Who can file here from 31 August 2026
The New York district is ten states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Ohio is geographically closer to Chicago but formally belongs here — that is where people go wrong most often.
The post has no separate DTV page: there is one line in the general table of visa types. On 2 September two new lines appeared under that table. The first is “Indicating of Current Location such as STATE ID / DRIVING LICENSE / ELECTRIC BILL / LEASE AGREEMENT / BANK STATEMENT” — a state ID, a driver’s licence, an electricity bill, a lease or a bank statement. The second is about the criminal record certificate.
The post has kept the old name of the document — current location — although the e-Visa form has carried proof of permanent residence since 31 August. What exactly New York will count for the new field it has not announced, so we put in both a document from its list and proof of status: a U.S. visa or a permanent resident card.
The criminal record certificate: the only U.S. post that takes a state certificate
New York’s wording is “Must be issued by State or FBI”. Since the edits of 1 September the other three U.S. posts accept the FBI only, so this is a rare concession.
The FBI certificate: $18 per person, fingerprints on form FD-1164 and, with an online application, an answer within 48 hours of submitting them at a USPS location, or up to 15 days by mail; there is no expediting.
The New York state certificate is issued by DCJS: $17.50 inside the state at the rate in force since 2 February 2026, and $57.45 when ordered from another state through IdentoGO. It takes three to four weeks, the answer comes by U.S. mail only, and you cannot pick it up in person. One detail matters: when ordering for use abroad you have to choose the purpose “travel/other country”, otherwise DCJS will not attach the signed document and the State Department will not put an apostille on it.
New York has not named a validity period for the certificate; the neighbouring U.S. posts require no older than three months, and we hold to the same. An apostille does not work for Thailand yet: the Convention enters into force there on 28 February 2027. State Department authentication costs $20 per document, about five weeks by mail and seven business days in person.
How filing works
- The fee is $400, and the visa is multiple-entry for five years. Payment goes through the e-Visa portal only and by credit card only — that is what the post writes.
- The post does not publish a processing time. Our files hold one case: filed in December 2025, decided in about two months, with a request for documents landing on the very first day. One case is not a norm.
- Finances per the form: three months of statements from one or several banks with a balance no lower than 500,000 THB — about $15,158 on 3 September — or a sponsorship letter.
- The post has no document checklist of its own, so we build the package for the e-Visa form rather than for the page.
- Dependants: a spouse and children under 20, the same $400 fee and the same five years.
What else matters
There is one account, from 1 September, that New York expressly allowed an applicant to leave the United States while the application was pending. That is a single voice, and four of the eight English-language posts have the opposite rule, up to and including cancellation of the application. Until the post confirms it, we advise not leaving before the decision.
From 15 September 2026 visa-free entry for U.S. citizens drops from 60 to 30 days.
What we track here
Whether a state certificate passes instead of the FBI in practice. Whether the post will produce a DTV checklist of its own. And whether leaving during processing really is allowed here — this is the only one of the eight posts about which that has been said at all.
A package you have assembled yourself we check before filing — the Preflight Check: $300, a written report within two working days. Full support all the way to the visa is the Solo Route and Family Route.
The state of every consulate is on the live board, and the consulate assigned to your country is on the map.