Transcript of the about video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing K-1 Fiancé Visas. We are specifically discussing this in the context of backlogs and there does seem to be some promising news on the horizon. 

A recent announcement from USCIS, that is uscis.gov, the announcement is titled: USCIS Announces New Actions to Reduce Backlogs, Expand Premium Processing, and Provide Relief to Work Permit Holders. Quoting directly: "Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services 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 Agency's 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 effect 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," that is key, expand staffing. Quoting further: "to achieve these new goals by the end of fiscal year 2023." 

So I have had a few people contacting us, clients etc. wanting to know what this means; people that are keeping their finger on the pulse of Immigration. In the immediate near term not a lot, let's be clear. Immigration, things do not change on a dime but it is very hopeful. We are coming off all this COVID stuff; there is a major backlog still at USCIS, I know a lot of our clients are not overly happy about this. There isn't really much to be done about it frankly, it is just kind of what it is at the moment but it is good to see there is at least some initiative on the part of the USCIS to combat this kind of growing inertia if you will, this entropy in the processing times and sort of start riding the ship if you will.

In the K-1 context obviously this is a good thing. We have definitely seen cases processing through USCIS at a slower clip than we would usually like. Now bear in mind that once it's processed out of USCIS you are still going to be dealing with the Embassy and we may have backlog issues there especially in the context of Thailand at least in the near term. For now, overall I definitely think this is good news so hopefully we will start seeing some practical implications of this in the upcoming hopefully six, seven months.