The Thai Soft Power aspect is intriguing ...offering some specific examples buy also suitably vague ... is there really a cooking class that requires a 5 year visa? Can you get a 5 year visa by attending a 1 day cooking class, a 5 year visa to attend a 1 hour seminar?

Will be interesting to hear from experiences of people applying under the Soft Power option ...what is acceptable and what not.

Examples so far seem to be medical ...even that one, can you get a 5 year visa for a single medical appointment?

Or am I completely missunderstanding the category?

Best guess

A signature in thailand is old skool europe ...its individual and binding.

On a visa exempt entry you will get a single 30 day extension, then either border bounce for the same again or do a visa run and get a 60 day tourist visa plus then a 30 day extension on that. You can not get a tourist visa for thailand in thailand

Thankyou all for the feedback ...usefull, for myself on an O extension ...item 13 not relevant.

Interesting to note we have the added medical hoop to jump thru on the islands 🙄

Approvals in my experience can take several hours to days ...I'd give it a few more days if its not a problem

@Ronnie *****

I suspect an immigration officer can deny entry for pretty much any reason they so deem a reason .... 'at the officers discretion'

The new online system gives a pdf download so that can be kept and reprinted ...I always take an additional screenshot and file as a backup ...I have been known to delete things haha

You got a visa exempt entry and then a 30 day extension. Only 1 extension is allowed. You will now have to do a border bounce or visa run outside of thailand and re enter

@James *******

yup, times change haha ...worth knowing!