Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing visa extensions and visas. I thought of making this video after reading a recent comment, quoting directly: "What I have a problem with is the Consular reporting and at the end of it you still look at re-applying every year and it's not even a Visa, it's an extension of an original O Visa." What does that mean? I see this a lot; I'm not trying to be condescending to the original commenter here, the original poster but I have seen this before; I've spoken about it in the past; we have done a video on it, maybe a video or two in the past. There seems to be this weird misconception that an Extension is not a Visa and I don't know what they think it is if it's not a Visa. It is a Visa, it's an extension of Visa status. When you are in Thailand and you not a Thai you are in Thailand under some sort of lawful Immigration status. Now that may be a Visa exemption which is not a Visa per se but it is an exemption from needing to get a Visa. For example if you have a US passport, you come in to Thailand, 30 days on arrival, that is Visa exempt status, not Visa status, Visa exempt but you are granted status. It is the granting of status that is by definition the Visa. 

Meanwhile, if you get another type of Visa for example an O, an O Retirement Visa and you extend that status, that is an extension of the ongoing Visa, the status itself is Visa status. Unless you are Thai, you have to have some kind of Visa status to be in Thailand. You might be able to argue maybe Lawful Permanent Residence isn't a Visa, it is somewhere between a Visa and just being in Thailand legally because one is a Thai, having the inherent right of remaining in Thailand which is an unfettered right under the Thai Constitution. That said, again you need an Immigrant Visa to come and go with Permanent Residence and maintain that Residence so it's a Visa status in and of itself. 

The thing to take away from this video, I don't understand where along the way there was this confusion that an extension granted in Thailand is not the same thing as a Visa, it is. It's granted by Immigration. What Immigration does is grant visa status. It's a Visa. Extensions and Visas issued by Embassies and Consulates abroad are both Visas, they are just issued in different locations, in different ways.