Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing "but in my friend's case". This is a phrase that comes up in what I do day to day; I won't say it is rare. It probably happens once a month, maybe a little bit more than that where people say "well in my friend's case, it worked this way". 

We see this in US Immigration matters; we see it in Thai Immigration matters; we see it in matters pertaining to Corporate Law here in Thailand; we see it pertaining to matters involving matrimony, getting married in Thailand; things involving even property, prenups, leases; all of this stuff. People will tell me "well in my friends case they did XYZ". Well you are not your friend and this isn't his case. I am not trying to be curt with that statement, but long story short is the practice of law is not unlike the practice of medicine for example. Somebody says they got cancer, "my friend had stomach cancer and you did this treatment. I have colon cancer, why am I not doing it like my friend?" Well it is a different thing. I don't know anything about medicine, that is just a basic comparison. 

In for example US Immigration matters, you know practicing US Immigration Law, your friend may have done the same kind of visa, for example that person may have tried to get a K-1 Visa 3 years ago and it did work a certain way. That is not how it works now. The situation has fundamentally changed; the facts pertaining to how the case processes has generally changed. The facts of your case are going to differ from that of someone else's. All these cases are unique. Yes there are certain common threads. I always tell people, I urge them to look at other cases maybe as guidelines but to think that things are going to work exactly the same way from one case to the next that is a very unwise assumption to make. Moreover, especially during 2020 and 2021 thus far, the COVID response, all the circumstances surrounding all of that, and the Government having to deal with that response, it has thrown everything into a cocked hat for lack of a better term and we are just having to deal with that and we have to respond to it as best we can. So cases that once processed in a certain period of time, it is not processing in the same period of time. Things that used to work one way, we see this a lot in Thai immigration, we used to do things a certain way and they are completely different right now. Now that may snap back when the Emergency Decree is rescinded and we stop dealing with this in the same way, but until that happens it remains to be seen. 

So the thing to understand and the thing to take away from this video, this isn't a video that is trying to be difficult or as I said curt or short with anybody, that is not the point. The point is it is about expectations and understanding that different cases process differently and the circumstances and the timing of different cases have a tremendous impact on how they process so trying to look at one case and extrapolate the information and graft it onto what is happening now, it is not going to work very well and in fact it can cause problems because you may try to do things that are no longer the correct way of doing things.