Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the K-1, K-3, CR-1 and IR-1 Visas. We are primarily talking about this from the standpoint of these being processed out of the US Embassy here in Thailand. Now this same analysis could go for Cambodia, Laos - I'm not sure if Vietnam is on the list, I think it is - and Myanmar. But yeah, Trump did a "Visa ban" a few months back; I did videos on this at the time. It was then clarified that this is a “pause” as they are retooling the analysis for public charge, so basically whether or not people can financially support their loved ones in the United States. They are rethinking the analysis of that, and they have paused visa issuance until such time as they reintroduce this new framework under which we will see these visas processed from a public charge perspective. 

What's the point? What's the conclusion with respect to this? Well it's only supposed to be a pause. Now I have talked to folks whose opinions, colleagues in fact, whose opinions I value. They think it's not going to end for some time. My gut tells me the Visa pause is likely to end in April. Why do I say that? Because for whatever reason back in December when we were trying to schedule interviews, the earliest we were getting was April which is anomalous to say the least, and then the pause was announced, and then we were still scheduling stuff and it was still being scheduled in April. My thinking is that they are retooling this during the first quarter with an eye toward reopening and doing interviews and things in April under this new framework for determining public charge. Now that's speculation on my part; it could go longer than that. However the main data point to take away from this video if you're interested in this overall process is the fact that they are scheduling interviews in April as opposed to in the rest of the first quarter of this year. The difference in and of itself leads me to believe that there is at least something there. Again hard to say. Remains to be seen if this pause is going to end in April or end at all during this Administration; I'm hopeful that it does. I still don't understand why Thailand was put under this especially as one of, in fact the United States' oldest ally in Asia; I really don't understand why Thailand has been put under this. Then on top of that, Thailand is not what is considered a high fraud post. So I can understand maybe other jurisdictions in the region being placed under a Visa pause while they rethink this stuff, but Thailand was never a place where we saw a lot of fraud and misrepresentation occurring among those that are seeking visas to the United States. So it doesn't seem particularly pertinent to me to sort of foist this on Thais seeking visas to the US, especially loved ones of American citizens primarily, especially in the case of the K-1 and the K-3 visas. 

That said, I'm not making policy on this one. Again my gut tells me we are going to start seeing something move in April. It remains to be seen if that occurs, but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.