How filing works
The application is submitted online, but the route requires being in Vientiane in person: the 10,000 baht fee is paid in cash at the consulate’s counter — the only such arrangement in the whole DTV system — and most applicants sit an in-person interview. The interview is calm in tone; an interpreter isn’t required, and the consulate allows translation through an app.
Open sources say almost nothing about this consulate — generalities only. The real picture comes together only from watching live filings.
What’s happening now
Through the summer of 2026 the consulate has been running steadily. The flip side: after the Vietnamese consulates tightened and Phnom Penh stopped, part of the flow moved here, and timings have grown from a week and a half or two to two and a half or three weeks.
Useful logistics
- Certification of bank statements for Russian citizens is done at the Russian embassy in Vientiane — around $5 a page;
- cash baht can be exchanged at banks in the city at a normal rate, so there’s no need to bring the sum with you in advance.
What we track here
The chronicle of interviews — every one goes into our base: what gets asked, how the tone shifts, who has stopped being called in. Plus the quirks of the local arithmetic when financial requirements are checked: the consulate has its own way of converting figures, and it’s worth accounting for before filing rather than after.
The state of every consulate is on the live board.