Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Marriage Visas and Fiancé(e) Visas and trying to make a decision as to which one is going to be the better fit for a given couple; and specifically we are talking about US Immigration here. I have been doing US immigration from Thailand about 15 years now, assisted a lot of people in getting Fiancé Visas to the United States as well as Marriage Visas for the United States.

This question of trying to decide whether to pursue a Marriage Visa or Fiancé(e) Visa, this has become increasingly acute especially sort of post-COVID where we are dealing with these long backlogs in some cases and then people have to decide sort of what their priorities are with regard to getting their loved one into the United States. Is speed a factor? Is finality factor? Where for example with a K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa, if you enter the United States in K-1 status you have 90 days in which to get married and then file for adjustment of status to Green Card status. However, if you marry or are already married and seek a CR-1 or an IR-1 Visa, Immigrant Spouse Visas, you enter in Green Card status; upon admission to the United States, you are granted Lawful Permanent Residence at that moment. Now maybe conditional Lawful Permanent Residence, that may depend on your circumstances, but it is Lawful Permanent Residence nonetheless. You don't have to go through a secondary protocol in order to get that Residence issue sorted out. So for many there is a lot to consider when looking at the difference between a Fiancé and the Marriage Visa. Timing is a factor on the front end. With the Fiancé€ Visa you don't have to deal with the more difficult aspects of the so-called National Visa Center which I have described many times on this channel as being effectively a quagmire for cases; it is really just redundant and requires oftentimes multiple submissions to NVC because they are just difficult to deal with. It's not a fun process to deal with the National Visa Center.

So that said and the thing to take away from this video is making those decisions; again marriage is now a major issue. Where at one time getting married here in Thailand would maybe take a matter of a few days to get that formalized and sorted out, now it can take upwards of a month, at least here in Bangkok, to actually get a marriage between an American and a Thai National properly formalized and all the documentation sorted out with respect to that. So again getting married, not getting married, these timelines change pretty radically depending on the decisions folks decide to make with regard to how they want to live. So again, a number of factors to think about and for those who feel a little bit overwhelmed by all of this, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.