Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the IR-1 Visa. So this is the immediate relative Immigrant Spouse Visa. Most cases we deal with here in our office involve spouses of American citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents. The vast majority of our cases we deal with involve Thai nationals. That said, we do occasionally do work involving Cambodian nationals, Lao nationals, Vietnamese, as well as folks from Myanmar but again depending on the underlying circumstances in a given case, I guess what I'm saying is in the vast majority of cases I should say, we're going to be dealing with Thai nationals; I kind of misspoke there. 

That said, the point of this video is first of all comparing the IR-1 to the CR-1. I like to take an opportunity at the end of each year going into a new calendar year to discuss the fundamentals of things because I have made so many videos over the years for this channel. We have made almost 8,500 videos in nearly 10 years and I make presumptions that people understand this material on a far deeper level than oftentimes they do. So I like to take an opportunity to sort of do a Roundup; at the end of the year, this gives me that opportunity. 

Again, IR-1 Visas, if you are married to a foreign national for more than two years at entry to the United States, that person will be accorded IR-1 status, meaning they will be granted unconditional Lawful Permanent Residence at the time of entry into the United States, as opposed to Conditional Lawful Permanent Residence which requires the filing of a lift of conditions within 2 years of entering the USA. An unconditional Lawful Permanent Resident, they are done, they are resident, they are legally resident from the moment of arrival, so if you arrive in the United States in IR-1 status, you are a resident from the moment of arrival.

Now with regard to the overall process, which I don't think anything's going to change significantly in 2026, but you never know, especially as we're under a Trump Administration again and frankly they have definitely no good feelings toward illegal immigration - which I couldn't agree with more - but sometimes maybe some of those sentiments bleed over into thoughts on legal immigration which in my opinion, if somebody is doing things according to law, I don't think that they should be subjected to sort of harassment or something, they're doing it the right way; I mean we should actually encourage that if anything. And if we want the laws to change, let's use our Congress to change those laws. 

Now that being said, and the point of this video is again, there's a difference between the IR-1 and the CR-1. Also the process. You have to deal with Department of Homeland Security first then we are dealing with the National Visa Center which in the past was difficult, now I hate dealing with that system, but we deal with it on a regular basis. Then we're going to be dealing with the US Embassy here in Bangkok, if we're dealing with a Thai national or a third country national processing through this post. This is where we are going to process the interview, so that's the final phase. I don't see anything associated with the overall process of getting an IR-1 Visa changing going into 2026.