Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Marriage Visas specifically the K-3, CR-1 and IR-1, both Immigrant Spouse and Non-Immigrant Spouse Visas for spouses of American citizens and in the case of the Immigrant Spouse Visas, Lawful Permanent Residents as well.

The question posed in this video has to do with what is called underlying petition validity. So oftentimes, when we see cases starting to move over to the Consular processing phase of the overall process i.e. the case is moving over to the US Embassy here in Bangkok and I'm going to speak to this from the standpoint of someone who deals pretty much exclusively with US Immigration matters arising or processing through the Embassy here in Thailand, but the underlying question is petition validity. 

I know it is getting to be a season where I have got a lot of Consular processing cases going because I get a lot of the same emails from people when they sort of move from phase 1 dealing with Department of Homeland Security over to phase 2 where we are dealing with the Embassy or the Consulate. One of the big questions that gets asked because people are looking at like their approved petition and it says “hey there is a four-month validity on this thing. What happens if the petition expires?” Well it's a good question but it has got a relatively easy answer which is, yes petitions do have a validity but once the case is in Consular Processing and the case is moving forward, notwithstanding the underlying validity of the petition, Consular Officers at Embassies and Consulates abroad have pocket authority to go ahead and extend the validity of the underlying petition. And in my experience and okay yeah it is dealing in a limited way with other Consulates here in Southeast Asia but very much so dealing with the US Embassy here in Thailand oftentimes, I deal with them all the time, I have never seen a Consular Officer not undertake to re-extend the validity of a petition of a case that is processing; it is just done as a matter of course.

So folks to get worried about the petition validity don't fret, it is not something to get freaked out about. Yes you need to proceed on your case and in a way I think the petition validity expiration kind of gives people a little bit of a jolt that "hey you need to go ahead and keep the case moving along". But at the end of the day, do not worry if your case gets caught up in some snafu or you are having problems finding a document or something like this. At the end of the day, the underlying petition validity generally speaking is re-extended by Consular Officers when the case is undergoing Consular processing at a US Embassy or Consulate outside of the United States.