Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing US Tourist Visas, specifically applications. I am making this video because in the past, I always kind of felt like a Tourist Visa application was pretty innocuous. It was something that if you had applied for it, don't worry too much about it. You apply for it, you get denied, no big deal, it happens all the time. Section 214B of the Immigration and Nationality Act results in a high number of denials in my experience over the years, it just is what it is.

These days I have got to say before looking at applying for a Tourist Visa, you may want to contact a legal professional. I haven't said that with the passion I am saying it now although if you can't tell, I am overly passionate about the topic but what I mean is what I am trying to convey is the fact that Tourist Visa application or more to the point, denial of a Tourist Visa application can have some long standing ramifications for folks that in the past I just don't think were there. As I have discussed in a prior video, we have seen circumstances come up not so much here in Thailand yet, but I have seen circumstances arise, other colleagues described them throughout the world where hey a prior Tourist Visa denial was looked at in a subsequent application for example for like a K-1 Fiancé Visa or a Marriage Visa. They went back in and looked at that Tourist Visa denial, looked at what was said in the application and in essence were trying to use it to create obstacles in the subsequent Fiancé and Marriage Visa applications; there are instances where people have been seeing that.

Meanwhile, and what I have seen here recently folks who have made Tourist Visa applications that they really didn't need to do, because they had and this didn't really apply to any Thai nationals recently but I have seen other folks who have passports who have nationalities from other countries that may be able to enter the United States on the visa waiver program unknown to them that they could do that, they went ahead and applied for a Tourist Visa and were denied and they were denied under Section 214B because quite honestly there are a lot of denials under Section 214B; it is a pretty easy section to deny people under. That resulted in effectively their inability to use the ESTA System, Electronic System for Travel Authorization i.e. the Visa waiver program, to just go ahead and use their passport on their own because now they have got a visa denial on their record and that can that can have negative ramifications for one's ability to use the waiver program. So in the past, and I don't think there was any wrong with being kind of cavalier about US Tourist Visa applications, these days, yeah I think if you are looking to apply for a US Tourist Visa you may want to go ahead and talk to a lawyer first, and I want to be clear on this, an Immigration Attorney. Visa Agents are not attorneys; under 8 CFR 292.1 they are really not allowed to operate and engage in the practice of Immigration Law although as you can see, there's folks out there doing it all the time although they are operating illegally. But, more importantly they don't have a deep understanding of Immigration Law. 

Much as I am not a huge fan of US Immigration Law, I didn't get into it out of some love for US Immigration Law, I got into it because it was a good job; it was something I could do here in Thailand. I got quite good at it over the years or good enough that I can get my clients the goals that they want but long story short it is a very deep, albeit narrow subset of law. There's a lot going on in it. It reminds me a lot of tax law although it applies to far fewer people, insofar as it applies to foreigners rather than applying to US citizens or Americans. But Immigration Law is deep, it goes very deep. This is one of those little eddies that has kind of changed with regard to US Immigration Law. I thought I'd go ahead and make this video, get this out there, because I think a lot of people applying for US Tourist Visas in the future could be negatively impacted on future applications by the outcome of that application.