Money for the DTV. What the consulate actually checks

The myth: 500,000 baht in the account is enough for a DTV. In reality the consulate reads your statement as a story — how long the money has lived there, where it comes from and whether the income matches your form. The financial part and the common mistakes.

A common DTV question always sounds the same: “I have 500 thousand baht — is that enough?” Since 31 August 2026 that question has an exact half of an answer for the first time: the money requirement is written into the form itself, the same one for every consulate. But the other half hasn’t gone anywhere: the consulate still looks not only at the balance, but at how that money lives. Here’s the formula from the form, what the consulate reads in a statement — and where applicants trip up most often.

The formula from the form: three months of minimum balance

Since 31 August the requirement has been sitting in the central e-visa form, and it reads like this: statements for the last three months from any bank with a minimum balance of 500,000 baht (roughly $15,000). Three details, each of which matters:

Minimum, not average. If the account was below 500,000 baht for even a single day across those three months, the requirement is formally not met. A fresh top-up doesn’t cure a dip — the window for filing starts counting again.
For every participant, dependants included. A spouse and each child in a family filing need their own 500,000 baht: Moscow confirmed “500,000 for each.”
A sponsorship letter is a formal alternative right there in the form, for the main applicant too. How consulates read it in practice will be shown by the decisions of September.

A word-by-word breakdown of the new requirements is in a separate piece.

What the consulate checks in the statement

Not only the balance — the history too. Three layers, from the simplest to the one that matters most:

1.Seasoning. The sum has to live in the account for three months — with no dips below the line. That used to be the practice of “usually three months”; now it’s a line in the form. A top-up on the eve of filing shows up in the statement plain as day.
2.Source. The big trend of the past year: consulates look at where the money comes from. Regular payments from an employer or clients tell a story; a one-off transfer from yourself to yourself tells nothing.
3.Consistency. The income in the statement has to match the employment you declared. If the form says freelance designer and the statement shows unlabelled transfers from private individuals, the consulate starts asking questions. A document request is the best-case outcome.

Where people trip up most often

A dip that lasts one day. You paid for something big out of the “visa” account, the balance dived below 500,000 baht — and the three months start counting again. A minimum balance forgives no dips, however short.
Part of the income lives outside the paperwork. “I earn well, but the documents don’t show all of it” is a common situation in our practice. It’s solvable: real income can almost always be made visible — as long as you build the proof in advance, not a week before filing.
A strong statement from the wrong account. The money sits with a spouse, in a second account or in another currency — and the package carries the account with no movement in it. For a family this is now critical: the sum has to be in each participant’s own account — or there has to be a sponsorship letter.
Documents that argue with each other. Amounts, dates and company names don’t line up across the contract, the statement and the certificates — and for a consulate that’s worse than a modest balance.

Check before you file

All of the above, folded into five points:

across the last three months no account of any participant, dependants included, went below 500,000 baht for a single day — or a sponsorship letter is ready;
the incoming payments are regular, and they show where the income comes from;
the package carries the account where the money lives, not the one with no movement;
the employment on the form matches what the statement shows;
amounts, dates and company names are identical across all documents — the contract, the statement and the certificates.

What’s left of the consular patchwork

Before 31 August 2026 every consulate counted money its own way: Manila looked at end-of-month balances, Moscow at three months, Ho Chi Minh City since August at a balance that never dipped, over six months. The common floor is now one and it sits in the form: 500,000 baht over three months. But some posts have raised the bar above the form — Paris wants €15,000 in each of the three months, roughly 15% more. So the formula in the form is a minimum, not a ceiling: check it against your consulate’s requirement.

But consulates still read finances each in their own way. The embassy in Moscow checks income against the 2-NDFL tax certificate (the Russian income-tax statement, form 2-NDFL) — at the fee desk the officer looks at the applicant’s live Gosuslugi account (the Russian state services portal); other consulates dig into where the payments come from with requests for additional documents. Where you file is set by your passport and your proof of permanent residence, so you prepare the financial part for one specific consulate, known in advance. Its weather is on the consulate board.

If the package is already assembled, the financial part can go in with the rest for the Preflight Check — one written report on what doesn’t match. And if it isn’t yet clear which consulate is yours and from which day to count the three months — message Mira: she’ll match your citizenship and residence status and send the order of preparation. Assembling the proof into a package that reads without questions is our job from there.

This is reference material published for information purposes: the workshop’s observations and open-source information as of the publication date. Consulate rules and practice change without notice. It is not legal, tax or any other advice — on a specific case the workshop works with your documents and the consulate’s current requirements.