Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Affidavit of Support issues in cases involving IR-1 and CR-1 Visa applications. So what are we talking about here? We're talking about Immigrant Spouse Visas. These are sort of the standard if you will, the kind of classic if you will, Immigrant Spouse Visas to bring a spouse of an American citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident to the United States. Those who enter in Immigrant spousal status - IR-1 or CR-1 - enter in Green Card status; they enter the United States with Lawful Permanent Residence. 

The thing to take away from this video is to understand that yes there is an Affidavit of Support component associated with the application especially here at the Embassy phase although you will also be seeing this dealt with at the National Visa Center before it even comes to the Embassy wherein the adjudicating Consular Officer has to make a determination regarding the applicant's petitioner, the sponsor if you will, the sponsor's ability to support their spouse in the manner that is dictated to by law. 

Now under the present administration this is a fairly reasonable if you will threshold in my opinion. Under the Trump Administration they tried to put in rules that greatly, greatly increased the thresholds associated with Affidavit of Support. There was a great deal more scrutiny associated with it as well. Now this was one of those things, I kind of had a problem with it because I didn't feel like the legal Immigration system needed to be radically changed. My issues with the present Immigration system as it stands and has been for a while, is illegal Immigration. I don't understand why lawmakers feel the need to place undue burdens on folks who are processing through the legal channels. But that said, under the Trump Administration we saw some serious changes that were then sort of rolled back and we are currently kind of dealing with this thing in limbo a little bit with regard to Affidavits of Support in the context of Immigrant Spouse Visas. That said, if we see another election of Donald Trump, I think it's very probable that we could see much higher thresholds associated with proving ability to support an immigrant spouse in the United States. 

So the reason for the video and sort of the point I am trying to make is if you are thinking about bringing your spouse over to the United States, if you are thinking about immigrating to the United States with your spouse, be it here in Thailand or anywhere else, it may not be a terrible idea to be looking at doing that sooner rather than later as it is anyone's guess who could win the election come November.