Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Visa interviews, well I guess interviews in connection with visas would be a little redundant there. But yeah, we are talking about Visa interviews. I thought of making this video after reading a recent excerpt on the website visasnews.com, the article is titled: US Visa Applications now restricted to country of residence or nationality. Quoting directly: "The U.S. Department of State has also announced the elimination of visa interview waivers which previously allowed certain applicants to renew their visas without appearing in person. As of September 2, 2025, nearly all Non-immigrant Visa applicants including those under 14 and over 79, must now attend an in-person interview with a U.S. Consular Officer except in rare circumstances." Well yeah, I have got to tell you, whenever you hear "except in rare circumstances" or if you ever hear "exceptions to any of these broad rules", the exception is so rare and finite that it almost makes calling it, it almost makes mentioning it seem kind of almost a little bit absurd. So effectively, what you need to take away from this is there are going to be mandatory visa interviews for all U.S. Visas moving forward. 

Now that's really not much of a shock to the folks who are processing things like a K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa, a CR-1 or an IR-1 Immigrant Spousal Visa or an Immigrant Relative Visa for like a child or something, or a K-3 Marriage Visa for that matter. We do a lot of those cases here in our office and again those have mandatory interviews and always have had; we have had to deal with interviews since time immemorial it seems like with regard to those visa categories. But under certain circumstances, there were cases, especially with those who had like a long time Tourist Visa, people that had kept up their Tourist Visa and renewed it, it was possible to renew a lot of those by mail; you didn't have to do an interview. It looks like now everything is requiring an interview to get a Visa sorted. So how this is going to play out remains to be seen. I expect we are going to see a lot more backlog in terms of visa interview appointments because there are going to be more people that have to go through to get visa interviews. That's probably not going to make things a whole lot easier. Frankly, when you add visa interviews, it actually creates more likelihood for denial. For those who remember sort of the pre-2005 days - and that is before my time here - but if you talk to folks that worked around the Embassy, and I have talked to a few of them over time, or I have colleagues that were in Immigration law out here during that time period, they can tell you pre-2005 there were no interviews associated with a lot of Tourist Visas and they used to actually process Tourist Visas to the US in bulk. They would come in with big stacks of the documents and the paperwork and the passports and they would just get them stamped and embossed with the Visa in bulk. Well that ended in the aftermath of the policies made in the aftermath of 9/11 primarily, and we have been dealing with mandatory interviews ever since. And the application of section 214b of the Immigration and Nationality Act which requires that the Consular Officer adjudicating the case be satisfied that the applicant shows sufficient strong ties to their home country and weak ties to the United States. The week ties part of that analysis coupled with what is called the Doctrine of Consular Absolutism creates a rather less than conducive situation legally for people who are looking to get visas to the US; it leads to a high denial rate. The more interviews, frankly, correlation is not causation, but there is a correlation between more interviews and more denials; that is just a fact if you have been watching the trend over time. So that is something to think about with regard to this. 

That being said, if you have found yourself or a loved one denied for a US Tourist Visa, there may be other options to be able to get that person into the United States especially if there is a family relationship there. Those who want to seek out such options, it may not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.