Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing backlog issues associated with Immigrant Spouse Visas in the CR-1 or IR-1 Visa category.

The reason for the video is there was a recent announcement on uscis.gov, on USCIS's website, and the announcement is titled: USCIS Announces New Actions to Reduce Backlogs, Expand Premium Processing and Provide Relief to Work Permit Holders. Quoting directly: "Today, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service is announcing a trio of efforts to increase efficiency and reduce burdens to the overall legal Immigration system. USCIS will set new agency-wide backlog reduction goals, expand premium processing to additional form types and work to improve timely access to employment authorization documents. Quoting further: "To reduce the agents pending case load, USCIS is establishing new internal cycle time goals this month. These goals are internal metrics that guide the backlog reduction efforts of the USCIS workforce and affect how long it takes the agency to process cases. As cycle times improve, processing times will follow and applicants and petitioners will receive decisions on their cases more quickly. USCIS will increase capacity, improve technology and expand staffing to achieve these new goals by the end of fiscal year 2023." "Expand staffing" is I think going to be probably where the rubber hits the road and we are really going to see some kind of major changes. 

Now bearing in mind, the backlogs right now on the Immigrant Spouse Visa process aren't as bad as the K Visas, they just aren't. I do know why because Trump de-prioritized K-1's and he actually in a way they did an Executive Order that prioritized the Immigrant Spouse Visas. So those are moving a little more quickly. 

Now certainly it is good news that we are seeing them expand these metrics, these cycle times to get this done but bear in mind when you are dealing with an Immigrant Spouse Visa, that means you are dealing with the National Visa Center and the National Visa Center in my opinion is a bit of a quagmire. It can slow things down in any case. In fact I think it can slow down a race car if it wanted to. So yes while it is a good thing on the USCIS side of the ledger, we may be seeing petitions processing even more quickly. On the NVC side of the ledger, I don't see anything changing. So overall processing time with respect to Immigrant Spouse Visas maybe they will be improved but I am not exactly going to hold my breath.