Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the issue of change of status versus adjustment of status. Now there has been a lot of talk here recently in the Trump Administration regarding matters pertaining to US Immigration. As I've discussed, Immigrant Spousal Visas from Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia are currently “paused” as this Administration says - I think it's largely a pretext - says they are trying to retool the framework under which they adjudicate whether or not someone is likely to become a public charge or welfare recipient in the United States. 

Now my personal opinion is Thailand has, one) it's never been what is called a high fraud post. I personally have not seen much of any evidence that Thais go over to the United States and then run and get welfare. Quite honestly, I would say among all the groups of foreign nationals that go to the United States, Thais are probably pretty low on the list in terms of per capita numbers that are actually in the United States. But okay, let's set that aside for a moment. The reasoning behind the pause is again we think people are going to go on welfare. So that then brings up the issue of well what about like a K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa or a K-3 Marriage Visa wherein you use it to travel to the United States, and then adjust status in the United States, which is exactly what the K-1 is designed to do. And by adjustment, I mean you go into the United States, you get married and then you file for adjustment of status. You basically file for a Green Card, and you wait in the United States while that is processing. That process is inherent to the K-1 process, and I have made videos also on this channel. I made videos contemporaneously with this one discussing how that works, but I wanted to make this video to delineate those who are entering using a Visa that has a built-in mechanism for adjusting to Permanent Residence versus folks that go to the United States on a Visa that may not have any kind of Immigrant intentions and then apply for change of status. So an example of this would be somebody that goes into the United States on a Tourist Visa and then applies to change their status to Immigrant status in the USA. 

Now I have discussed in other videos, and I have cited the laws, and I have done citations of folks riding on the policy of this that, yes, the Immigration and Nationality Act specifically does allow for people to change status to Lawful Permanent Residence in the USA. That said, this Administration has brought up a good point which is over the years, there has been a lot of abuse of that system, i.e. people using Tourist Visas especially with immigrant intent which is illegal. If caught doing so at a checkpoint, one can be cited as an intending immigrant without proper documentation; I have made videos on that in the past. But the purpose of this video is to highlight the fact that there is a difference between those using visas that do not have any sort of immigrant intention associated with them and are not based on a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act which allows for adjustment of status but are instead true Non-immigrant Visas: Tourist Visas, Student Visas, things of this nature - even a so-called B-1 Visa which usually is a B-1/B-2 with a tourist component. Again all of these visas are specifically meant to have non-immigrant intent. So I understand where the Administration may be saying, hey we feel like there is a lot of abuse going on so we are not going to allow people to change status without first self-deporting. Okay, you can file for the Residency adjudication, but you need to leave the country in order for us to process it, and then we can bring you back in once it's approved. Now again, reasonable people can very much disagree whether or not this is the correct interpretation of the law, or whether or not this is what we should be doing, but I think the point that people need to take from this video is there is a big difference between somebody who is going into the United States on a K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa - which is designed by law - and the entire process associated with its adjudication understands that that person is going for ostensibly a temporary 90 days for the sole purpose of getting married and then filing for adjustment of status. Everyone knows what everyone is doing in that process; everything is above board. People utilizing a Tourist Visa improperly entering the United States - maybe they did so without the initial intention to immigrate - but then later decided they wanted to after for example they met someone that they married for example. Again I can see where the administration might think that that process - which is called change of status - is being abused by folks. But to sort of tar everyone with the same brush I don't think is a great idea, and also with respect to the K-1 Visa, it is specifically designed at law to allow someone to come in temporarily in order to adjust status. 

So I don't really see where it's the right thing to do to one) I don't think it's legal to disallow that, but I don't think it's accurate to conflate adjustment of status under proper legal channels with change of status in situations which could be inferred to be abuse of the system.