Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing K-3, CR-1 and IR-1 Marriage Visas. For those who are unaware, CR-1 and IR-1 Visas are Immigrant Spousal Visas, the difference being the CR-1 Visa is a Conditional Resident Visa insofar as if the couple has not been married 2 years or more at the time that the Immigrant spouse is admitted to the United States, then that Immigrant Spouse's status is conditional which means 90 days prior to the two-year anniversary of the entry to the United States, that individual needs to file for what's called a lift of conditions in order to make their residence unconditional. This is basically a protocol put in place to discourage sham marriages. Meanwhile, the IR-1 Visa, if one enters the United States in IR-1 status, that means they would enter the United States having been married more than two years at the time of the entry. They are admitted in immigrant status, and it is Unconditional Lawful Permanent Resident status. So it's important to understand the difference between those two. Then meanwhile, there's the K-3. That's a Marriage Visa; it's a supplemental Marriage Visa application. The K-3 was invented under the auspices of the Life Act signed into law by President Clinton in the '90s at a time when Immigrant Spousal Visa processing was taking a number of years and Fiancé(e) Visas took a matter of a mere few months to process through. They created the K-3 and allowed the spouses of American citizens only, to process a supplemental visa application seeking a Non-immigrant Marriage Visa to the United States and the K-3 was invented for that purpose. 

The issue posed in this video is the issue of original petitioner Divorce Decrees being requested at the interview by Consular Officers here in Bangkok. To be clear, we primarily process mostly our case load, excuse me our case load mostly consists of Thai nationals processing out of Thailand. We occasionally deal with Third country nationals processing their case out of Thailand, but it is a pretty rare thing these days. 

The thing to take away from this video and to understand is in the first Trump Administration we actually saw this as well, at interview they started asking for original Divorce Decrees from the petitioner, which I don't understand the reasoning behind seeking it. I don't see what real value is added. A copy of the Divorce Decree to my mind would seem sufficient and if there's some worry this is like a fake Divorce Decree, well you can look up the records on the internet. I mean at the end of the day we are talking about the State Department here that has access to anything DHS would have, which one would presumably think there would be documentation; you can digitally check online for all of this documentation. 

That said, we're still dealing with this, or we are now dealing with it again I should say; mostly during Biden, I didn't see these issues. But yeah, Consular Officers are starting to ask again for original petitioner Divorce Decrees if the American petitioner has been divorced before. 

So something to understand in cases involving, even the spouse where they are legally married, the spouse of a US citizen seeking a K-3, CR-1 or IR-1 Visa from the US Embassy here in the Kingdom of Thailand.