Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggest, we are discussing marriage registration and US Immigration. So when talking about US Immigration after marriage, we would be talking about a K-3 and CR-1 or an IR-1 Visa. So the first thing to understand is marriage registration. There was a time when marriage registration here in Thailand was pretty straightforward. It could be done in a couple of days oftentimes. That is not so much the case anymore. There's added layers of complexity and formalities associated with not only proving up the foreigner's ability to marry but also getting that documentation translated and legalized for purposes of marriage registration. It is not for lack of a better term, it is not the straightforward thing it once was. It now takes a matter of weeks to get a marriage registered. Okay, now your marriage is registered and you want to go ahead and apply for some sort of visa for your spouse to the United States.

The first thing to understand is the K-3 Visa has effectively, it's really not an overly useful option right now because the K-3 in most cases is going to be what's called Administratively Closed. They will basically say look you don't need to use this, we are not going to let you process it. I could get into the analysis on that but long story short, I have done other videos on the K-3. Basically K-3 was invented under the Life Act when there was a huge backlog for Immigrant Spouse Visas, they created the K-3 to go ahead and alleviate that. Now the thinking is that it is no longer necessary. USCIS processes Immigrant Spouse Visas quickly enough the K-3 is not necessary.

So okay, now you are dealing with the IR-1 or the CR-1 Visa. Well if you have just been married, you are probably dealing with the CR-1 Spouse Visa because that is the type of Visa that is going to be issued to somebody who has been married to an American less than two years at the time of the Visa issuance. Now something to keep in mind is if you are married more than two years at the time of that person's entry, they may enter in IR-1 status notwithstanding their visa is labelled the CR-1, so that's something to keep in mind. But long story short is yeah it is possible after the marriage is registered to go ahead and file for an American CR-1 Visa and then upon entry into the United States, that foreign spouse presumably Thai for the purposes of this video, that foreign spouse will be admitted in immigrant status, if under two years of marriage they will be admitted in Conditional Lawful Permanent Residence in the United States, if over 2 years before entry, if over 2 years the marriage has existed, that person will enter in Unconditional Lawful Permanent Residence to the United States.