Transcript of the above video:

I have gotten a lot of correspondence from folks lately asking me whether or not the US Marriage Visas, K-3, CR-1 and IR-1s are having the requirements for the interview being waived. When I first got this question from somebody, it kind of threw me for a loop, it didn't sound right at all to me. It turns out it is not but I will explain why in a minute.

The confusion seems to have arisen from a recent announcement from the US State Department, that is travel.state.gov, the announcement is titled: Important Announcement on Waivers of the Interview Requirement for Certain Non-immigrant Visas. "The Secretary of State, in consultation with Department of Homeland Security, has authorized Consular Officers through the end of 2022 to waive the in-person interview requirement for certain temporary employment Non-immigrant Visa applicants who have a petition approved by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. This authorization applies to temporary workers applying for H-1, H-3, H-4, L, O, P and Q visas." Now who isn't mentioned there? CR-1, IR-1, K-3 visas. Just to go a little further to provide some further insight. Quoting further: "In addition, the Secretary extended previously approved policies to waive the visa interview for certain students, professors, research scholars, short-term scholars or specialists, F, M and academic J Visa applicants through the end of 2022." So yeah there are some Visa categories that are going to see interview requirements being waived depending on the facts of a given case. 

The thing to take away from this video and understand is it doesn't apply to the K-3, the CR-1 or the IR-1. To the best of my knowledge as of the time of this video, that does not appear to be the case in any way and quite frankly that doesn't surprise me. In fact, I think in these family-based cases, we have done another video on K-1s, but the K-3, the CR-1 and the IR-1 where we are talking about a Marriage Visa in the case of the CR-1 and the IR-1 where it said Green Card being conferred at entry to the United States or Lawful Permanent Residence or what is called an I-551 stamp, yeah they generally are going to want to see an interview with somebody who is going to be granted residence in the United States upon entry. So unfortunately, I think this has led to kind of a misnomer out there on the internet. I hope this clarifies things and we will certainly keep people updated on the situation as it evolves.