Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Tourist Visas and Exemption Stamps. I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment on one of our prior videos, quoting directly: "Hi, I am planning to land in Thailand and get a 30-day Tourist Visa on arrival but my return flight will be more than 30 days. Can I just extend my Visa in Thailand or do I need to get an extension before I visit Thailand?"  Well point of fact, you can't really get an extension on an Exemption so when you arrive in on a 30-day stamp in Thailand, that's not a Tourist Visa per se, that is an Exemption Stamp. You are exempt from needing a Visa for a 30-day period. You can request an extension of that 30-day stamp here in the Kingdom by going to Thai Immigration and making that request and getting an additional 30 days for a total of 60 days total lawful status here in the Kingdom. 

Now the thing to take away from this video and the thing to understand is Tourist Visas are applied for at Embassies or Consulates outside of Thailand while 30-day stamps are conferred based on the nationality of the passport holder when they pass through a Thai Immigration checkpoint, so they are two different things. If your flight is not going to leave until after the 30 days that you intend to initially be stamped in on, it is probably a good idea to seek a Tourist Visa from an Embassy or Consulate to ensure that you are covered in terms of lawful status in the Kingdom for the time that you will actually be here. The reason for this is an Immigration Officer may look at that and say "we are not going to stamp you in", obviously you could go get an extension but I could see them exercising their discretion saying "look you don't have enough time to get to your next flight basically, you don't have enough lawful status.” They could, I'm not saying they would but I am saying they could, go ahead and say yeah we are not going to admit you under those circumstances. So again it's always a good idea to have a Visa in place or to have your status in place which will cover the entire time you are going to spend here in the Kingdom of Thailand.