Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing US Government shutdown issues. I am going to go ahead and quote from a recent memorandum from the Executive Office of the President; we will throw this up on screen, Jan 30, 2026. 

MEMORANDUM TO THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES, and I'm going to read the pertinent point. Quote: "As it is now clear that Congress will not complete its work before the expiration of appropriations, affected agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown. Employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities. The Administration will continue working with the Congress to address recently raised concerns to complete appropriations for fiscal year 2026. It is our hope that this lapse will be short. Agencies should continue to closely monitor developments, and OMB will provide further guidance as appropriate. We will issue another memorandum indicating that government functions should resume once the President has signed a Bill providing for appropriations. We greatly appreciate your cooperation and the work you and your agencies do on behalf of the American people."

What does this mean? Well clearly, there are funding shortfall falls and at least in some limited capacity certain aspects of the US Government are shut down. Now what doesn't this mean? For now, it's not having an impact on filing of petitions for things like Fiancé(e) and Marriage Visas. That being said, as discussed in other videos, we are going through Trump's "pause" at the moment especially for cases arising or pertaining to immigration from Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia; those are the most pertinent ones for purposes of this channel. I have done videos on that. So while you can file cases, and we are filing cases, it's currently paused, the actual issuance of visas are currently paused. 

My gut is telling me that that probably will end sometime in April because we are seeing interviews for visas being scheduled for April. That's quite a ways out sitting here in February. Not unheard of, but I think that the timing of that suggests that they will have retooled this public charge rule analysis stuff by then and the pause will have ended. Again, remains to be seen. 

That said, this is having an impact on other things for example here in our office we assist folks in getting certain documents legalized, especially through the US Government; I expect that this will slow those things down to some extent as well. Again, it remains to be seen what these ramifications are actually going to be as a practical matter, and it remains to be seen how long this shutdown may actually last. So we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.