you deal with visas every day, but youndon't know the difference between the actual visa from Thailand - which what you get BEFORE you pass the immigration booths, and the entry stamp/ permission to stay stamp is which you get when the IO officer in that booth stamps you in ?
OP didn't have a visa, OP was visa exempt. So OP didn't get a visa when he got stamped in either. He git a stamp which allows his stay, which is not a visa.
Visas on arrival have to be paid for, and are obtained BEFORE you pass the immigration booths.
registering your details is NOT giving you a visa. You don't understand the meaning of the word visa. Take a look in your passport : the stamp you get when passing immigration is NOT a visa. It only explains how long you can stay based on the visa you already had, or didn't have (exemption)
You always have to pay for a visa. The entry stamp they give (permission to stay which is stamped) you is NOT a visa.
In fact, IF you have a single entry visa at the moment you pass immigration they will even INVALIDATE the visa, because it is being used to get your entry stamp. So you lose the visa at that moment if it is single entry.
Nobody magically gets a visa (and certainly NOT for free) when passing the immigrations booths at the airport.
You conflate the entry stamps they give with visas.
It's a common misunderstanding, but it is wrong. Look at the words at the stamps.
A visa gets USED when passing the IO, instead of being given.
this is a misunderstanding : they (the immigration officers at those booths who check and stamp your passport at the airport) do NOT issue a visa on arrival.
It's a common misunderstanding.
A visa on arrival is for specific countries, has to be paid for and is issued BEFORE you get at immigration. In Suwannapum airport, it's at the same side of immigration, but before immigration of course.
The moment you are at the booths where the IO stamp your passport, you can NOT get a visa, they do not give any visas at all.
A visa exempt is NOT a visa and NOT a visa on arrival.
"Whataboutism" ? 2 other wrongs doesn't make it right.
You're the one OP replied to thinking he had to go to Chaengwatthana, makes sense I reply here. Dude. My comments are not meant for you. They are meant for OP and whoever is in a similar situation. Chaengwatthana is completely wrong for OP, just admit the truth. If you want a post in which Chaengwatthana is correct, then start your own specific post with your own specific answer.