Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the K-3, CR-1 or IR-1 Visa interview so to make things shorter, US Marriage Visas. A question that often comes up is: "Why can't I go to the interview with my spouse? I want to go."

Well the answer to that is the Embassy won't let you at least here in Thailand and we are specifically talking about Thailand here although I think most of the policies associated with this apply to a lot of different posts at least regionally, perhaps throughout the world. But again, different Embassies do things differently so you may want to check things out in a different jurisdiction. 

Long story short, going back 2007, 2008 when I first got out here it was a little more lax with respect to letting folks come to the interviews but quite frankly, people would get kind of irate with the Officers and I think there was part of it was the Officers didn't really like having to deal with somebody that wasn't really part of the proceeding. The person that is part of the proceeding is the applicant. I know that is tough for folks to understand because the petitioner, they are kind of done. The adjudication with respect to them has occurred at Department of Homeland Security. The second half of the process if you want to look at it like that, dealing with the applicant, all they are dealing with is the applicant; they don't really need to see the petitioner; the American spouse. Now that said, I know that frustrates folks but on top of that they started citing security concerns back around 2009-2010 and basically they just didn't let anybody in unless a special appointment was made and that is pretty rare. Now we are dealing with the response to COVID-19 where basically they don't want anybody around that is not absolutely necessary that needs to be there. As a result yeah it is pretty much impossible, you are not going to want to go, you are not going to be able to go. More important it is not really useful in my opinion to have that American spouse there. Again the relevant party is the applicant. Secondly, it could inadvertently lead to what is called a Stokes interview or what is called under DHS back at USCIS, a Stokes interview which is an extensive interview where they basically in a sense they interrogate both parties if you will to make sure their "stories" add up. 

So for that reason, in my opinion, not only can you not go, that is the reason why. On top of that, I don't think you really want to go.