Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing K-3, CR-1 and IR-1 Visas. We are doing this from the context of Immigrant Spouse Visas for spouses of American citizens. Now I will preface this video by saying, strictly speaking the thrust of the opinion generated in this video doesn't really speak to the K-3 Visa. The K-3 Visa is technically a Non-Immigrant Visa and therefore kind of bypasses the National Visa Center but K-3s are being administratively closed in favor of the CR-1 or the IR-1 so as a practical matter you will probably end up dealing with a CR-1 or an IR-1 anyway even if you file a supplemental petition for a K-3 so I went ahead and lumped that in. 

The point of the video and the sort of notion of a digital paper chase is quite honestly, the National Visa Center in my opinion has just gotten ridiculous. It really is something akin to a digitized Soviet quagmire of bureaucracy and I can't figure out for like me what the purpose of it is other than to just slow things down. In fact, I think the last Administration used it and continues in a way because they sort of have these legacy rules in place; it is sort of used as a tool to slow things down it looks to me like. Because look, I have done local filings back when there was a local USCIS office and it was possible to file a case on one side of the street and 4 to 6 weeks later that case would just move to the other side of the street and you would process it through. Nothing bad happened from that; there was no major fall out; dogs and cats were not living together; mass hysteria did not occur. It was perfectly possible for Immigrant Spouse Visas to be processed without the input of the National Visa Center. I still don't really understand what its function is. It's highly redundant. You end up presenting documentation digitally to NVC that has already been submitted through the Department of Homeland Security and they send the file over to the Department of State so I don't really understand why all this stuff is necessary. It oftentimes takes months and weeks, people get very frustrated, it leads to a lot of consternation between us and clients because the system isn't great quite honestly, and hence the video.

Honestly, NVC, big paper chase, can't figure out a good reason for it. I don't see any great policy reason for it other than maybe Officers on the back end of this, after the poor people that have to go through it get to an actual Embassy, it might be a little more streamlined for that interviewing Consular Officer and there is a benefit in that, I do get that but when one has to deal with this National Visa Center on a regular basis and one sees the sort of requests for further documentation that they are throwing out, oftentimes without a lot of good reason and especially after an explanation has been given why that document is either unavailable or doesn't apply under the circumstances, and then to sort of just get the same response back even though it has been explained it gets pretty damned frustrating, so hence the reason for the video. Hopefully we will see things improved in the National Visa Center as the weeks and months go on.