Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing K-1 Fiancé Visas. We are specifically discussing these in the context of Thailand as that is primarily where we process these but we do deal with cases in Cambodia, the Philippines from time to time sometimes Vietnam; Cambodia and Laos more than anything and Myanmar but as we do them mostly from Thailand, that is why I am throwing Thailand in the title. The question arises often, "is it "better" than a Spouse Visa?" 

First of all let's define better, and better being sort of two things to look at, speed and do you enter with a Green Card? So let's be clear. On a K-1 Visa you do not enter with Green Card so for many folks it is better in the sense that the K-1's tend to process faster than an Immigrant Spouse Visa; most notably they avoid the National Visa Center in any substantive way. Yes NVC kind of acts as a clearing house and moves the case to the Embassy here but there is no active involvement of the NVC and quite frankly you can see some of my videos on this topic, the NVC is a nightmare and there are many things that are very annoying that I would rather do than deal with the NVC. So leaving that aside yeah in the sense the K-1 is faster. 

Now there was a time here in Thailand when so-called “local filings” could be perfected for Marriage Visas through the USCIS office here in the Kingdom. That office has closed, I believe it closed at the end of 2019 if I am not mistaken, and ever since then it is really just a choice between speed and getting the Green Card because back then when you could do a local filing here we could get it done most of the time faster than a Fiancé Visa and you were getting the Green Card at entry. That has all ended. Now we are in a situation where you have got to look at speed versus getting the Green Card. In a lot of folks’ cases, they just want to get together; they want to get reunited in the United States. For those folks where speed is the overall issue, yes I would say the K-1 Visa is probably going to be the best option. Meanwhile if you do want to have that Green Card stuff just sorted from entry, it may be better to go ahead and look at an Immigrant Spouse Visa.