Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing whether or not one should be filing for Immigrant Spouse Visas or Non-immigrant Spouse Visas, so K-1 Fiancé(e) Visas, as well the K-3 Non-immigrant Spouse Visa, the CR-1 Conditional Resident Spouse Visa, or the IR-1 Immediate Relative Spouse Visa, should one even be applying for these things amidst the Trump Visa Pause out here in Southeast Asia? 

For those of you who are unaware, recently it was announced that even Thailand was added to the list of countries where they are currently retooling their analytical infrastructure on whether or not people are likely to become a public charge, i.e. whether or not they are likely to immigrate to the United States and go on welfare. We had Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar that were on that list. Now Thailand is on that list which I still don't understand. The oldest ally of the United States in East Asia, Thailand has never been considered a high fraud post. People that go to the United States from Thailand tend to - I am not saying everybody - but tend to remain in the parameters of their visa; they tend to follow the law. Honestly in almost 20 years of doing US Immigration work, I have never seen anyone go on what you would call means-tested benefits in the United States i.e. welfare. I mean the vast majority of cases I have processed over the years - usually a female married to a male American - and that male American is the person that provides for that female, that is the way it usually works. Not always the case. I've done the same sex cases. I've done it in the opposite direction where it's an American female, a Thai male, but in none of these situations have I ever seen anybody even look like they were likely to go on any kind of welfare benefits in the United States. 

Meanwhile, there is a remedy for that by the way; there's a legal remedy by which the American Government can recoup money from the sponsor of the underlying Visa. So I don't even understand the pretext that this is all being based on. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Meanwhile though, I do understand that the Administration has their own policy priorities. Look, I agree with the closing of the border. I was very much in favour of Mr. Trump and Mr. Homan coming in and that madness ending. That said, legal Immigration, I mean in my opinion yeah, okay, maybe there is, elections have consequences, there was clearly a mandate for Immigration reform. Where has the reform been though? We're going on nearly two years of Trump having, at least ostensibly having the same Party in Congress as he is, and he has the Presidency, we could have seen comprehensive Immigration reform, and this is the second time we could have seen it. In the first Trump Administration there were two years where they could have reformed the law then, and they didn't. Instead, seemingly what they do is what we're seeing right now with this "oh well, you need to self-deport before you can process your residency", and things. I mean it's not even colour of law. In my opinion, the interpretation on the Immigration and Nationality Act is at best wildly spurious, and it worst intentionally disingenuous. 

That being said, we're stuck with the situation as it is now and the question posed, is it worth filing? If you eventually want to get your loved one to the United States, I would say Yeah. Now unfortunately, mostly for me, I now have to deal with new exigencies associated with processing these cases, most notably I think we are going to start seeing situations where my clients are going to start asking me to slow these things down so that we can get outside of the Trump Administration before coming to a situation like getting it to interview where a determination can be made, or final determination can be made on issuing the Visa. Now that said, tactically there may be other ways of dealing with this. For example 221(g) refusals preserve a case for a good year and that may allow for some time for things to change. Again the Administration to change, the Administration to change policy. That said, the point of the video, is it worth filing? And to my mind, it is counterintuitive and to a certain extent I worry about it being disingenuous to tell people that "yeah you should file, notwithstanding the fact that effectively many avenues are closed off." 

Now the K-1 Fiancé(e) Visa, I see that as the one ray of light, the one hope in all of this because one, I've actually seen them processing, notwithstanding Trump's Visa pause, because the pause pertains to Immigrant Visa benefits, not Non-immigrant Visa benefits, which is what the K-1 is. Meanwhile, this so-called self-deportation before getting Residency makes no sense in light of the plain language of the Immigration and Nationality Act pertaining to Fiancé(e) Visas. So from where I sit, the Fiancé(e) Visa looks like probably if you're not already married, the best course of action all things considered. Now again, specific circumstances in an underlying case may drive a different analytical conclusion or set of conclusions, again depending on those facts. But for the most part the K-1 looks pretty viable at least from where I sit right now. Moving forward however, again things could change.

That said, again the conclusion to draw from this video is if you eventually want to get your loved one into the United States, you're going to have to get the clock ticking on a case at some point, and frankly, I am kind of a believer in getting things in sooner rather than later so you at least get locked in under the legal parameters that we are currently dealing with. I've had a few cases like this that processed before we saw policy changes especially with regard to this Trump pause, that yeah, we got 221(g)'d on them; it took us a minute to go get the documentation, but they are processing because they predated the policy change. So again, getting a case on file, albeit maybe with the intention of slowing it down or not moving it through the system as fast as one might otherwise do, based on the fact that you may get one of these again in my opinion rather spurious conclusions at the end of the process regarding whether or not the visa is going to be issued. But again that remains to be seen and can change as processing occurs. Bear in mind, in most of these cases you are looking at at least a year just to process under standard conditions, let alone on whatever curve balls the current Administration decides to throw at folks. 

So again, the thing to take away from this video is notwithstanding present circumstances, if you want to eventually hope to get that loved one into the United States, probably not a bad idea to get the case on file, albeit with maybe the intention of keeping it slow or not overly prioritizing it, but just moving it through at such a pace that it may go through when they ever come up with this new system to go ahead and adjudicate matters pertaining to Public Charge, or we just have to wait out the Administration entirely.