Not legit and not possible not always the same. Reminds me of the late 80s,early 90s when it was common among long stayers to have agencies send your passport to embassies abroad, while you stayed on your old visa or VE in Thailand. Once your passport arrives with the new visa (often a one year multiple entry non immigrant from the UK or the US), you exit on your old visa, reenter to activate your new visa, and were good to go. That worked so well for lots of folks for years that people came to think that it must be legit. The only dicey part was the being without a passport for a week or two. Then one day out of the blue, folks got stopped/arrested, turned out it was illegal after all. But authorities were so overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who had been doing it (probably also because Thai immigration /embassies were in on it ) that that the Thai government said if you get a new passport p) they would forfeit fines, blacklisting, deportations)
