Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Visa interviews at US Embassies. We have been dealing with the Government responses to the COVID pandemic since March of 2020 and there have been a number of ramifications associated with this. We have done a number of videos on this channel; most notably, there is a significant backlog in the overall Immigration system. 

One question that has come up from clients and friends and things is they have asked: "Do you think at some point they will end face-to-face Immigration interviews, specifically Visa interviews in favor of some Zoom format?" Presently I don't think that is probably going to be the case at least instantly in the relatively near-term foreseeable future. Based on a recent article from Foreign Policy, that is foreignpolicy.com, the article is quite interesting and is titled: The State Department's Visa Issuing Authority Is in Crisis and quoting directly from that article, go ahead and throw that on screen: "Even during the pandemic, Consular Affairs has been holding in-person interviews despite little evidence that they are better than remote ones. Requiring US Officials abroad to interview almost every individual who wants to travel long term to the United States is labour intensive, costly and hard to justify in the digital age. It is also not in line with the country's competitors for international travel, Australia Canada most of Europe, which do not rely on face-to-face interviews for visas." So that to me was pretty interesting in that it was an interesting insight. Foreign Policy magazine is read by folks that operate in the realm of foreign policy. It is definitely not a kind of policy wonk publication but I definitely think it is read by folks that are in the apparatus. 

It is interesting. Yeah I think there are arguments in favor of non in-person interviews especially from an efficiency standpoint; you can cite health concerns under the current circumstances, I could see that being cited. Will this come to pass any time soon? I doubt it. Changes like this usually do not happen overnight; they take quite a bit of time. Now under this Administration, yeah I think it is definitely possible because this is the kind of program I think this Administration would probably find to be something that would be beneficial. So, we have got a lot of time left with this Administration and during that time it is possible we could see major changes like the end or the truncation if you will, frankly I could see kind of a mixed situation where interviews for things like the Immigrant or dual intent visas like the K-1 Fiancé visa or the CR-1 or IR-1 Immigrant Spouse Visa or the K-3 Visa require in-person interviews. They say, "Look, you are essentially immigrating the United States. We want to see you in person." But I could definitely see Tourist Visas possibly moving over to a non in-person interview process and with the current backlog associated with Tourist Visas at least through the US Embassy in Bangkok right now, I could see a situation where they do that if for no other reason than to be able to process out the backlog as quickly and efficiently as they can.