What this story just say is that the immigration offces has their own interpretation and as usual it leads to inconsistancies between IO offices and even between immigration officers. Nothing new under the sun
i know this feeling. I had NON O visa, i went to ask one year extension. I was turned down 3 times for some really silly reasons. I said to myself i will try to avoid immigration offices as much as i can. I finally picked up DTV visa and i'm happy since i do not have to ask anything to imigration offices. The problem are not the officers. They are very nice actually, but the inconsistant and changing rules.
I'm confident that at the end of the day, you'll have less headache hoping in a van and do a border run. Phuket immigration office will give you white hairs and PTSD, all with a smile. You'll learn it by yourself, like many of us.
border run to satun is 2500 THB per person, probably negociable if you have a big family. Short vacation in Krabi or Trang is also an option. Border run will be almost same price as the extension and wayyyy more easy. Phuket immigration is one of the most difficult to deal with in Thailand.
yes, i believe some stories where IO asked a few questions. It happens and this is the normal process at borders. But beeing brough to the office for a deep screening of all your documentation. (most likely in english and it already took several days for the embassy to check).. i don't buy this.
I could think of many different reasons to publish this kind of statment to scare people. You could be one of the many upsets by this DTV visa : Agent, holder of non O or elite visa, troll ect... As other people in this group already said.
These stories are always published by anonymous post AND they never ever provide a proof of what they said. You still can show a screen of the stamp out of Thailand then the stamp-in 48 hours later, but my pinky finger tells me that you won't 😄. Prove me wrong ?