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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawVisa NewsWhen Will US Embassies Reopen for Visas After COVID-19 Shutdown?

When Will US Embassies Reopen for Visas After COVID-19 Shutdown?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the reopening of United States Embassies and I am going to make this video specific to Southeast Asia. 

I can't really speak to anything much out past the US Embassies; mostly this is going to be about the US Embassy here in Bangkok, Thailand; the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the US Embassy in Vientiane, Laos. We deal with those most frequently. I think some of the analysis is pretty relevant to the US Embassy in the Philippines, the US Embassy in Vietnam, the US Embassy down in Malaysia and the US Embassy in Singapore.

That being stated, understand, US Embassies are an interesting animal when you analyze them from a legal standpoint and as well as their posture and standing within the overall American Government apparatus, within the broad picture of the American Government. They are rather autonomous. In a sense they are almost like bases, military bases but without necessarily the much more strict chain of command associated with the military.  So yes there certainly is a chain of command, there certainly is a structure, there certainly is a hierarchy associated with the Embassies abroad and who they answer to back in the United States; specifically personnel at the US Department of State. In a sense I have always kind of looked at for example the US Ambassador in Bangkok as kind of the mayor if you will of the Embassy. The Embassy is kind of like a town or a mid-sized city and the Ambassador is sort of the mayor and everybody else sort of has a position from that sort of standpoint looking down the pyramid if you want to look at it like that. 

So understand as we preface this video, each Embassy is going to reopen when and if they deem necessary. They are given a great deal of latitude to make decisions based on the situation on the ground in their given country. So what is going on for example in this COVID-19 situation, what is going on, on the ground here in Thailand, is going to pretty heavily if not dictate, but it is definitely going to influence the decisions that the Embassy is going to make with respect to reopening. I think we can presume that. So for example the situation may be decidedly different here in Thailand than it is for example in Singapore. It may be decidedly different than it is in a country like up in Taiwan for example or perhaps New Zealand you know. Those countries we can see those Embassies reopen in rather short order because it seems that the COVID-19 issue has been rather put to bed because of measures taken and their geography as well I think played into that.  But here in Thailand and up in Cambodia and Laos, I think we are probably going to see the Embassies reopen I hesitate to say soon and let me be clear I have no idea exactly when they will reopen, but currently USCIS is saying they are staying closed until June 4th as of the time of this video and when I say closed they are closed to person-to-person interaction. Certain aspects, certain functions of the apparatus will be operational and as I have made videos on this topic, it is still possible to file cases for Immigrant visas, Non-immigrant Visas. It is still possible to file visa cases. It is not possible to deal with anybody personally with respect to a case, or at least it is not possible in a vast majority of situations to deal with USCIS.

I think that June 4th date is a pretty good rule of thumb. That is where I am going to be looking in earnest with respect to the prospect of the US Embassy here in Bangkok or over in Phnom Penh or up in Vientiane reopening. I think that is a good rule to maintain at this point. if that changes sooner than June 4th, I will do another video pretty shortly thereafter and try and get people updated but for now I think June 4th is the day to be presumptively looking at unless something on the ground is different and we may not necessarily see things reopen quite that quickly if in fact the Embassy here deems it is not appropriate to do so prior to that date.