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Cannabis and the K-1, K-3, CR-1, and IR-1 Visa Process?
Transcript of the above video:
As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Cannabis, a major topic of conversation. There has been news on this both in the United States as well as here in the Kingdom of Thailand as Thailand has made some major sea changes here. They de-listed it as a narcotic, it has been decriminalized, major changes there. Meanwhile, in the United States, President Biden pardoned a number of folks under Federal Law who had been cited for possession or who were even in jail and major changes with respect to the policy on this overall.
However, how does that impact US Immigration? I made another video on this in the past, I thought it was a good time to make another one. Remember Cannabis remains a problem under the Immigration and Nationality Act in the United States and it is immediately a grounds of inadmissibility and depending on how much of the substance one is either cited as having had or consumed or whatever, it may not be a ground of inadmissibility that is waivable depending on quantity, if there is kind of a quantity dependent sort of clause in the law on this. Meanwhile, again any other type of drug to go in the United States is pretty much a deal killer, you're not going to be able to do it, but there is a quantity sort of threshold associated with this in the context of US law on Immigration. I can't stress this enough, even if policy changes in the United States, even if the law for that matter changes in the United States, presumably until the INA or some other enabling act came along that amended the INA, came along and just basically struck off Cannabis from the list of things that are grounds of inadmissibility, it's still a grounds of inadmissibility. It remains so right now notwithstanding the fact that it may be legal in Thailand, it's still a ground of inadmissibility under US Law. So be aware of that.
Folks out there, if you are looking to go to the United States, move to the United States, have Permanent Residence in the United States, if you don't have US Citizenship, you only have Permanent Residence, usage, anything having to do with cannabis could jeopardize even your Green Card status in the US. So something to bear in mind fully that look notwithstanding the major changes that we are starting to see especially the momentum behind the changes and policy, remember the Immigration Act is still what it is and it has still got provisions in there that make it a ground of inadmissibility to have anything to do with Cannabis.