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K-3 Visas For Spouses Of US Citizens

Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the situation surrounding the K-3 Visa. So I thought of making this video initially, I am going to put this on screen, this is from Our Country Our Choice and it's a little sort of graphic here that says: Biden offers path to citizenship to spouses of US citizens. 

Well let's be clear here, Biden didn't really offer anything. The law has allowed for a path to citizenship for spouses of American citizens and it has always had a prioritization. Now in the context of the K-3 Visa, the K-3 Visa is technically what we would call a Non-immigrant Visa. What are we talking about there? Well a K-3 Visa does not vest Lawful Permanent Residence to the bearer at entry when they arrive in the United States. The K-3 Visa was created during the Clinton Administration under the provisions of what's called the Life Act which basically was designed at a time when K-1 Visas were processing in a matter of about four to six months. Meanwhile Marriage Visas to the United States were taking like three years. So what they did is they created another K Visa category - in this case the K-3 - and they said 'hey we are going to go ahead and allow folks who are marrying American citizens to enter and get into the United States faster under the K category'. This is an example of how throughout the past, Immigration Policy has prioritized to a certain extent for spouses of American citizens. Now again, the K-3 Visa is not an Immigrant Visa so those utilizing it to get their Lawful Permanent Residence status, i.e. their Green Card status, they have to adjust status in the United States. Then once they have adjusted, 90 days prior to the three year anniversary of their adjustment to Green Card status, they are eligible to file for what is called naturalization to United States citizenship. 

So again, there has always been a path to US citizenship for spouses of American citizens. I don't really know why Our Country Our Choice sort of decided to make that a priority by putting that up on the Twitter feed, but I think the crisis at the border is far more important than worrying about the spouses, foreigner or otherwise of American citizens.