The German-speaking world is served by five Thai consulates: Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin divide Germany between them by federal state, Vienna covers Austria along with Slovakia and Slovenia, Bern covers Switzerland and Liechtenstein. On 3 September we opened all five websites and compared them against the application form. The main finding for a German-speaking applicant: permanent residence — Daueraufenthalt — is not required for the DTV. The only German-language competitor says the opposite, and screens out people whose applications would go through.
Which post is yours
Inside Germany your post is decided by where you are registered, and that is not a question of convenience.
| Post | Covers |
|---|---|
| Frankfurt | Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Thuringia |
| Munich | Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg |
| Berlin | Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein |
| Vienna | Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia |
| Bern | Switzerland, Liechtenstein |
Residence: what is accepted
The German posts ask not for a status but for a registered address. A German citizen needs an identity card and a Meldebescheinigung — the certificate of registered address — and in Frankfurt it has to be no older than six months. For a citizen of the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, Frankfurt is satisfied with the registration alone. Every other foreigner needs a residence permit card, the Aufenthaltstitel, plus the registration, and Frankfurt is the only post that requires the address on the card to match the address on the registration certificate. No post specifies what type of residence permit it has to be.
Bern updated its DTV checklist on 31 August and accepts any Swiss residence card, B, L or G. Vienna speaks of a residence permit, but its DTV page still shows the requirements of July 2024: a document proving current location, which has been deleted from the form, and no criminal record certificate at all. The e-Visa form has asked everyone for the certificate since 31 August, and Vienna was already requesting it back in February.
Three German posts, three readings of one rule
| Frankfurt | Munich | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Criminal record certificate | no older than 6 months, from the Bundesamt für Justiz (the Federal Office of Justice) | no older than 3 months | no limit stated |
| Portfolio as grounds | accepted | not accepted | accepted |
| Employment contract | an ordinary one | must expressly permit remote work from Thailand; freelancers need a Gewerbeanmeldung (trade registration) | an ordinary one |
| Certificate for dependants | from age 14 | no age caveat | not stated |
| Presence in the country | while the application is under consideration | at the moment of filing and payment | strongly asked not to leave before the decision |
| Fee | €350 | €350 | €350 |
| Time given on the site | 15 working days, plus 15 if documents are requested | 15 consular days | 15 working days, plus 15 if documents are requested |
We keep the certificate no older than three months for any of the three, so that the package goes through everywhere. The requirements of one post cannot be carried over to another: a portfolio Frankfurt will take stops the application in Munich.
The Führungszeugnis and the other certificates
The German certificate of good conduct, the Führungszeugnis, costs €13, is issued on paper only, has its details printed in German, English and French, and needs no translation. It is not issued to anyone under 14. Anyone applying from abroad has their signature certified at a German consulate, at a local authority or by a notary. None of the posts asks for legalisation, although the Bundesamt für Justiz formally counts Thailand among the countries for which an Überbeglaubigung, a further certification, is issued for €25: we keep that option in reserve, but we do not claim it will be needed.
The Austrian Strafregisterbescheinigung is ordered online for €18 or issued on the spot at a Vienna Polizeikommissariat, a district police station, and a clean certificate comes bilingual straight away, German and English. The Swiss criminal record extract costs 17 CHF, takes around two weeks, arrives as a digital PDF with English as an additional language, and cannot be apostilled at all. Bern does not accept an apostille, and under its own legalisation rules the criminal record certificate has to be no older than two months.
In any case, the apostille does not yet work for Thailand: the convention enters into force for the country on 28 February 2027.
The money
The threshold of 500,000 THB is around €13,100 or 12,300 CHF at the exchange rate of early September. Munich is the only post to name a euro equivalent on its page, and the figure it names is too low: €12,500 does not reach the threshold. Count on a margin of 8–10 per cent for the rate. Frankfurt and Berlin ask for three months of statements, Munich also accepts Verdienstnachweise — payslips. The sponsorship letter is called a Verpflichtungserklärung in Berlin’s wording, a formal declaration of liability rather than a free-form letter. Screenshots of statements and bookings are accepted by neither Berlin nor Bern.
Fees and timings
The three German posts charge €350, Bern 350 CHF, and that is the most expensive fee in Europe. Vienna does not publish its fee: the post’s tariff page is dated 2021, and the amount only becomes visible when you pay on the portal. The fee is non-refundable everywhere, no corrections are possible after payment, and a mistake in a name costs money all over again.
The stated times: 15 working days in Germany, around ten in Bern, and for certain nationalities in Bern up to 8–12 weeks. In our own cases Frankfurt decided in 12 days and Berlin in 16, but those cases predate the reform and we do not call them the norm. For Vienna the spread runs from four working days to three months with an interview in person.
What changes on 15 September
From 15 September 2026 visa-free entry for German, Austrian and Swiss citizens is cut from 60 days to 30. For anyone used to living in Thailand for months on a stamp, the five-year DTV becomes the only calm option.
What to do now
Work out your post from your registered address. Order the Führungszeugnis with three months of validity in mind. Check your contract: if you are in Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg it has to permit remote work from Thailand, otherwise you will need a Gewerbeanmeldung. Count the threshold with a margin. And do not leave the country before the decision.
The posts’ pages with the details: Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Bern.
If you are not sure whether your residence status qualifies or where to start collecting documents, message Mira: she will check your citizenship and status, tell you which consulate is yours and send you the preparation steps. A package you have assembled yourself can go through 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.