How filing works
A fully remote format: the application goes into the electronic system, the $340 fee is paid online by card, and there is no interview. The jurisdiction covers Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces; Phu Quoc belongs to Hanoi.
What changed in May 2026
This route was the most comfortable in the system for a long time, but requirements tightened in May 2026 and the focus of the checks moved from the balance on the account to where the income comes from:
- statements are requested for two years rather than a few months;
- the consulate wants to see a transparent chain: where the income originates and how it reaches Thailand;
- attitudes towards certain types of income have grown markedly more cautious;
- dependants consistently draw document requests.
How the consulate reads specific income structures is the most fluid part of the picture: it shifts from batch to batch, and this is where the generic write-ups floating around the internet go stale fastest.
The rhythm of decisions
Since June 2026 decisions have come out in batches once or twice a week, with pauses of up to two weeks between them. The real time from filing to decision is around three weeks.
What we track here
Every batch of decisions — our base shows when the consulate “wakes up”, what ends up in document requests, and how the requirements move. The board status is “watch”: what’s happening looks like a controlled tightening rather than a collapse along the lines of Colombo, but tightenings like this are exactly what need watching daily.
The state of every consulate is on the live board.