Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking the question basically, how do you deal with interview appointments in the context of K-1 Fiancé Visas and K-3 Marriage Visas. I'm doing another video contemporaneously with this one where I go into this topic with regard to Immigrant Spouse Visas, the IR-1 or CR-1 categories, but for purposes of the Fiancé or Marriage Visa it is different. Why is that? 

Well K-1 and K-3 Visas do not process through the National Visa Center in the same way that the IR-1 or CR-1 Visas do. As a practical matter, I haven't seen a K-3 processed for interview in years, here in Thailand especially, mostly because of what's called the Doctrine of Administrative Closure at the National Visa Center. Basically, the K-3 was invented as a result of what was called the Life Act under the Clinton Presidency at a time when Marriage, Spousal Immigrant Visas were taking 3 - 4 years to process and the K-1 was taking 4 to 6 months. So basically what they did is they created the K-3 Visa Marriage Visa category - it was specifically applied to Americans with foreign spouses - and they started processing them through the K line. The result is on the back end after dealing with Department of Homeland Security, yes, the case goes through NVC, but then it just goes directly to the Embassy that's going to deal with it; basically NVC acts kind of like a post office to make sure that that case file gets to the appropriate Embassy. Again, this is different than a CR-1 or IR-1 Visa where the NVC is going to hold on to that case and you are going to have to deal with document submission etc., and their online system which in my opinion is something out of a neo-soviet fantasy frankly, but leave that aside, with the K-1 or the K-3 you get to bypass that. 

That said, that means you have to deal with setting an interview with the Embassy itself. This can be somewhat overwhelming for some folks just because Embassy protocols are kind of difficult to understand. I mean I have been doing this for like 17 years, so I am used to how they kind of talk and the types of basically information and documentation that they put out with regard to their protocols because I'm just used to dealing with the system. For a newcomer it can be rather daunting to figure out how to go ahead and get your interview set and then even after interview, if there's for example what's called a 221g Refusal where they basically say "hey we're not going to issue this Visa until you get us this further documentation", that can also create a number of problems as well because you have got to go ahead and then resubmit whatever you have got to submit or find whatever they want you to find, and then submit it before you can get the visa issued. 

But long story short and the thing to take away from this video is yes, setting an interview appointment is going to be very different for a K type Visa then when you are setting the same type of appointment for an Immigrant Spouse Visa that you're looking to process through the US Embassy here in the Kingdom of Thailand.