Can I Change from O-A Visa to O Visa Without Leaving Thailand?

Now I freely admit that different offices and indeed different officers IN those offices can give different answers, BUT those people I spoke to yesterday were the highest ranking officers in those sections and they were adamant it can't be done in country.

If anyone does manage to do it, please post your O-A visa, your O-A entry stamp, your O-A extension AND your new O visa from the immigration office because I'd sure like to see the stamps :)

Good Luck (y)

I was at the immigration office yesterday and spoke at length with the section head who is in charge of the retirement, marriage, raising kids, etc visa extensions AND the section head who runs the area that issue of Non-Immigrant visas inside the country. BOTH said in no uncertain terms there is no way to go from an existing O-A visa OR a yearly extension from and O-A to an O visa inside the country without exiting and re-entering ONCE <- to "break the chain" of extensions that link back to the O-A visa.

I was able to get confirmation that IF you were asked for insurance when you tried to stamp in on an O-A visa or an extension from an O-A but didn't have it and got a 30 day visa exempt entry you CAN use that entry to immediately go to the immigration office and apply for a 90 day Non-O visa.

BUT right now, straight from the horses' mouths the way I outline it is the only way it can be done..