa extension is relatively simple.

Where there is more stringency and discretion is in the nature of your work. Immigration really wants to know the specifics of your work: The business structure, the value you provide, and what your day-to-day work looks like.

Getting ready for your extension

You should be doing the following leading up to your extension:

1. 1. Maintain your bank balance of at least 500,000 Thai Baht or equivalent in a foreign account. Ideally, this will be the same account you applied for the visa with and will remain over 500,000 Baht for the duration of your time in Thailand.
   2. Making sure that you did your first 90-day report.
   3. Keeping documentation that might be useful, such as new work contracts or invoices.
   4. Book an appointment as far away from the expiry date as your province allows (if you province allows bookings).

Important: Book for the late morning or afternoon as your financial statements must be dated for the day of your appointment.

A few important notes

This visa extension is discretionary. Unlike other visas that can be more binary, the Immigration Officer has to look at all the factors, weigh them up, then make a decision.

For this reason, you’re building a case, not ticking boxes.

Think of this more like a job interview than a form filling exercise. You’re going there to convince the Immigration Officer that you’re a great candidate for the visa and someone that they’re happy to have in their country for another six months.

Also, Immigration Officers are quite friendly people. Just be friendly and polite and they’ll match your energy, at least that is the case in all of my experiences.

Lastly, Immigration Officers are human beings. By that, I mean that they don’t just magically understand your job and how it and you work. Be prepared to talk them through what you do and explain what they’re looking at as they’re flicking through your documents.

Preparing your documents for your meeting

Leading up to your extension you should prepare documents for the following categories:

1. Basic application documents.
2. Residential documents.
3. Financial documents.
4. Work-related documents.

Basic application documents

This includes:

• A completed TM7 application form.
• A copy of your passport
  • Biodata page
  • Visa/entry stamp
• A copy of your DTV visa (the A4 page provided upon approval)
• A copy of your 90-day report

Residential information

• TM30 form
• Your rental contract
• The title deed of the property, signed by the landlord
• My landlord and I included the Tabien Baan (House registration booklet) for good measure.

Financial information

For financial information, this is largely a display of net worth. Get all of your financial statements from your banks and investments on the morning of your application.

This is where I went wrong. My statements were from the day before my application and I had to go home, reprint them, and deliver them back to the Immigration Officer who was serving me.

Once you have all of these statements, make a cover letter with a table breaking down your net worth, show a conversion into Thai Baht on one of the columns.

Attach the statements in order following your cover letter.

We understand that some people will prefer not to share net worth information for various reasons. Note that sharing net worth details (other than your THB 500,000 bank savings) is not an explicit requirement for the visa. I chose to share my net worth details in order to strengthen my case as a suitable applicant that has the means to support themselves while living in the country.

Work-related documents

This is the most important category and where the Officer has near total discretion.

I break these down into three sub-categories:

1. Business financials
2. Business administrative
3. Professional portfolio

Business financial

These are your invoices, profit and loss statements, balance sheet, and other accounting statements.

Include your business bank account if you haven’t already so you can verify this information with the Officer.

Although cash flow isn’t an inherent requirement for the visa, the Immigration officer was pleased to see that I was maintaining a consistent cash flow that was exceeding my business expenses and that my invoices were all being paid on time and in full.

Business administrative

This category has some crossover with the others, but it is helpful. My thinking here was to provide verifiable information that the Officer could check on their own accord.

Here’s what I provided:

• An Australian Business Number
  • This can be searched and verified
• Domain registrations for my relevant websites
  • This was actually recommended by the Officer

According to the Officer, they like these kinds of documents because they can check it themselves.

I’d also add any qualifications, licenses, or industry designations that you have here.

Professional portfolio

This is the other part that I did incorrectly; I had a few screenshots of work I had done, but not enough.

Immigration really wants to see what you do.

For me, this included showing off my client results with screenshots of my online finished products.

Here are some thoughts of what this might be for you:

Once you’ve collected all of the above documents, organise them into categories to help the Officer make sense of what they’re looking at.

Use paper clips and sticky notes to make their job easier and sign each page with a blue or black pen.

This saves you a lot of time as the officer will stamp each signature instead of you having to sign every stamp that they put on each page.

The meeting

Get to Immigration at least 15 minutes before your meeting. This will give you time to find your counter and get your documents in hand.

Find your counter and wait nearby, once the individual before you leaves, approach the officer and mention to them that you have a booking for this time. They will either ask you to wait a moment or see you then and there.

Mention that you have a DTV and would like to extend it; that will dictate what they do next.

At this point, I’ll note a few things:

• Bring your laptop in case you’re missing anything or you’re required to login and verify a statement.
• Listen to the Officer and don’t argue, but politely speak up if you feel that they’ve misunderstood something.
• If you need to go and print off extra documentation, most Immigration offices have a print shop nearby.
• Again: The bank statements must be from the day of application. Therefore, booking in the late morning or early afternoon will give you enough time to print the documents in the morning and also print any extras before closing should the Officer require you to.

If you don’t have a booking, get to Immigration first thing in the morning to get your ticket or else you might not be able to extend your visa.

After the meeting

Once the meeting is over, you’ll be told to return to Immigration in 14 days time to get your results.

It is my strong advice to book a time on this date as well.

On this date, you will simply mention to the Officer that you are awaiting the results of your visa extension.

For me, I handed him my passport, he checked my name against a list (perhaps a visa extension approval list), then he put the visa extension stamp in my passport.

And that’s it.

Note the date of expiry and don’t forget your 90-day reports as they’re important to remain compliant.

Thanks for reading.